abouts. Nor could he rifle the place; the goods were greatly
protected by their weight, and it was impossible to get out of the store
without raising an alarm, and being searched.

But, not to fall into the error of writers who underrate their readers'
curiosity and intelligence, and so deluge them with comments and
explanations, we will now simply relate what Wylie did, leaving you to
glean his motives as this tale advances.

His jacket had large pockets, and he took out of them a bunch of eighteen
bright steel keys, numbered, a set of new screwdrivers, a flask of rum,
and two ship biscuits.

He unlocked the eighteen cases marked _Proserpine,_ etc., and, peering in
with his lantern, saw the gold dust and small ingots packed in parcels,
and surrounded by Australian wool of the highest possible quality. It was
a luscious sight.

He then proceeded to a heavier task; he unscrewed, one after another,
eighteen of the cases marked _Shannon,_ and the eighteen so selected,
perhaps by private marks, proved to be packed close, and on a different
system from the gold, viz., in pigs, or square blocks, three, or in some
cases four, to each chest. Now, these two ways of packing the specie and
the baser metal, respectively, had the effect of producing a certain
uniformity of weight in the thirty-six cases Wylie was inspecting.
Otherwise the gold cases would have been twice the weight of those that
contained the baser metal; for lead is proverbially heavy, but under
scientific tests is to gold as five to twelve, or thereabouts.

In his secret and mysterious labor Wylie was often interrupted. Whenever
he heard a step on the pavement outside he drew the slide of his lantern
and hid the light. If he had examined the iron shutters he would have
seen that his light could never pierce through them into the street. But
he was not aware of this. Notwithstanding these occasional interruptions,
he worked so hard and continuously that the perspiration poured down him
ere he had unscrewed those eighteen chests containing the pigs of lead.
However, it was done at last, and then he refreshed himself with a
draught from his flask. The next thing was, he took the three pigs of
lead out of one of the cases marked _Shannon,_ etc., and numbered
fifteen, and laid them very gently on the floor. Then he transferred to
that empty case the mixed contents of a case branded _Proserpine_ 1,
etc., and this he did with the utmost care and nicety, lest gold dus