eas Fogg, whose head rose up
from the sea of papers surrounding him, and then Phileas got up and
exchanged greetings with his acquaintances.

The subject of conversation was a robbery, which was in everyone's
mouth, and had been committed three days previously--viz. on the 29th
of September. A pile of bank-notes, amounting to the enormous sum of
fifty-five thousand pounds, had been stolen from the counter at the
Bank of England.

The astonishing part of the matter was that the robbery had been so
easily accomplished, and as Ralph, who was one of the deputy-governors,
explained, that when the fifty-five thousand pounds were stolen, the
cashier was occupied in carefully registering the receipt of three
shillings and sixpence, and of course could not have his eyes in every
direction at once.

It may not be out of place here to remark, which in some measure may
account for the robbery, that the Bank of England trusts greatly in
the honesty of the public. There are no guards, or commissionaires, or
gratings; gold, silver, and notes are all exposed freely, and, so to
speak, at the mercy of the first-comer. No one's honesty is suspected.
Take the following instance, related by one of the closest observers
of English customs. This gentleman was one day in one of the parlours
of the Bank, and had the curiosity to take up and closely examine a
nugget of gold weighing seven or eight pounds, which was lying on the
table. Having examined the ingot, he passed it to his neighbour, he to
the next man; and so the gold went from hand to hand quite down to the
dark entry, and was not returned for quite half an hour, and all the
time the bank official had not raised his head.

But on the 29th of September things did not work so nicely; the pile
of bank-notes was not returned; and when the hands of the magnificent
clock in the drawing-office pointed to the hour of five, at which time
the bank is closed, the sum of fifty-five thousand pounds was written
off to "profit and loss."

When it was certain that a robbery had been committed, the most
skilful detectives were sent down to Liverpool and Glasgow and other
principal ports, also to Suez, Brindisi, New York, &c., with promises
of a reward of two thousand pounds, and five per cent on the amount
recovered. In the meantime, inspectors were appointed to observe
scrupulously all travellers arriving at and departing from the several
seaports.

Now there was some reason to suppose, as _Th