‘Well, I’ll be going,’ said Fatty. ‘Thanks for showing me the envelope, Mrs. Lamb. I’m so sorry you had one of these beastly letters. I shan’t rest till I find out who is the writer of them.’
‘Mr. Goon, he’s on to them too,’ said Mrs. Cockles. ‘Says he’s got a very good idea who it is, too.’
Fatty doubted that. He was sure that Mr. Goon was as puzzled as he was. He said good-bye and went out of the dirty little room.
But coming in at the front gate was the burly figure of Mr. Goon! Fatty was annoyed. He tried to get out of the gate before Mr. Goon came in, but the policeman, surprised and exasperated at seeing Fatty there, caught hold of his arm. He pulled the boy inside the cottage.
‘Has this boy been interfering with the Workings of the Law?’ he demanded, in an angry voice. ‘What’s he doing here, that’s what I want to know?’
Mrs. Lamb was afraid of Mr. Goon, but Mrs. Cockles was not.
‘He’s not been interfering,’ she said. ‘Only taking a friendly interest like.’
‘How did he know that Mrs. Lamb had received one of these here letters?’ inquired Mr. Goon, still in a furious voice.
‘Well, I had to ring up Mrs. Moon to tell her as how I wouldn’t be along this morning, because my sister had had a letter,’ said Mrs. Cockles. ‘And Master Frederick, he happened to be there, and he took the message. And he said he knew all about the letters and would like to see this one, and I knew he wasn’t half-bad at snooping out things, so...’
‘Mrs. Lamb, you didn’t show this interfering boy that letter before you showed it to me, did you?’ thundered Mr. Goon.