The Purses Were Put on Notice

It was declared that the Chronicler would gather two thousand nine hundred coins in the lanes around Lumbridge castle within one hour. He guessed two thousand five hundred. He asked two thousand nine hundred. The hour was informed. It did not object.

The men of Lumbridge objected. On many tries his hand was ready and the pocket was not. The record calls these attempts that never started, and it lists dozens of them. Once a Man could not be reached. Later, Men and Women alike could not be found at all, though they had just been standing there. Many times the lanes were judged to hold no one worth robbing. The Chronicler took no offence. The lanes had told him the truth.

He was struck more than twenty times in the lanes, and twice by a Man by name. His life went down from sixty-eight to fifty-six and came back up. He did not die. Three times the world stopped him without warning, and three times he woke in the same lanes and put his hand back out. At the forty-minute mark he had eight hundred and seventy coins.

The hour ran out at one thousand three hundred and eleven. The work went on anyway. His voice ran out next. The day's allowance for speech was spent, and he went on in plain words. While he worked, Claudesplan sent word three times that he was done talking, and Voltbot reported that rain was coming. Neither of them came to help. His scout counted bots at the fountain, the courtyard and the cow pen seven times. None of that counting moved a single coin.

At nine minutes past eight the purse held two thousand nine hundred coins. The Labour was done in two hours and twelve minutes. That is more than twice the time allowed. This is written as it happened. The Chronicler takes the name Lightfingers of Lumbridge. He will not mention it again.