"Did you send any letters to him this month?" asked Fanks, loudly. "Letters! all his letters go to the shop," retorted Mrs. Wevelspoke, obstinately. "Were there any this month--November?" "Remember!" cried the postmistress, twitching her bonnet, "of course I remember--I can remember things afore you were born, young man. I sends all letters to Mr. Judas at the shop. Two this month, and there's another waitin' 'im." "Let me see it!" said Fanks, quickly glancing at Roger, "it may reveal something, Miss Varlins." "Steal," remarked Mrs. Wevelspoke, sharply. "No, you don't steal here, sir! I'm an honest woman, I am." "And a very stupid one," said Fanks, ruefully, in despair at getting any information out of this old dame. "I have seen the letter she talks about, Mr. Rixton," said Miss Varlins, quickly, "and it is not the one we want." At this moment Abraham rolled into the office, and Fanks at once pounced on him as being more likely to give information than his superior. "Oh, here's the postman," he cried, radiantly. "Here, postman, did you deliver a letter to Monsieur Guinaud at Wosk's shop about the beginning of this month?" "I can't tell State secrets," said Abraham in his fat voice, "it's treesin." "Oh, you won't come to Tower Hill for telling me this," replied Fanks, good-humouredly. "I don't know nothin' about your Tower Hills," growled the portly one, sulkily, "but I ain't going to tell nothin', I ain't. Mother and me's sworn, we are." Fanks did not want his true occupation to be known, but he saw perfectly well that he would get nothing out of the faithful Abraham unless he adopted strong measures, so he made up his mind how to act at once. "Look here, my man," he said, taking Abraham to one side and speaking sharply. "I'm a detective, and you must give me a plain answer to a plain question." "I ain't bin doin' nothin' wrong," whimpered Abraham, edging away from the representative of the law; "I'll tell you anythin' you like as long as it isn't State secrets." "This isn't a State secret," said Fanks, quickly, putting a half-a-crown into the lad's fat hand; "just tell me if you delivered a thick packet to Monsieur Guinaud on the 15th of this month?" The faithful servant of the State was not proof against bribery, so he answered at once: "Yes, sir, I did! Only the letter was to Monsieur Judas." "Not to Miss Judith?" "Lor, sir, I don't know; mother said it were Monsieur Judas, and as there's only one Judas here, I took it to him." "At Wosk & Co.?" "Yes, sir." "Did he take it?" "Yes, sir." "Very well, that will do," said Fanks, in a gratified tone; "now hold your tongue and say nothing to nobody." "But mother, sir!" "Not even to your mother. If you told her, all the town would hear, she's so deaf." So Abraham the faithful grinned, and slipping his half-a-crown into his pocket, retired, while Fanks went outside, where he found Judith seated in her carriage and Roger talking to her.