the belief, apparently, that
it was an ordinary pocket-book with valuables in it!'

[Illustration: '_He had placed the book in his pocket. Someone had
relieved him of it._']

A by no means uncommon person is what may be described as the
conscientious thief, or the man who steals one book and replaces it by
another, which he considers to be of equal value. But a much cleverer
dodge was that of a wily villain who selected a book from the stock of a
firm of booksellers in the Strand, asking one member of the firm to
charge it to him, and then selling it to the other partner at the
opposite end of the shop a few minutes later! This can scarcely be
described as book-stealing, for there is no proof that the 'book-lover'
did not intend paying for the article ultimately. In this case the
assumption was distinctly against his doing anything of the sort.

It will be seen from the foregoing facts that the book-thief hesitates
at no class of book. But would he draw the line at stealing a book which
deals with thieves? The late Charles Reade appears to have thought that
he would not, for he has inscribed not only his name, but the following
somewhat plaintive request, 'Please not to steal this book; I value it,'
in a volume which Mr. Menken once possessed. The book in question is
entitled 'Inventaire general de L'Histoire des Larrons,' Rouen, 1657.
This singular work gives at length the stratagems, tricks, and
artifices, the thefts of and assassinations by thieves, with a full
account of their most memorable exploits in France. One cannot help
wondering if a copy of this extraordinary book has ever been stolen from
a book-collector, and of the remorse which must have overtaken the thief
when he discovered the character of his prize. That indeed would be a
strange irony!

But the book-thief is not by any means one of the numerous penalties of
modern civilization. He has an antiquity which almost makes him
respectable. Hearne, in his 'Johannes Glastoniensis,' states that Sir
Henry Saville once wrote a warning letter to Sir Robert Cotton, who had
offered some additions to the library of the founder of the Bodleian. An
appointment had been made with Sir Robert to give Bodley an opportunity
of inspecting the treasures on his shelves, and it was in anticipation
of this that Saville thought it his duty to warn his friend in the
following terms: 'And remember I give you faire warning that if you hold
any booke so deare as that you would