Chapter 5:

In which we learn about the contents of a letter.

“First,” said the civet, “I need to ask you an important question. Are you licensed to do correspondence work?”

“Yes,” said Flopsy, not missing a beat. As mentioned previously, they were not licensed at all, and certainly not to matters of correspondence detection, which is a complicated and largely boring field, which neither Flopsy nor Mopsy knew anything about. But one thing that Flopsy had learned in business school was that you don’t get a client that you probably don’t want by saying no. So she had said yes.

“Good,” said the civet, “this is a matter of correspondence detection. So I received a letter in the mail this morning. It is from an acquaintance of mine named Sister Baby. Do you know Sister Baby?”

Flopsy did not know Sister Baby and said as much.

“Sister Baby is a very powerful person. She sent me a letter. Would you like to see it?”

“By the Detective’s Code . . .” Flopsy started.

“Oh, of course,” said the civet, “you’re probably not allowed to read it. Would I be able to read the letter to you?”

“If it’s not too long,” said Flopsy.

(It should go without saying, of course, that the Detective’s Code says nothing at all about whether or not letters can be read by a detective prior to taking on a case. But neither Flopsy nor the civet knew this.)

“It is not that long,” said the civet. He pulled a wrinkled letter out of his pocket and unfolded it. It had been folded many times. He turned it over and cleared his throat.

“Here is what the letter says,” says the civet. “Sister Baby, who sent me the letter, said this, not me.”

Flopsy signaled that she understood. This civet, she thought, was very tiresome.

“Here I go,” said the civet.

“Dear recipient—that’s me,” read the civet. “Dear recipient. You may be wondering why I sent you this letter. I will tell you. The original copy of this letter came from the Netherlands. The luck of it has been around the world four times (sent by U.S. Officers). The one who breaks this chain will have bad luck."

"Then it goes on," said the civet. "This is what the letter says, not what I am saying. Please copy this and see what happens to you in four days after you receive it. Do not send money and do not keep this copy. Send it and four others to people whom you wish good luck."

"That seems fine," said Flopsy, "Nothing strange there."

"But wait, said the civet, "it goes on. This is the letter, not me. It must leave your home twenty-four hours after you receive it. General Ashton received \$6,000.00 only to lose it after breaking the chain. You are to have good luck after receiving this. This is not a joke. You will receive it by mail. Insert your name at the bottom of this list, leaving off the top name."

"And then," said the civet, "there are some names, but I want to keep them private for now."

"I understand completely," said Flopsy. "What exactly do you want me to detect about this letter?"