Pierce's first target is Edgar Trent's key, but he has no clues or prior information on Trent's habits. Through painstaking surveillance, conversations with bank employees and a deliberately bungled pickpocketing attempt, Pierce deduces that Trent's key is kept at his mansion, but is still unable to learn the exact location. After learning that Trent is keen on ratting (a blood sport involving the betting on dogs killing rats,) Pierce succeeds in becoming acquainted with Trent and while visiting the Trent mansion feigns a romantic interest in Elizabeth Trent, Trent's plain twenty-nine-year-old daughter, who has had few suitors. While pretending to court Elizabeth, Pierce learns that the key is most likely located in the basement wine cellar. With the assistance of his longtime mistress, known only as "Miss Miriam" (who is also an actress,) and his loyal associate, a buck cabby named Barlow, Pierce and Agar successfully break into Trent's home and wine cellar by night and make a wax impression of the key.