Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison: Fifteen Years in Solitude
strain on the nerves at an end, the transaction complete and fortune
won? He was never going to the bank again.
They had arranged to meet at Garraway's Coffee House in Exchange alley.
This is the Garraway's that became so famous at the time of the South
Sea Bubble, and its fame continued down to the end of the wars of
Napoleon. Then its glory departed as a centre of speculations, but its
renown as an old-fashioned chophouse remained till 1873. Everywhere in
contemporary English literature, from Swift and Addison to Goldsmith and
Johnson, one meets references to Garraway's.
The Dean immortalized it in his well-known lines on 'Change Alley:
"There is a gulf where thousands fell,
Here all the bold adventurers came,
A narrow sound, though deep as hell,
'Change Alley is the dreadful name.
"Subscribers here by thousands float
And jostle one another down.
Each paddling in his leaky boat,
And here they fish for gold and drown.
"Meantime secure on Garraway's cliffs
A savage race by shipwreck fed,
Lie waiting for the foundered skiffs
And strip the bodies of the dead."
Dickens also makes it the scene of the writing of the famous chops and
tomato sauce letter from Mr. Pickwick to Mrs. Bardell.
One can imagine the elation of my friends as they sat around that little
table at Garraway's. It was only 10:35. Their income that morning had
been $150,000. And many more such days had gone before. All danger was
over, wealth was won. They saw themselves back in America, among the
Four Hundred, possessors of a fortune, however wrongfully obtained, yet
obtained in a way that would leave behind no ruined widows and orphans
to linger out the remainder of their blighted lives in poverty and
misery. That was a point which added zest to their enjoyment of the
prospect.
"I am never to go to the bank again. Come, shake hands on that," said
Noyes. And in their excitement and wild delight they shook hands again
and again.
But they would have moderated their joy had they known that at the very
moment the bank porter, pale and frightened, was rushing past the room
where they sat, carrying the news to the bank that the two-thousand
pound bill was a forgery. Instantly all was confusion and excitement in
the bank. Telegrams were at once sent to the detective police, and at
that moment swarms of them were pouring out of the Bow street and
Scotland Yard offices.
That already stories of gigantic frauds, multiplied a thousand fold by
rumor, were flying everywhere that every bank in London was victimized.
In ten minutes the story reached the Stock Exchange and a scene of
terrific excitement ensued, and, through it all, our three innocents sat
on in that dingy old coffee-house, serenely unconscious of the fearful
storm that was rising. Still they were safe. Everything was confusion in
the bank. The terrified official, frantic with fear, could only describe
a tall young man, an American, who said his name was Warren.
Had my three triumphant friends only known what was up they might have
sat where they were the day through and drank porter out of the pewter
mugs in safety. There were a hundred thousand men in London who would
answer any description the bank could have given of Noyes, Mac and
George had never appeared in the transaction, and I, the F. A. Warren
they were looking for, was living quietly with my young wife in a lovely
isle in the tropic sea.
Surely then, these three high-toned financiers still had the game in
their own hands. They had nothing to fear. They had wealth. There was no
clue to their identity and the world was before them--a world which lays
her treasures and pleasures at the feet of him who commands wealth.
But that mighty Something had decreed otherwise, and a subtle spirit
under whose power they were but purposeless puppets inspired them to
commit an act of folly which was to hurl them from the fools' paradise
wherein they were reveling down to the pit of despair.
Upon Mac casually remarking that they had still a balance of $75,000 to
Warren's credit, Noyes spoke up and said: "Boys, that is too much money
to leave John Bull; suppose you make out a check for L5,000. I will run
over and get the cash, and it will do for pocket money." And the two
others, triumphant in success, became idiots and assented. Making out a
check for L5,000, Noyes started for the bank, check in hand, and
entering, instantly found himself with a hot and angry swarm of hornets
about him.
There were twenty-five detectives in and around the bank. Special
messengers had summoned the affrighted directors. The great bank parlor
was packed with a host of stockholders and directors, who were
questioning the manager and clerks. And excitement rose to fever heat
when, with twenty hands holding him, poor Noyes was hustled in among
them. They rushed at him like a pack of wolves. Had that been a bank
parlor in festive Arizona, they would not have endured the delay
incidental to procuring a rope, but would have ended it and him by
gunnery at short range. Noyes could not be shaken; his nerve never
failed. He said a gentleman had hired him as a clerk, and that was all
he knew. He had left him at the Stock Exchange; if they would let him
go, he would try and find him and bring him around to the bank. J. Bull
is gullible, but not so much so as to swallow that yarn.
So they held tightly to him, and a committee of indignant Britons
escorted him to Newgate.
CHAPTER XXIV.
POINTS FOR JUSTICE TO PICK UP.
Mac and George were without, and were stricken with consternation, for a
minute's observation of the gathering crowd and the rushing into the
bank of excited people convinced them something unusual was in the wind,
and they knew Noyes must be in deadly peril. Mac rushed into the bank in
hope to warn or to be of help. Everything there was in confusion.
Unobserved in the excitement, he made his way into the parlor and there
saw what made his heart stand still--Noyes surrounded by an angry crowd
of officials. With great presence of mind and great nerve he pushed
through toward Noyes, who saw him and knew he was there to help if he
had a chance to bolt from his captors; but there was no chance. As they
were about starting for Newgate, Mac slipped outside and told George
what had befallen Noyes, and discussed the possibility of a rescue when
on the way to Newgate with him. While they were waiting in the entrance
Noyes came out in custody. He saw and recognized them. They joined in
the crowd and were within arm's reach of him every rod of the short
distance to Newgate, but the crowd was packed so tight that one could
hardly move, and a rush for escape was hopeless. Arrived at Newgate, Mac
in his desperation was entering with the escort, when George pulled him
away, and as they got out of the crowd they heard the newsboys crying:
"Great forgery on the Bank of England by an American; L10,000,000
obtained." That afternoon Lionel Rothschild, president of the Board of
Directors, called on him at Newgate, and offered him his liberty and
L1,000 reward if he would tell all he knew; but Noyes' nerve was not to
be shaken. He said a gentleman, an entire stranger, had hired him as a
clerk and messenger, and he knew nothing about Mr. Warren nor his
business.
All this time the $150,000 drawn that morning was in a stout bag behind
the counter at Garraway's.
Little did the barmaids dream of the treasure that was in the bag at
their feet. When Mac went for it, one of the barmaids asked him if he
had heard of the great bank robbery. He drove to St James' place, and
soon George joined him there.
Here again was enacted the scene we had in Rio; as there, so here, they
looked at each other in helpless stupefaction. Why had they not been
satisfied? Why had they let Noyes go for a paltry L5,000? Why had they
not understood the meaning of the evident excitement in and around the
bank?
In Rio there was only a suspicion aroused. Here our companion was a
prisoner in Newgate. Scarcely an hour had passed since he was free and
without a fear had joined in the congratulatory scene at Garraway's. Now
ruin was threatened. Upon cool reflection they came to two conclusions.
First, that Noyes not only would never betray them, but that he could be
depended upon to keep so close a mouth that no clue could be pumped from
him; and next, that he could never be convicted of the forgery.
He might, of course, be subjected to a few weeks of Newgate life. That
was very awkward, of course, but it would come all right.
So they resolved for the present to remain in London and await
developments.
That night the cable flashed the news of the forgery over the world,
dwelling particularly upon the fact that the perpetrator was an
American. The next morning the London press overflowed. Every prominent
paper gave a leader in the editorial column, and when the weeklies and
monthlies came out they followed suit. These editorials make now to us
who were on the inside amusing reading. They were full of Philistine
talk and amazement, and generally conceded that Noyes was an innocent
dupe, and all more or less doubted if his principal, the mysterious Mr.
F. A. Warren, would ever come back to say so.
Day after day went by, and Mac and George hung around London reading the
accounts of the affair and of the examination of Noyes before the Lord
Mayor.
They had communicated with him through his solicitor, and he sent them
word to leave England at once. In the mean time they had been sending
away the cash, and so entrenched were they in the belief that by no
possible chance could their names become mixed up in the affair that in
every instance but two they sent the money or bonds to America in their
right names.
In the mean time the bank very wisely sent a cable to their legal agent,
Clarence A. Seward, in New York, asking him to set the American
detective force on the alert. He was a man of the world and understood
quite well what sort of men then ruled at Police Head quarters. So he
sent at once for Robert A. Pinkerton and gave him entire charge of the
American end of the line. Eventually they unearthed the whole plot,
secured the evidence that convicted us and recovered the greater part of
the money. The first step taken by the private inquiry men was to have
our friends, the detectives at headquarters, led to believe that they
had the case entirely in their own hands and to strengthen this
Pinkerton had the Bank of England agent in New York go to headquarters
every day and pretend to consult with Irving.
After the continental raid, on our return to London we sent Irving
$3,000 in greenbacks in a registered letter, but in order to have a
hold on our three honest friends at headquarters in case of any possible
treachery in the future we put the money in the envelope in the presence
of a magistrate and had his clerk register it and make it a part of the
court record. The envelope was simply addressed "James Irving, Esq., 300
Mulberry street, New York," and of course the officials in London
supposed it a private address.
When we returned from Rio we sent another $3,000, $1,000 each for
Irving, Stanley and White, and took the same precautions.
Soon after the floods of money coming to us in London Mac sent $15,000
to Irving in another registered letter, without any precautions,
however. Irving & Co. did not know what game we were playing, but were
very happy over the dividends past and to come. But when they read the
cable dispatches in the press about the bank forgeries, their bliss was