A Fairytale of New York

After all his adventures Toad now found himself under house arrest in his $7m Manhattan penthouse.

“He must never be left an instant unguarded,” said the Badger.”We shall have to take it in turns to be with him. The important thing is to make sure he doesn’t try to dispose of any of his property.”

“Like the jewellery and watches he sent to his friends,” said the Mole, “We can’t let that happen again.”

“No indeed,” said Badger, “Toad is truly a devious character. When he’s quiet and submissive, he’s at his artfullest.”

“Then we must hope that the court sees reason and sends him to jail,” said the Rat. ”I don’t see how we can prevent him disposing of his assets otherwise. If something’s missing from the inventory, then it’s too late.”

“And then we can get back to England, “sighed the Mole. “ I don’t think New York agrees with me.”

“Blame the Toad” retorted Badger, “If he hadn’t started selling in the City, we should never have got involved in the first place. Now all we need is for him to cough up the $50bn and we can go home. This has been a very rum business indeed; why, it’s just like something out of a book!”

With apologies to Kenneth Grahame