“I beg pardon?”
“I said I shall take one safe such as these I see here. It is precisely what I need.”
“Madam,” Mr. Chubb said patiently, “we must construct the safe to your order.”
“You mean you have none for sale?”
“None already built, no, Madam, I am very sorry. Each safe is specially built to the customer’s specifications.”
Lady Charlotte appeared quite irritated. “Well, can I have one tomorrow morning?”
Mr. Chubb gulped. “Tomorrow morning— um, well, as a rule, Madam, we require six weeks to construct a safe. On occasion we can manufacture one as quickly, as four weeks, but—”
“Four weeks? That is a month.”
“Yes, Madam.”
“I wish to purchase a safe today”
“Yes, Madam, quite. But as I have attempted to explain, each safe must be built, and the shortest time—”
“Mr. Chubb, you must think me an utter fool. Well, I shall disabuse you of the notion. I have come here for the purpose of buying a safe, and now I discover you have none to sell—”
“Madam, please—”
“—but on the contrary will construct one for me in only a month’s time. Within a month the brigands of the neighborhood will very probably have come and gone, and your safe will not in the least interest me, or my husband. I shall take my business elsewhere. Good day to you, sir, and thank you for your time.”
With that, Lady Charlotte swept out of the firm of Chubb’s. And Mr. Laurence Chubb, Jr, was heard to mutter in a low voice, “Women.”
It was in this fashion that Pierce and Agar learned that the overhaul did not include changing the locks on the safes. That was, of course, all they cared about, and so they made their final preparations for the robbery, which they would carry out on May 22, 1855.
Chapter 31
The Snakesman Turns Nose
One week later, their plans were thrown into still further disarray. On May 17, 1855, a letter was delivered to Pierce. Written in a graceful and educated hand, it read:
My dear Sir:
I should be most greatly obliged if you could contrive to meet with me at the Palace, Sydenham, this afternoon at four o’clock, for the purpose of discussing some matters of mutual interest.
Most respectfully, I am,
William Williams, Esq.
Pierce looked at the letter in consternation. He showed it to Agar; but Agar could not read, so Pierce read the contents aloud. Agar stared at the penmanship.
“Clean Willy’s got himself a screever for this one,” he said.
“Obviously,” Pierce said. “But why?”
“Perhaps he’s touching you up.”
“If that’s all it is, I’d be happy,” Pierce said.
“You going to meet him?”
“Absolutely. Will you crow for me?”‘
Agar nodded. “You want Barlow? A good cosh could save a mighty trouble.”
“No,” Pierce said. “That’ll set them hounding for sure, a cosh would.”
“Right, then,” Agar said, “a simple crow. ‘Twon’t be easy in the Palace.”
“I’m sure Willy knows that,” Pierce said gloomily.
__________
A word should be said about the Crystal Palace, that magical structure which came to symbolize the Victorian mid-century. An enormous three-story glass building covering nineteen acres, it was erected in 1851 in Hyde Park, to house the Great Exhibition of that year, and it impressed every visitor who saw it. Indeed, even in drawings the Crystal Palace is stunning to the modern eye, and to see more than a million square feet of glass shimmering in the afternoon light must have been a remarkable sight for anyone. It is not surprising that the Palace soon represented the forward-looking, technological aesthetic of the new industrial Victorian society.
But this fabulous structure had a comfortingly haphazard origin. Led by Prince Albert himself, plans for the Great Exhibition began in 1850, and soon ran into arguments about the proposed Exhibition Hall itself, and its location.
Obviously the building would have to be very large. But what kind of building, and where? A competition in 1850 attracted more than two hundred designs, but no winner. Thus the Building Committee drew up a plan of its own for a dreadful brick monstrosity; the structure would be four times as long as Westminster Abbey and boast a dome even larger than that of St. Peter’s. It would be located in Hyde Park.