Collected here for the first time is the best crime fiction from the gaslight era. All the legendary thieves are present - Arsene Lupin and A.J. Raffles, Colonel Clay and Simon Carne, Romney Pringle, Get Rich Quick Wallingford, and the Infallible Godahl - burgling London and Paris, conning New York and Ostend, laughing all the way to the bank. Also featured are stories by distinguished writers from outside the mystery and detective genres, including Sinclair Lewis, Arnold Bennett, H.G. Wells, and William Hope Hodgson.