Next day several city newspapers had the following:

"REWARD

"A reward of TEN THOUSAND POUNDS will be paid for the arrest of the party
or parties who abstracted a valuable package of Bank of England notes
April 11, 18--, from said bank. This currency can be of no value to the
thieves, as the bank holds a list of the numbers, and their circulation
has been ordered stopped. The receiver of any of these notes will be
liable to arrest."

Nearly every important newspaper in the kingdom copied this item. Besides
this, a list of the numbers of the lost notes was sent to every banking
institution in England and America.




CHAPTER II

MONASTERY FARM


Billy Sparrow stood leaning against the gate post, looking down upon the
river three hundred yards away. He and his two helpers had been
cultivating corn and tobacco through a long June day; and now the sun was
going down, and he was making his plans for tomorrow's work. Billy had
just closed his fourth year as master of Monastery Farm. Billy was an
Englishman from Durham County, having attended school in Barnard's Castle