ity and self-sufficiency of the officials would some day prove a
snare to the institution they ruled over.

The next conclusion we arrived at was that, easy as it might be to
defraud the bank, yet there was an infinity of detail which would
require six months of preparations to carry out. Then, again, the word
forgery began to look black in our vocabulary. We knew John Bull was an
obstinate fellow when he once got his back up, and we began to think it
wise to keep beyond his dull weather eye.

Finally, as the result of many debates, we resolved to abandon the Bank
of England matter temporarily, possibly forever, because it was too
dangerous, and the delay would be too great. Our new plan was to go to
South America on a buccaneering expedition. There being no cable in
1872, and it took, as we ascertained, forty days to send a letter from
Rio de Janeiro to Europe and get a reply; so that, if we executed an
operation boldly and well, we might hope for anything. We resolved to go
to South America, but to leave my account stand in the bank, and if our
success was as great as expected, we would let the Bank of England keep
the million or two we wanted, and continue her century-long slumber
until the time came when some adventurous but unscrupulous mind should
accept the temptation she held out to seize some of her bags of
sovereigns.

Our plan was, in the main, similar to the one we had lately used with so
much success in Germany and France. Only in this case we proposed to use
the credit of the London and Westminster Bank, and, therefore, obtained
the documents required to carry through such an operation successfully.

The steamer Lusitania of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company was
advertised to sail on the 12th, and we determined to go by her. Our plan
was to go on the same steamer, to be ever within supporting distance of
each other, and yet pretend to be strangers, or if associating together,
to act so as to make all observers think our acquaintance merely casual.

Mac had his tickets in the name of Gregory Morrison. He carried letters
of introduction to Maua & Co., who had branches in all the coast cities
down the coast, including Montevideo and Buenos Ayres on the east coast,
and Lima, Valparaiso and Callao on the west.

The steamers of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, leaving Liverpool,
touch at Bordeaux, Santander and Lisbon, then are off 6,000 miles away
to Rio, never slowing the engines for a moment duri