rd from my friends in London. In fact, they
did not know where I was. When I bade them good-bye at Calais they told
me not to inform them of my destination until I had got there, and then
to do so through some relative.

Every day I watched the New York papers to see if there had been any
explosion in London, but the silence of the press told me my friends
were having an amazing success, and we might expect two or three months
more to elapse before there would be any discovery.

We had been some weeks in Havana.

It was well into the month of February when one day, being in my hammock
on the veranda, with my wife sitting near me, my servant rode up with
the papers, and, handing me the New York Herald, I leisurely opened it,
while chatting with my wife, but could not suppress an exclamation when
my eyes fell upon an Associated Press dispatch from London, in staring
headlines. They read:

AMAZING FRAUD UPON THE BANK OF
ENGLAND!

* * * * *

MILLIONS LOST!

* * * * *

GREAT EXCITEMENT IN LONDON!

* * * * *

L5,000 REWARD FOR THE ARREST OF THE
AMERICAN PERPETRATOR, F. A. WARREN.

"London, Feb. 14, 1873.

"An amazing fraud has been perpetrated upon the Bank of England by a
young American who gave the name of Frederick Albert Warren. The
loss of the bank is reported to be from three to ten millions, and
it is rumored that many London banks have been victimized to
enormous amounts. The greatest excitement prevails in the city, and
the forgery, for such it is, is the one topic of conversation on
the Exchange and in the street. The police are completely at fault,
although a young man named Noyes, who was Warren's clerk, has been
arrested, but it is believed that he is a dupe.

"The bank has offered a reward of L5,000 for information leading to
the arrest of Warren or any confederate."

[Illustration: "I FIRED POINT BLANK, AND DOWN HE WENT AS IF FELLED BY
LIGHTNING."--Page 334.]

I took a long walk on the beach to think over the situation. I was
alarmed over the arrest of Noyes, which I knew ought not to have
occurred if the proper precautions had been taken, but I concluded that
at the worst his arrest only meant for him a brief incarceration.

I knew that no human power and no fear could ever make him betray us.
Two things never entered my calcula