Lord Lister No. 0015: De zilveren apostel

On a cold, rain‑soaked November night in a modest Boulogne‑sur‑Mer hotel, a dashing gentleman known as Lord Lister—better known to the criminal world as Raffles—prepares to slip aboard the steamship Amsterdam bound for New York. Together with his loyal assistant Charly Brand, he packs his case, assumes the harmless alias Mr James Green, and sketches a daring scheme to “lighten” the pockets of America’s wealthiest. To throw the authorities off his trail, he dispatches a series of mock‑serious postcards through Paris, announcing a forthcoming “attack on the filled moneybags” of New York’s elite.

As the vessel pulls away, the pair settle into a quiet corner of the smoking lounge, eyeing a fellow passenger listed merely as “Mr Robinson,” a portrait painter whose demeanor suggests something far more clandestine. Raffles whispers that the man might be a Scotland Yard operative, a hint that the game has already begun. The tension aboard the ship rises, promising a cat‑and‑mouse chase that will test Raffles’s audacity and wit long before the Atlantic crossing ends.