telling his friend the scheme was impracticable. When Agar returned to Britain, the two discussed the possibility again and Agar said that "it would be impossible to do it unless an impression of the keys could be procured". Pierce said he thought he knew how that could be arranged. They realised that for any theft to succeed, they needed the assistance of a guard travelling in the van with the safes, and an official with access to the staff rotas and who knew when the bullion shipments were to be made. It was at this stage that Pierce recruited Burgess and Tester to join the group. In May 1854 Pierce and Agar travelled to Folkestone to watch the process involved at that end of the line, particularly the location and security surrounding the keys. They spent so long, and were so obvious, in their surveillance that they came to the notice of the municipal and railway police. As a result, Pierce returned to London and left Agar to watch alone. As part of his intelligence gathering, Agar drank in the Rose Inn, a public house near the pier, where railway staff also drank. The pair concluded that one of the keys was carried by the superintendent of the Folkestone end of the line; the other was locked in a cabinet at the railway offices on Folkestone pier. One of the keys held at Folkestone was lost in July 1854 by Captain Mold of the steamship company. The SER sent the safes back to Chubb for the locks to be reconditioned and new keys issued. The clerk involved in corresponding with the company was Tester. By October, Chubb's work had been completed and the keys sent to the SER. Tester was able to smuggle them out of the office briefly, and met Pierce and Agar in a beer house on Tooley Street, London, where Agar made an impression of them in green wax. Tester was so nervous when he removed the keys, that he brought two identical ones with him, rather than one for each lock; the plotters were still missing one of the keys. Agar, using the false name of E. E. Archer, used his own funds to send £200 of gold sovereigns on the SER line. The box of bullion, labelled "E. R. Archer, care of Mr. Ledger, or Mr. Chapman", was sent through to Folkestone where Agar would