ion. Why had they not been
satisfied? Why had they let Noyes go for a paltry L5,000? Why had they
not understood the meaning of the evident excitement in and around the
bank?

In Rio there was only a suspicion aroused. Here our companion was a
prisoner in Newgate. Scarcely an hour had passed since he was free and
without a fear had joined in the congratulatory scene at Garraway's. Now
ruin was threatened. Upon cool reflection they came to two conclusions.
First, that Noyes not only would never betray them, but that he could be
depended upon to keep so close a mouth that no clue could be pumped from
him; and next, that he could never be convicted of the forgery.

He might, of course, be subjected to a few weeks of Newgate life. That
was very awkward, of course, but it would come all right.

So they resolved for the present to remain in London and await
developments.

That night the cable flashed the news of the forgery over the world,
dwelling particularly upon the fact that the perpetrator was an
American. The next morning the London press overflowed. Every prominent
paper gave a leader in the editorial column, and when the weeklies and
monthlies came out they followed suit. These editorials make now to us
who were on the inside amusing reading. They were full of Philistine
talk and amazement, and generally conceded that Noyes was an innocent
dupe, and all more or less doubted if his principal, the mysterious Mr.
F. A. Warren, would ever come back to say so.

Day after day went by, and Mac and George hung around London reading the
accounts of the affair and of the examination of Noyes before the Lord
Mayor.

They had communicated with him through his solicitor, and he sent them
word to leave England at once. In the mean time they had been sending
away the cash, and so entrenched were they in the belief that by no
possible chance could their names become mixed up in the affair that in
every instance but two they sent the money or bonds to America in their
right names.

In the mean time the bank very wisely sent a cable to their legal agent,
Clarence A. Seward, in New York, asking him to set the American
detective force on the alert. He was a man of the world and understood
quite well what sort of men then ruled at Police Head quarters. So he
sent at once for Robert A. Pinkerton and gave him entire charge of the
American end of the line. Eventually they unearthed the whole plot,
secured the evidence that convicte