Thus within forty-eight hours his lordship had received all the stolen property. In consideration thereof he cancelled his instructions to Scotland Yard to follow up a clue which Mr. William Sikes had incautiously given about a Dorset horse robbery in the late 'seventies.
His lordship also advertised his acknowledgments in the agony column of the Times, and asked for the favour of an explanation of the whole incident. This was not forthcoming, and the matter remained for some time the one unsolved riddle of his lordship's life.
Mr. William Sikes, with the £500 so ingeniously obtained, retired from the burglary profession, and bought a little public house known as the "Goat and Compasses." For some reason or other he altered the name to "Seal and Compasses," thereby causing much mystification to future antiquarians in that particular district.
In recalling his conduct on the night in question, Mr. Sikes spends some of the happiest hours of his life.
To Mr. Richard Hilton the events of that night were also eminently satisfactory. He was the only loser, but he had gained more than he had lost, for the laurels of the Burglars' Club were his.
VIII.
THE LION AND THE SUN.
The visit of His Royal Highness Ali Azim Mirza, nephew of the Shah, accompanied by the Grand Vizier, Hasan Kuli, is fresh in our memories. The mission of the Prince was to invest a distinguished personage with the insignia of the Lion and the Sun in order to mark the Persian monarch's appreciation of the Garter which had been recently conferred upon him. The Mission duly returned with its object accomplished. Outwardly everything happened as was anticipated, and there are but few who know how nearly we approached to a war with Russia as a consequence of the visit, while still fewer are aware that such a calamity was averted by a cadet member of the Burglars' Club.