I have often wondered at the
instinctive wisdom of the precaution; unconsciously I was acting on
what has been one of my guiding principles ever since. Pains and
patience were required: I had to get my saddle without waking the man,
and I was not used to catching horses in a horse-paddock. Then I
distrusted the poor mare, and I went back to the stables for a hatful
of oats, which I left with her in the clump, hat and all. There was a
dog, too, to reckon with (our very worst enemy, Bunny); but I had been
'cute enough to make immense friends with him during the evening; and
he wagged his tail, not only when I came downstairs, but when I
reappeared at the back-door.

"As the soi-disant new manager, I had been able, in the most ordinary
course, to pump poor Ewbank about anything and everything connected
with the working of the bank, especially in those twenty last
invaluable minutes before turning in. And I had made a very natural
point of asking him where he kept, and would recommend me to keep, the
keys at night. Of course I thought he would take them with him to his
room; but no such thing; he had a dodge worth two of that. What it was
doesn't much matter, but no outsider would have found those keys in a
month of Sundays.

"I, of course, had them in a few seconds, and in a few more I was in
the strong-room itself. I forgot to say that the moon had risen and
was letting quite a lot of light into the bank. I had, however,
brought a bit of candle with me from my room; and in the strong-room,
which was down some narrow stairs behind the counter in the
banking-chamber, I had no hesitation in lighting it. There was no
window down there, and, though I could no longer hear old Ewbank
snoring, I had not the slightest reason to anticipate disturbance from
that quarter. I did think of locking myself in while I was at work,
but, thank goodness, the iron door had no keyhole on the inside.

"Well, there were heaps of gold in the safe, but I only took what I
needed and could comfortably carry, not much more than a couple of
hundred altogether. Not a note would I touch, and my native caution
came out also in the way I divided the sovereigns between all my
pockets, and packed them up so that I shouldn't be like the old woman
of Banbury Cross. Well, you think me too cautious still, but I was
insanely cautious then. And so it was that, just as I was ready to go,
whereas I might have been gone ten minutes, there came a vio