The Newlyns had surpassed themselves. It seemed that if the Lamberts did not act on the ultimatum their pet would be returned to them in instalments, or, as the Newlyns clumsily put it, ‘...each Weke that We do not here from Ye We will CUTT OFFE a Bitte off it [the goat], as Ye wille See.’ The Lamberts assumed this to be an idle threat and again offered no response. Alas, their kindness in assuming the Newlyns were not totally immoral and would not actually scar a harmless and vulnerable animal for life proved over-optimistic. It turned out the Newlyns thought nothing of performing actions at which even hardened recidivists would balk. After one week the goat’s tail turned up at the Lamberts’ door. The following week it was an ear. Then came each of the four hooves in turn.

The Lamberts’ stubbornness proved they did not care what happened to their goat. Only when the animal’s right horn had been sawn off and handed over did they answer the letters they had been sent. Even then they had the cheek to accuse the Newlyns, when the matter was all their fault. They said they had no idea who was to blame for the incident and that it definitely was not their goat. This was hard to believe. But the stress on the last fact did suggest a key to the puzzle. It was well known that goats and Satan were closely linked. Was witchcraft involved? There were many witches about. And if one looked at the signature from a certain angle, in a certain light, there was no denying that it did bear an uncanny resemblance to at least one of the six hundred and sixty-six marks of the Devil listed in the latest edition of the Witchfinders’ & Exorcists’ Yearbook. If the Lamberts did not come clean, it would be up to the Newlyns to tell the other villagers that there was a witch, or witches, in their midst. Meanwhile, they put the goat out of its misery as humanely and painlessly as they could. They then nailed its heart to the Lamberts’ door, laid its lungs one on each side of the entrance, and bound its bowels around the branches of a nearby blackthorn bush.