Twice the _Shannon_ had thus met him, as if to satisfy him that his object had been attained, and each time she seemed to him not an inanimate thing, but a silent accomplice.

A chill of fear struck through the man's frame as he looked at her.

Yes, there she lay, and in her hold were safely stowed 160,000 pounds in gold, marked lead and copper.
Wylie had no luggage nor effects to detain him on board; he landed, and, having bestowed his three companions in a sailors' boarding-house, he was hastening to the shipping agents of Wardlaw & Son to announce his arrival and the fate of the _Proserpine._ He had reached their offices in Water Street before he recollected that it was barely half past five o'clock, and, though broad daylight on that July morning, merchants' offices are not open at that hour.

The sight of the _Shannon_ had so bewildered him that he had not noticed that the shops were all shut, the streets deserted.

Then a thought occurred to him--why not be a bearer of his own news?
He did not require to turn the idea twice over, but resolved, for many reasons, to adopt it.