PENETRATING THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 154, 30 June 1903, Page 2

PENETRATING THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

The Bank of Engl&v.d, the "Old Lady of Thread-needle Street," had a startling experience not long ago. The directors received this note, as unexpected as the most flaming communication of a melodramatic novel:

"You think you is all safe hand you bank is safe, but I knows better I been hinsidc the bank the last 2 nite hand you nose nnffin about it. But I am not a theaf, so hif yer will mett me in the great squar room at twelf 2 nite, ile explain orl to you, let only 2 come down, and say nuffin to nobody."

The next night the square room, "the richest room in the world," was guarded. But nothing happened. Then came, the next phase of the mystery. A heavy chest of securities, taken from the strong room, arrived at the bank, with a letter complaining that the directors had notified the police, and that the writer had therefore not appeared, according to promise. Now, to prove that he was not a thief, he sent a chest of papers which he. had taken from the bank. If a few gentlemen would assemble, without the police, in the strong room, the writer would join them at midnight. Otherwise, the mystery would continue unsolved. The directors assembled. At midnight there came a'cry from behind the stone walls, "Put out the lights!" They obeyed. Then a man with a dark lantern burst in. His stoiy was soon told. He was one of those men who gain a living by searching the sewers at night. Through a sewer opening he had found his way into the richest room in the world.