"The Ides of March" (also published as "In the Chains of Crime") is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and the first appearance of the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders.

[1] The story was also included in the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899.

[2] "Bunny" Manders returns to the flat in the Albany where he just lost over two hundred pounds in a game of baccarat, earlier that evening.

The famous cricketer A. J. Raffles, who lives there and who Bunny once fagged for at school, greets him.

Raffles brings Bunny to the unnamed friend's flat in Bond Street, which sits above a jeweler's shop.

Raffles is actually planning to burgle the shop of the jeweler, named Danby, underneath.

He slips his arm through and picks the iron gate behind the door with a skeleton key.

Raffles asks Bunny to return to the empty room above, and beat the floor to communicate when the street is clear.

The magazine was hesitant to publish a story that featured criminals as the protagonists, and these changes were intended to make it clear that it was a cautionary tale.

[6] The drama features Jeremy Clyde as Raffles and Michael Cochrane as Bunny.