Hampstead, and as I was wandering about on the Heath I kicked
against something. It was a cash-box, which I saw couldn't have been
lying there very long. I found it had been broken open, and inside
it were a lot of letters--old letters in envelopes; nothing else.
The addresses on the envelopes were all the same--to a gentleman
living at Hampstead. I thought the best I could do was to go and
inquire for this address; and I found it, and rang the door-bell.
When I told the servant what I wanted--it was a large house--she
asked me to come in, and after I had waited a little she took me
into a library, where a gentleman was sitting. I had to answer a
good many questions, and the man talked rather gruffly to me. When
he had made a note of my name and where I lived, he said that I
should hear from him, and so I went away. Of course I hoped to have
a reward, but for two or three days I heard nothing; then, when I
was at business, someone asked to see me--a man I didn't know. He
said he had come from Mr. So and So, the gentleman at Hampstead, and
had brought something for me--four five-pound notes. The cash-box
had been stolen by someone, with other things, the night before I
found it, and the letters in it, which disappointed the thief, had a
great value for their owner. All sorts of inquiries had been made
about me and no doubt I very nearly got into the hands of the
police, but it was all right, and I had twenty pounds reward. Think!
twenty pounds!"

Hilliard nodded.

"I told no one about it--not even Patty. And I put the money into
the Post Office savings bank. I meant it to stay there till I might
be in need; but I thought of it day and night. And only a fortnight
after, my employers shut up their place of business, and I had