The Case of Black Tom - Part Two

Yesterday night the detective A.B.Fox read the next instalment from his memoirs... I was tied up in the hold of the motor-boat. The pair of thugs had made threatening noises but in the end had decided to keep me for the ‘The Boss’ to deal with. “Yeah, Cos he don’t like nosey parkers.” squealed Hitmouse as he prodded me with a skewer. In the morning we arrived at a small port. I guessed where I was. Far in the distance I could see the great towers of Homeward, the world-renowned home of a millionaire philanthropist, the elephant Uncle. They tied me up in a sack and took me to their headquarters. I could see through a hole that it was a sinister looking seedy seaside hotel called “Grunge Villa”. They took me to the bosses office. “O.K. who sent you – come on spill the beans.” said an ugly mug in a sackcloth. “To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking, may I ask?” I said in a nonchalant manner knowing he would be unlikely to reveal his identity. Siggi piped up “Don’t tell him, Beaver.” Beaver gave Siggi a look that spoke daggers. I would not like to be in Siggi’s shoes later, I thought. I was not too happy about being in mine either though. I was clearly held captive by Beaver Hateman – Boss of the infamous Badfort Crowd. “Speak, or we will have to try a little persuasion.” growled Beaver. Needless to say they were forced to try persuasion. After a bit of roughhouse stuff they had to admit defeat. “He won’t squeal Boss.” said Hitmouse, in frustration, after he had stuck all his skewers in various parts of my body. “Take him to Comfort Cove, then, he’ll make a nice dinner for the Scob fish.” chortled Beaver. They dragged me back to the boat and took me to a cave in a nearby cove. The centre for their smuggling operation.“That there post is where we ties up them o’talk too much. Tide comes up, and stops their chatter ha-ha.” said Siggi wagging his finger at me. They tied me to the post and left in their boat. “Try singing I’m forever blowing bubbles” scoffed Hitmouse. The water was rising all about me with no chance of anyone hearing my shouts

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Another cliffhanger ending - How would the fox extricate himself from a watery grave? Goodman was beside himself with excitement.