As a rule there was no light left in the manager's room, and the other door--that leading into the hall--was bolted from the inside by James Fairbairn the moment he had satisfied himself that the premises were safe, and he had begun his night-watch.

An electric bell in both the offices communicated with Mr.Ireland's bedroom and that of his son, Mr.Robert Ireland, and there was a telephone installed to the nearest district messengers' office, with an understood signal which meant 'Police.' "At nine o'clock in the morning it was the night watchman's duty, as soon as the first cashier had arrived, to dust and tidy the manager's room, and to undo the bolts; after that he was free to go home to his breakfast and rest.
"You will see, of course, that James Fairbairn's position in the English Provident Bank is one of great responsibility and trust; but then in every bank and business house there are men who hold similar positions.
They are always men of well-known and tried characters, often old soldiers with good-conduct records behind them.

James Fairbairn is a fine, powerful Scotchman; he had been night watchman to the English Provident Bank for fifteen years, and was then not more than forty-three or forty-four years old.

He is an ex-guardsman, and stands six feet three inches in his socks.
"It was his evidence, of course, which was of such paramount importance, and which somehow or other managed, in spite of the utmost care exercised by the police, to become public property, and to cause the wildest excitement in banking and business circles.
"James Fairbairn stated that at eight o'clock in the evening of March 25th, having bolted and barred all the shutters and the door of the back premises, he was about to lock the manager's door as usual, when Mr.
Ireland called to him from the floor above, telling him to leave that door open, as he might want to go into the office again for a minute when he came home at eleven o'clock.

James Fairbairn asked if he should leave the light on, but Mr.Ireland said: 'No, turn it out.