"john clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. he’s a young man, mr. merryweather, but he is at the head of his profession, and i would rather have my bracelets on him than on any criminal in london. he’s a remarkable man, is young john clay. his grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been to eton and oxford. his brain is as cunning as his fingers, and though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to find the man himself. he’ll crack a crib in scotland one week, and be raising money to build an orphanage in cornwall the next.