Soon he was speaking to a man whose voice sounded heavy with sleep and who complained bitterly about being disturbed in the middle of the night. Immediately Rollison gave his name, the sleepiness seemed to vanish and the protests might never have been uttered.

“Why, Mr Ar, wot a pleasure! I never expected to ‘ear from you ternight, that’s a fact. Can I do anyfink for you, Mr Ar?”

“Yes, Bill,” said Rollison, “there’s a family named Whiting, living at 49, Little Lane, off Jupe Street. They’ve three children. I want you to look after them.”

“They in trouble?”

“A Mr Harry Keller doesn’t like them,” said Rollison.

There was no immediate response.

He needed no more telling that Harry Keller meant something to Bill Ebbutt, who kept a pub in the Mile End Road and also ran a boxing gymnasium where many of the more promising boxers were trained and managed. The war had whittled down the number of young hopes but the older men still trained and some young men in reserved occupations went there regularly. Bill Ebbutt’s gymnasium was an unofficial club with hundreds of members, most of them connected with the ring, all well-trained and packing a pretty punch. No man who belonged to Bill’s “club’ dabbled in the more vicious types of crime. The police would have liked to interview some but even they admitted that members of the club were usually law-abiding.

Bill broke his silence at last.

“That’s all right, Mr Ar. I’ll look arter the kids. It’ll take a lot of men, mind yer—it might run you into a bit o’ money, too, because they won’t be able to do their ord’nary jobs while they’re watching.”

“There’s no limit to expenses,” Rollison said.

“That’s good of you, Mr Ar! P’raps you’ll come rahnd and see me when yer can?”