5 Through Thick And Thin

The child thanks the shopkeeper and walks out of the door, his loaf under his arm. As he leaves, a man steps across the threshold. He ignores the stock and does not make his business immediately clear, but the shopkeeper has a good idea what it is. The man has a proposition to make. There are threatening characters in the area, he says, who are liable to rob or wreck business premises such as the shop in which he is standing. For a regular payment, in cash, the organization which the man represents will protect the shop against such assaults.