A Clean Sweep

Isaac Little was a chimney sweep apprentice who worked for the cruel Mr. Grubber.

It was a difficult and dangerous life sweeping chimneys, especially as Isaac was forced to crawl within the flues. It was his awful task to climb up the brickwork and loosen the soot with a brush by hand. Each evening Mr. Grubber would spend the day’s takings on drink at the local pub, leaving Isaac to clean the yard and pack the soot into sacks, for sale to farmers as a fertiliser for their fields.

The only consolation that Isaac had for this miserable existence was an anonymous handwritten letter that he kept hidden away in his jacket pocket. Isaac couldn’t recall how he had found this note but he knew that it was his, for his name was included in full within the last sentence of the letter. The mysterious note promised Isaac that his life would improve and that he should trust its unknown author.

One day, Isaac succumbed to temptation when he stole a cigar case from a rich customer’s home. In doing so, he discovered a tiny fragment of a tragic newspaper report, rolled up inside with the cigars. The discovery of this newspaper fragment would change Isaac’s life forever and lead him on a terrifying adventure that would end with a face-to-face meeting with the anonymous author of his treasured mysterious letter.

Who wrote the prediction for Isaac’s life and how did the writer know what the future held for the wretched chimney sweep?

What awful news was written upon the newspaper fragment and why was it hidden within a cigar case?

In common with all stories from Maxwell Grantly, all is not what it might first appear to be.