World: The Cheddington Caper

A Royal Mail train pulled out of Glasgow one night last week, bound for London's Euston station, 401 miles to the south. Aboard were 70 employees of the General Post Office, locked into twelve maroon-colored coaches, each bearing the royal coat of arms and the royal cipher, E R II. As they sped along at 80 m.p.h., the postal clerks busily sorted letters from hundreds of mailbags scooped up from gantries en route. In the "High Value" coach right behind the diesel locomotive, five particularly experienced sorters were on duty, sealed into their...