The Bag of Diamonds, by George Manville Fenn.
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This is a short book, and indeed later editions added some short stories
to bring the book up to a respectable size. The story is also unusual
for this author, for much of the action takes place on the lower floors
of a doctor's house in nineteenth century London.
The edition used was one of the worst-printed books your reviewer has
ever seen, yet with diligence the story has been extracted from it and
is here presented. The doctor had for some years been obsessed with an
idea that he could make an elixir of eternal life, and at some point in
the recent past he had started to neglect his patients, so that he had
very few new patients, so there was not much money in the house, and
times were hard. The most amusing character in the book is Bob, the
"boots" boy, and it is he who at almost the last chapter rediscovers the
Bag of Diamonds, that had somehow got lost in almost the first.
There are villains, heroes, heroines--and Bob with his antics--in this
book, and you will enjoy it. For the whole middle part of the book the
people in it are blundering about, none of them ever quite sure what was
going on. You, as the reader, may well have a better idea than they do,
but be prepared to be wrong in your surmises. Makes a good audiobook.
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THE BAG OF DIAMONDS, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.