remain," etc., etc.

* * * * *

A few days later we sent him this cable (it was afterward produced in
court in evidence against him): "Edwin Noyes, New York. Come by Atlantic
on Wednesday; wire on arrival at Liverpool; meet at Langham."

He arrived ten days later, and at a little dinner given in his honor we
told him our plot. He was astounded, and for the remainder of the
dinner, and for the day, too, for the matter of that, he acted like a
man in a dream, and we three were amazed that he did not instantly fall
into our plan.

Here was the dramatic representation of the poisonous effect of
wrongdoing. We three had by degrees become accustomed to look upon a
fraud committed by ourselves with equanimity. I say by degrees.
Insensibly we had been sinking deeper and deeper, until, our moral
senses blunted, we found excuses to our own consciences. But here was my
companion and friend; he was no Puritan, but, like ourselves but a few
brief months before, regarded crime with detestation, and now, when the
men he trusted proposed he should become a party to a crime, his mind
revolted in horror. Well for him had he yielded to the prompting of his
own conscience and fled from us and the fearful temptation of sudden
wealth. At last he said he would consider it. After a day or two of
silence he began to question us as to our mode of operation, then his
mind became more and more familiarized to the thought, until at last,
fascinated by our association, he acquiesced, saying: "I will do it. I
want money badly. The Bank of England, after all, will not miss it. So
I'll go in for this once."

By our direction he went to an obscure hotel in Manchester square, and
then purchased clothes more suitable for his new position than the
fashionable tailor-cut suit he wore from New York.

On several occasions I had gone to Jay Cooke & Co. in Lombard street and
purchased bonds under the name of F. A. Warren and giving checks in
payment upon the Bank of England. So one day I went there with Noyes and
purchased $20,000 in bonds, giving my check for them. I then introduced
Noyes as my clerk, directing them to deliver any bonds I bought to him
at any time. The next day he called and they gave him the bonds which I
had given my check for the day before, so there was no necessity any
longer for me to come in person to make purchases. Noyes could appear
there any day, give an order for bonds, secure a bill for them,