the hour of five
Take the following instance , related by one of the closest observers of English customs . This gentleman was one day in one of the parlours of the Bank , and had the curiosity to take up and closely examine a nugget of gold weighing seven or eight pounds , which was lying on the table . Having examined the ingot , he passed it to his neighbour , he to the next man ; and so the gold went from hand to hand quite down to the dark entry , and was not returned for quite half an hour , and all the time the bank official had not raised his head . But on the 29th of September things did not work so nicely ; the pile of bank-notes was not returned ; and when the hands of the magnificent clock in the drawing-office pointed to the hour of five , at which time the bank is closed , the sum of fifty-five thousand pounds was written off to `` profit and loss . '' When it was certain that a robbery had been committed , the most skilful detectives were sent down to Liverpool and Glasgow and other principal ports , also to Suez , Brindisi , New York , & c. , with promises of a reward of two thousand pounds , and five per cent on the amount recovered . In the meantime , inspectors were appointed to observe scrupulously all travellers arriving at and departing from the several seaports . Now there was some reason to suppose , as _ The Morning Chronicle _ put it , that the thief did not belong to a gang , for during the 29th of September a well-dressed gentlemanly man had been observed in the bank , near where the robbery had been perpetrated .