A sudden parting of the crowd, near the second-class
carriages, attracted the captain's curiosity. He pushed his way in;
and found a decently-dressed man--assisted by a porter and a
policeman--attempting to pick up some printed bills scattered from a
paper parcel, which his frenzied fellow-passengers had knocked out of
his hand.
Offering his assistance in this emergency, with the polite alacrity
which marked his character, Captain Wragge observed the three startling
words, "Fifty Pounds Reward," printed in capital letters on the bills
which he assisted in recovering; and instantly secreted one of them,
to be more closely examined at the first convenient opportunity. As he
crumpled up the bill in the palm of his hand, his party-colored eyes
fixed with hungry interest on the proprietor of the unlucky parcel. When
a man happens not to be possessed of fifty pence in his own pocket, if
his heart is in the right place, it bounds; if his mouth is properly
constituted, it waters, at the sight of another man who carries about
with him a printed offer of fifty pounds sterling, addressed to his
fellow-creatures.
The unfortunate traveler wrapped up his parcel as he best might, and
made his way off the platform, after addressing an inquiry to the first
official victim of the day's passenger-traffic, who was sufficiently in
possession of his senses to listen to it.
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