"Now we've only got to find some one who wears a suit of grey flannel,, a bit torn somewhere, and we've got the man!" said Daisy, pleased.
"I think we're much cleverer than Clear-Orf," said Pip.
"I've got awfully sharp eyes, you know," said Fatty, feeling tremendously pleased with himself. "Fancy, no one but me saw that! I really have got brains."
"Shut up!" said Larry. "It was just chance, that's all, that you saw it." He put the scrap back into his match-box.
Every one felt a bit excited. "I like being a Find-Outer," said Bets happily.
"Well, I don't know why," said Pip. "You haven't found out anything yet. I found the place where the man hid, and Fatty found a bit of his coat! You haven't found a thing!"
It was Larry who found the footprint. He found it quite by accident. The gap in the hedge led to a grassy field, where it was impossible to see any prints at all. But the farmer had been along and taken a few squares of turf from a certain part, and at one side near the edge, was a distinct footprint!
"It's the farmer's, I expect," said Pip, when Larry showed it to him.
"No - there's the farmer's print," said Larry, pointing to a big hob-nailed print, which appeared up and down the bare patch. "This is a smaller print altogether. I shouldn't think it's more than size eight, and the farmer's footprint looks like size twelve! It's enormous. I think this must be the print of the man we are looking for. Let's see if we can find another."
The children hunted about. Nothing could be seen on the grass, of course, so they went to the edges of the field. And there Daisy found three or four more footprints,
some on each side of the stile that led out of the field into a lane beyond.
"Are these the same prints?" she called. The others came running. They looked hard. Larry nodded his head. "I believe they are," he said. "Look - these shoes have rubber soles with criss-cross marking on them. Pip, run back to that other print, and see if the marking is the same, will you?"
Pip tore over to the patch from which the farmer had removed the turf. Yes - the criss-cross marking showed up quite clearly in the print. It was the same shoe, no doubt about that!
"Yes!" he yelled. "It's the same!" The others were thrilled. They really were getting on!
"Well," said Larry, looking down the lane. "I'm afraid it's not much good going any farther, because the surface of the lane is hard, and won't show anything. But we've found out what we wanted to know. We've found out that a man hid in the hedge for some reason, and we know that he wore shoes of a certain shape and size, with rubber soles that had criss-cross markings! Not bad for a day's work!"
"I'll make a drawing of the prints.," said Fatty. "I'll measure the exact size, and make an exact copy of the marks. Then we've only got to find the shoes, and we've got the man!"
"We know what sort of shoes he wore and what kind of suit," said Larry, thinking of the scrap of grey cloth in his match-box. "I bet old Clear-Orf won't have noticed anything at all."
"I'd better go back to the hotel and get some paper to copy the footprints," said Fatty importantly. "It's a good thing I can draw so well. I won first prize last term for Art."
"What art?" said Larry. "The art of boasting? Or the art of eating too much ? "
"Aren't you clever?" said Fatty crossly, who did not at all like this sort of teasing.
"Yes, he is clever!" said Daisy, "but he doesn't boast
about his brains as you do, Frederick Algernon Trotte ville!"
"Let's go back to the burnt cottage and see if there's any other clue to be found there," said Pip, seeing that a quarrel was about to flare up.
"Yes," said Bets. "I'm the only one that hasn't found a glue, and I do want to."
She looked so sad about this that Fatty hastened to comfort her.
"Well Buster hasn't found anything either," he said. "He's looked hard, but he hasn't discovered a single thing. Don't worry. Bets. I expect you will soon find something marvellous."
They all went back to the gap in the hedge and squeezed through. Fatty went off to the little hotel opposite the garden to get a piece of paper and a pencil. The others stood and stared at the ruined cottage.
"What are you doing here?" suddenly said a rough voice. "Clear orf!"
"Golly! It's old Clear-Orf!" whispered Larry. "Look for my shilling, all of you!"
The four children began to hunt around, pretending to be looking for something.
"Did you hear what I said?" growled the policeman. "What are you looking for?"
"My shilling,," said Larry.
"Oh! I suppose you dropped it when you came round interfering last night/' said Mr. Goon. "I don't know what children are coming to nowadays - always turning up and messing about and hindering others and being a general nuisance! You clear orf!"
"Ah! My shilling!" said Larry, suddenly pouncing on his shilling, which, when he had arrived, he had carefully dropped beside a patch of celandines. "All right, Mr. Goon. We'll go. I've got my shilling now."
"Well, clear orf, then," growled the policeman. "I've got work to do here - serious work, and I don't want children messing about, either."
"Are you looking for glues?" asked Bets, and immediately got such a nudge from Pip that she almost fell over.
Luckily Clear-Orf took no notice of this remark. He hustled the children out of the gate and up the lane. "And don't you come messing about here again.," he said.
"Messing about!" said Larry indignantly, as they all went off up the lane. "That's all he thinks children do - mess about. If he knew what we'd discovered this morning, he'd go green in the face!"
"Would he really?" said Bets, interested. "I'd like to see him."
"You nearly made me go green in the face when you asked old Clear-Orf if he was looking for clues!" said Pip crossly. "I thought the very next minute you'd say we had been looking for some and found them, too! That's the worst of having a baby like you in the Find-Outers!"
"I would not have said we'd found anything," said Bets, almost in tears. "Oh, look - there's Fatty. We'd better warn him that Clear-Orf is down there."
They stopped Fatty and warned him. He decided to go down and do his measuring and copying later on. He didn't at all like Clear-Orf. Neither did Buster.
"It's tea-time, anyway," said Larry, looking at his watch. "Meet tomorrow morning at ten o'clock in Pip's summer-house. We've done awfully well today. I'll write up notes about all our clues. This is really getting very exciting!"
Fatty and Larry Learn a Few Things.
At ten o'clock the next morning the five children and Buster were once again in the old summer-house. Fatty looked important. He produced an enormous sheet of paper on which he had drawn the right and left footprint, life-size, with all its criss-cross markings on the rubber sole. It was really very good. The others stared at it. "Not bad, is it?" said Fatty,
swelling up with importance, and, as usual, making a impression on the others by boasting. "Didn't I tell you I was
good at drawing?"
Larry nudged Pip and whispered in his ear. "Pull his leg a bit," he said. Pip grinned, and wondered what Larry was going to do. Larry took the drawing and looked at it solemnly.
"Quite good, except that I think you've got the tail a bit wrong," he said. Pip joined in at once.
"Well, I think the ears are the wrong shape too," he said. At least, the one on the right is."
Fatty gaped, and looked at his drawing to make sure it was the right one. Yes - it was a copy of the footprints all right. Then what were Larry and Pip talking about?
"Of course, they say that hands are the most difficult things to draw," said Larry, looking at the drawing carefully again, his head on one side. "Now, I think Fatty ought to learn a bit more about hands."
Daisy tried to hide a giggle. Bets was most amazed, and looked at the drawing, trying to discover the tail, ears and hands that Larry and Pip were so unaccountably chatting about. Fatty went purple with rage.
"I suppose you think you're being funny again," he said, snatching the drawing out of Larry's hand. "You know quite well this is a copy of the footprints."
"Golly! So that's what it is!" said Pip, in an amazed voice. "Of course! Larry, how could we have thought they were anything else?"
Daisy went off into a squeal of laughter. Fatty folded up the paper and looked thoroughly offended. Buster jumped up on to his knees and licked his master's nose.
Bets put everything right in her simple manner. "Well!" she said, astonished, "it was all a joke, wasn't it, Larry? I looked at that drawing and I could quite well see it was a really marvellous copy of those footprints we saw. I couldn't imagine what you and Pip were talking about. Fatty, I wish I could draw as well as you can!"
Fatty had got up to go, but now he sat down again. The others grinned. It was a shame to tease poor old Fatty, but
really he did have such a very good opinion of himself!
"I've just shortly written down a few notes about yesterday," said Larry, drawing a small notebook out of his pocket. He opened it and read quickly the list of clues they already had. He held out his hand for Fatty's drawing.
"I think it had better go with the notes.," he said. "I'll keep both the notes and the drawings and the scrap of grey cloth somewhere carefully together, because they may soon become important. Where shall we keep them?"
"There's a loose board just behind you in the wall of the summer-house," said Pip eagerly. "I used to hide things there when I was little like Bets. It would be a fine place to put anything now - no one would ever think of looking there."
He showed the others the loose board. Buster was most interested in it, stood up on the bench and scraped hard at it
"He thinks there's a rabbit behind it," said Bets.
The notebook, the match-box with the grey rag, and Fatty's drawing were carefully put behind the loose board, which was then dragged into place again. All the children felt pleased to have a hidey-hole like that.
"Now what are our plans for today?" said Pip. "We must get on with the solving of the mystery, you know. We don't want the police to find out everything before we do!"
"Well, one or more of us must interview Mrs. Minns, the cook," said Larry. He saw that Bets did not understand what "interviewing" was, "That means we must go and see what the cook has to say about the matter," he explained. Bets nodded.
"I could do that," she said.
"You!" said Pip scornfully. "You'd tell her right out all that we had done and found and everything! You can't even keep the very smallest secret!"
"I don't tell secrets now," said Bets. "You know I don't. I haven't told a single secret since I was six years old."
"Shut up, you two," said Larry. "I think Daisy and Pip might go and see Mrs. Minns. Daisy is good at that
sort of thing, and Pip can keep a look out to see that Clear-Orf or Mr. Hick don't come along and guess what Daisy is doing."
"What shall I do, Larry?" asked Fatty, quite humbly, for once in a way.
"You and I could go and talk to the chauffeur," said Larry. "He might let out something that would be useful to us. He usually washes down the car in the morning."
"What about me?" said Bets, in dismay. "Aren't I to do anything? I'm a Find-Outer too."
"There's nothing you can do," said Larry.
Bets looked very miserable. Fatty was sorry for her. "We shan't want Buster with us," he said. "Do you think you could take him for a walk over the fields? He just loves a good rabbitty walk."
"Oh yes, I could do that," said Bets, brightening up at once. "I should like that. And, you never know, I might find a glue on the way."
Everyone laughed. Bets simply could not remember the way to pronounce that word. "Yes - you go and find a really important glue," said Larry. So Bets set off with Buster at her heels. She went down the lane towards the fields, and the others heard her telling Buster that he could look for rabbits and she would look for glues.
"Now then, to work!" said Larry, getting up. "Daisy, you and Pip go down to Mrs. Minns." "What excuse shall we give for going to see her?" asked Daisy.
"Oh, you must think of something yourself," said Larry. "Use your brains. That's what detectives do. Pip will think of something, if you can't."
"Better not all go down the lane together," said Pip. "You and Fatty go first, and see if you can find the chauffeur at work, and Daisy and I will come a bit later." Larry and Fatty went off. They walked down the lane and came to Mr. Hick's house, which stood a good way back in its own drive. The garage was at the side of the
house. A loud whistling came from that direction., and the sound of water.
"He's washing the car," said Larry, in a low voice. "Come on. We'll pretend we want to see someone who doesn't live here, and then ask if he'd like us to help him."
The boys went down the drive together. They soon came in sight of the garage, and Larry went up to the young man who was hosing the car.
"Morning," he said. "Does Mrs. Thompson live here?"
"No," said the young man. "This is Mr. Hick's house."
"Oh," said Larry, in a vexed tone. Then he stared at the car.
"That's a fine car, isn't it?" he said.
"Yes, it's a Rolls Royce," said the chauffeur. "Fine to drive. She's very dirty today, though. I've got all my work cut out to get her clean before the master wants her this morning!"
"We'll help you," said Larry eagerly. "I'll hose her for you. I often do it for my father."
In less than a minute the two boys were at work helping the young chauffeur, and the talk turned on to the fire.
"Funny business that fire," said the chauffeur, rubbing the bonnet of the car with a polishing cloth. "The master was properly upset about losing those valuable papers of his. And now they say it was a put-up job - some one did it on purpose! Well - Peeks did say that it was a wonder no one had given Mr. Hick a slap in the face for the way he treats everybody!"
"Who's Peeks?" said Larry, pricking up his ears.
"Peeks was his man-servant - sort of valet and secretary mixed," said the chauffeur. "He's gone now - went off the day of the fire."
"Why did he go?" asked Fatty innocently.
"Got kicked out!" said the chauffeur. "Mr. Hick gave him his money, and he went! My word, there was a fine old quarrel between them, too!"
"Whatever about?" said Larry.
"Well, it seehis that Mr. Hick found out that Peeks sometimes wore his clothes," said the chauffeur. "You see, he and the master were much of a size, and Peeks used to fancy himself a bit - I've seen him prance out in Mr. Hick's dark blue suit, and his blue tie with the red spots, and his gold-topped stick too!"
"Oh," said Fatty. "And I suppose when Mr. Hick found that out he was angry and told Peeks to go. Was Peeks very upset?"
"You bet he was!" said the chauffeur. "He came out to me, and the things he said about the master would make anybody's ears burn. Then off he went about eleven o'clock. His old mother lives in the next village, and I guess she was surprised to see Horace Peeks marching in, baggage and all, at that time of the morning!"
The two boys were each thinking the same thing. "It looks as if Peeks burnt the cottage! We must find Peeks and see what he was doing that evening!"
There came a roar from a window overhead. "Thomas! Is that car done yet? What are you jabbering about down there? Do I pay you for jabbering? No, I do not."
"That's the master," said Thomas, in a low tone. "You'd better clear out. Thanks for your help."