in waiting," received the following telegram from
the postmaster of Waterbridge: "A number of
money-order advices of large amount passed
through the office last night, from Higher
Brickey. "From comnuinication just received from
the sub-postmaster, it does not appear that any
such were issued by him. I fear something
wrong lias taken place. They were all addressed
to branch offices in London. One is believed
to be the Minories, and one in Peckham
district." Acting upon the very vague information
received in tins telegram, the clerk in waiting
ascertained in the course of Saturday that Higher
Brickey money orders to the extent of one
hundred pounds had been cashed in the course of
the morning at the money-order offices in the
Minories and at the Eastern District offices.
No further information could be obtained that
evening. Before the following morning (Sunday)
the following telegram was received from
Waterbridge: " Send to the secretary immediately.
Five hundred money orders ana advices were
taken from the sub-postmaster of Higher
Brickey, on Friday, by a man calling himself an
inspector of the Post-office. At least fifty were
used on that day, and will involve a loss of one
thousand pounds, as the advices all appeared
to be made out for ten pounds each. Caution
should at once be sent to all the money-order
offices in the London district. The remitter's
name appeared to be Grieve."

This was startling intelligence indeed, and on
the receipt of it, the clerk in waiting at once
sent off for the assistant-secretary and the
head of the missing-letter branch, and despatched
Sergeant Scotcher for me. When we were all
assembled we had a hurried consultation, woke
up a semi-vinous, semi-somnolent printer who
had a small hand-machine in a neighbouring
court, and made him set up and work off a
lot of caution notices for despatch to the various
postmasters and letter-receivers by the night
and morning mails, sent out and secured a
staff of clerks to fold and envelope these
notices, and took the following measures to
ascertain the extent of the frauds and to prevent
any repetition of it extending, and to ensure
the capture of the offender if such repetition
were attempted.

The money-order accounts of the London
branch receivers (four hundred in number),
which had come in by the last despatch of
Saturday night were opened and examined, and
in them were found, in all, fifty-seven orders for
ten pounds each, purporting to be of Higher
Brickey issue, which had been cashed on
Saturday at twelve money-order offices in the
east of London. It was then ascertained, by
inquiry of these receivers, that two persons,
one a short dark man, the other a tall fair man,
had been concerned in the presentation of these
orders; that the dark man had visited some
and the fair man other offices, that at the
money-order office in Limehouse they had been
seen in company under the following
circumstances. The fair man, in the first instance,
went alone to the receiving-office in Limehouse,
and presented five Higher Brickey money-
orders for ten pounds each; the letter-receiver
had but thirty pounds in hand, and therefore
stated that he could cash three only of the
orders, but that he would apply to the chief
office for funds to cash the remainder. The fair
man, after some conversation, took the thirty
pound for three of the orders and went away,
but returned almost immediately with the dark
man, who had in his hand a further bundle of
money-orders drawn on another office (the
business of which had been transferred to the
Limehouse office), for which he demanded payment.
As the receiver was unable, for the reasons
before given, to cash any more orders, the dark
man abused him violently, and the altercation
which ensued was so warm and noisy as to
draw a crowd round the office. At length the
receiver said he would send a telegram to the
chief office for funds, and if the man would call
at four in the afternoon they should be paid.
On this they left him, and never returned.
Stupid fools they were to do this, for from this
very Limehouse receiver we obtained what
afterwards proved to be a tolerably accurate
description of the two men, and we also
obtained the numbers of several Bank of England
notes which had been paid to them. So far, so
good. But the postmaster of Waterbridge
having stated that three hundred money-orders
had been stolen, of which, as we knew, but
fifty-seven had been cashed, it seemed reasonable
to suppose that further attempts to cash
some of the remaining orders would be made
early on Monday morning. So with a view to
defeat any such attempts, the principal
postmasters throughout the kingdom were instructed
forthwith to detain any person who should
present money-orders of Higher Brickey issue,
and to despatch similar instructions to their
sub-postmasters. A force of sorters and letter-
carriers was despatched to every money-order
office in London with similar instructions.

The carrying out of these arrangements occu-
pied us nearly the whole of Sunday night, but
they were so effectually completed by an early
hour on Monday morning, that any person who
had then presented a Higher Brickey money
order at any money-order office would assuredly
have been detained; indeed, the holder of a
genuine Higher Brickey order was pounced
upon by our people at Birmingham, and detained
at the office until the postmaster had received
instructions to let him go. No attempt was,
however, made to utter any more of the forged
orders, although, as we ascertained early on
Monday morning, thirty-three forged advices of
such orders were lying at six money-order offices
in the east of London. Before the close of
Monday it became evident that the perpetrators
of the fraud, alarmed probably by the offer of
the Limehouse clerk to telegraph for funds, had
made up their minds to rest contented, for a
time at least, with the plunder which they had
obtained. As, however, it seemed by no means
improbable that they would, in a little time,
attempt to pass off some of the stolen orders on