The Field of Philippi

"The Field of Philippi"
1905 Pall Mall illustration by Cyrus Cuneo
Author	E. W. Hornung
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	A. J. Raffles
Genre(s)	Crime fiction
Publisher	Collier's Weekly
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	April 1905
Preceded by	"The Criminologists' Club"
Followed by	"A Bad Night"

"The Field of Philippi" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was published in April 1905 by Collier's Weekly in New York and in May 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. The story was also included as the fifth story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

Raffles decides to play in the Old Boys' Match, as part of their old school's annual Founder's Day celebrations. He has also been invited by the new headmaster to attend a debate over whether to mark the two-hundredth anniversary of their school with a new statue of the school's founder. Along the way, Raffles and Bunny meet Nasmyth at a station. Nasmyth was head of the student body the same year Raffles was captain of the cricket team. He argues to Raffles his stance against the new statue. Raffles, however, will support the statue.

At the school, Raffles is popular with the other Old Boys, despite being older than most and playing poorly during the cricket match. During the statue debate, Nasmyth argues caustically against the statue. Raffles gently rebuts him, and asserts that Nasmyth will subscribe to the statue's fund in the end. During the party afterward, Nasmyth tries to interrogate Bunny about Raffles. Bunny, troubled, leaves early.

Was where Caesar came to an end;
But who gave old Brutus the tip, I

Some hours later, Raffles finds Bunny, and playfully offers to show him one way to escape the house. They go quietly out a window and over some gates. Raffles whispers that he intends to make Nasmyth subscribe to the statue's fund, and he takes Bunny to Nasmyth's home. He asks Bunny to lift him so he can break in. He describes his fight against Nasmyth with a poem, to compare Nasmyth to Brutus and himself to Caesar's ghost from Julius Caesar. Bunny is reluctant, until he remembers the poem as being one that he wrote for the school magazine, years ago. This wins him over, and he offers his shoulders to Raffles's feet. Raffles uses his tools to open the window, and then pulls Bunny in.