Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage (7 page)

“We must see this manservant, Peeks,” said Larry. “It’s most important I don’t suspect that old tramp any more now that I’ve seen His shoes and coat. Anyway, I’m certain that if he had fired the cottage, he would have fled away out of the district as soon as ever he could. As it is, he’s still about. I don’t believe he did it. I’m much more inclined to think that Peeks did it. We must find out.”

“We must,” agreed every one again.

“I shall question the tramp closely tomorrow,” said Larry, rather grandly. “I feel certain he can tell us plenty. Fatty, do you think you and Daisy could find out about Peeks tomorrow? I’ll stay here with Pip and Bets and question the tramp.”

“Right!” said Fatty and Daisy joyfully. If only they could get ahead of Clear-Orf! They simply must beat him!

Lily comes into the Story.

Fatty really was too stiff to want to do anything more that day, so Larry, Pip and Daisy left Mm in the garden with Bets and Buster, reading quietly. They thought they would go down to Mr. Hick’s house and talk to Mrs. Minns again.

“We ought really to find out if Mrs. Minns could have fired the cottage herself,” said Larry. “I don’t feel as if she did, but you can’t go by feelings if you are a detective. Also, we must get Horace Peek’s address.”

“We’ll take some fish for Sweetie, the cat,” said Daisy.

“I think there was some left over that cook might let me have. Mrs. Miens will be awfully pleased to see us if we take a present for Sweetie.”

The cook gave her a fish-head, wrapped up in paper. Buster smelt it and wanted to follow Daisy., but Fatty held him firmly by the collar.

“It’s no good him coming,” said Daisy. “He’d be sure to chase Sweetie, and then Mrs. Minns would chase us!”

They went down the lane together. “Leave me to do the talking,” said Larry.

Daisy laughed. “Don’t you worry - it will be Mrs. Minns who does it!” she said.

They arrived at the kitchen door and looked inside. Lily was there, writing a letter. She looked as if she had been crying. “Where’s Mrs. Minns?” asked Larry.

“Upstairs,” said Lily. “She’s in a bad temper. I upset a jug of milk over her, and she keeps on saying I did it on purpose.”

“Were you here on the night of the fire?” asked Larry. Lily shook her head.

“Where were you, then?” asked Larry. “Didn’t you see the fire?”

“I saw it when I came back from my evening off,” said Lily. “Never you mind where I was. It’s got nothing to do with you!”

“I know,” said Larry, surprised at Lily’s violent tone. “What I can’t understand is - why didn’t Mrs. Minns or her sister smell the fire when it began!”

“Here’s Mrs. Mirhis’s sister now,” said Lily, looking up as a very fat woman, with twinkling eyes under a big hat trimmed with flowers, came up to the kitchen door. She looked in and seemed surprised to see the children.

“Hallo, Mrs. Jones,” said Lily sulkily. “Mrs. Minns is upstairs changing her dress. She won’t be a minute.”

Mrs. Jones came in and sank into a rocking-chair, breathing heavily. “My, it’s hot today,” she said. “Who are all these children?”

“We live up the lane,” said Pip. “We’ve brought a fish-head for Sweetie.”

“Where are all the kittens?” said Daisy, looking at the empty basket.

“Oh!” said Lily. “I hope they haven’t gone out of the kitchen and upstairs. Mrs. Minns told me to keep the door shut!”

“Perhaps the kittens are outside,” said Larry, shutting the door that led into the hall. He didn’t particularly want Mr. Hick to hear the talking in the kitchen and come in. “Oh - there’s Sweetie!”

The big black and white cat came into the kitchen, her tail straight up in the air. She smelt the fish-head and went to Daisy. Daisy unwrapped it and put it into the cat’s dinner-bowl in a corner of the kitchen. Sweetie immediately took it out of the bowl and began to eat it on the floor.

“Was Sweetie frightened of the fire the other night?” asked Pip, thinking it was about time to start on the subject.

“She was kind of restless,” said Mrs. Jones.

“Oh, were you here?” said Daisy, pretending to be surprised. “Goodness - how was it you didn’t know the cottage was burning then?”

“I did/’ said Mrs. Jones indignantly. “Didn’t I keep saying to Maria, ‘Maria, there’s something burning!’ I’ve a very good nose, but Maria hasn’t. I kept sniffing round the kitchen, and I even put my nose into the hall, thinking there might be something burning there.”

“Didn’t Mrs. Minns go and see if there was anything burning too?” asked Larry.

“Ah, Maria didn’t want to move that evening,” said Mrs. Jones. “She’d got her rheumatism back something cruel. She was stuck, real stuck.”

“What do you mean, stuck?” asked Larry, with interest.

“Well, she sat down in this rocking-chair at tea-time, and she says to me, ‘Hannah,’ she says, I’m stuck. Me rheumatism’s got me again, and I can’t move.’ So I says

to her, ‘Maria, you just stay put. I’ll get the tea and everything. Mr. Hick is out, so there’s no dinner to get. I’ll just stay with you till your poor legs are better.’ “

The children listened, and each of them thought tie same thing. “If Mrs. Minns was stuck in a chair all the evening with rheumatism,, then she couldn’t have fired the cottage!”

“And didn’t poor Mrs. Minns get up at all out of the rocking-chair?” asked Daisy. “Not till you really knew there was a fire, I mean?”

“No - Maria just stayed put,” said Mrs. Jones. “It wasn’t till me nose told me there really was something burning terrible that Maria got up. I went to the kitchen-door and sniffed - and then I went out into the garden -and I saw the flare down at the bottom there. I shouted out, ‘There’s a fire, Maria!’ and she turned as white as a sheet. ‘Come on, Maria!’ I says, ‘We’ve got to do something.’ But poor Maria,, she can’t get out of her chair, she’s so stuck!”

The children drank all this in. It certainly could have been nothing to do with Mrs. Minns. If she had been so “stuck” with rheumatism, she wouldn’t have been likely to rush around setting fire to cottages. And anyway her sister was with her all the time. It was quite plainly nothing to do with Mrs. Minns. That was another Suspect crossed off!

Mrs. Minns opened the kitchen door and came in, looking angry. She had been upstairs to take off her milk-drenched dress. She glared at Lily., and then looked in surprise at the three children.

“Well, Maria,” said Mrs. Jones, “how’s the rheumatics?”

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Minns,” said Daisy. “We came to bring a fish-head for Sweetie.”

Mrs. Minns beamed. She was always touched when any one did anything for her precious cat. “That’s nice of you,” she said. “My rheumatism’s better,” she said to her sister. “Though what it will be like after being drenched with milk, I don’t know. Really, things are coming

to a pretty pass when that girl Lily throws milk all over me.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” said Lily sulkily. “Can I go to the post with this letter ? “

“No, that you can’t,” said Mrs. Minns. “You fust get the tea ready for Mr. Hick. Go on now - stop your letter-writing and get a bit of work done for a change.”

“I want to catch the post,” said Lily, looking ready to cry.

“Well, you won’t,” said Mrs. Minns unkindly. Lily started to cry, and the children felt sorry for her. She got up and began to get out cups and saucers.

The children wondered how to mention Horace Peeks. They wanted to get his address so that they might go and see him.

“Has Mr. Hick got a new manservant yet?” asked Larry, at last.

“He’s been seeing some today,” said Mrs. Minns,, sinking into an arm-chair, which creaked dolefully beneath her weight. “I only hope he gets one that doesn’t put on airs and graces like Mr. Peeks, that’s all.”

“Does Mr. Peeks live near here?” asked Pip innocently.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Minns. “Let me see now - where does he live? Oh, my memory - it gets worse every day!”

There came a most unwelcome interruption Just as it seemed that Mrs. Minns was on the point of remembermg Horace Peeks’s address. The kitchen door shot open, and three kittens flew through the air, landing on the floor with

mews and hisses. Every one looked round in amazement.

Mr, Hick stood at the door, His front tuft of hair bristling like a parrot’s crest.

“Those kittens were in my study!” he shouted. “Are my orders never to be obeyed? Unless they are out of the house by this evening, I’l drown the lot!”

He was about to bang the door when he caught sight of the three children. He advanced into the kitchen and pointed a finger at them. “Didn’t I turn you out before? How dare you come here again?”

Larry, Pip and Daisy got up and fled. They were not cowards, but really Mr. Hick was so very fierce that it honestly seemed as if he might throw them out., just as he had flung the kittens into the kitchen!

They ran up the drive - but half-way to the gate Larry stopped. “Wait till old Hiccup has gone out of the kitchen.,” he said. “We simply must get Horace Peeks’s address. We can’t do anything about him till we know where he is.”

They waited for a minute or two and then went back very cautiously to the kitchen. Mrs. Minns was talking to her sister, and Lily was still clattering about with the tea-things. The children put their heads round the door.

“What do you want now?” asked Mrs. Minns good-naturedly. “My word, you ran away like frightened mice! Made me laugh to see you!”

“You were just trying to think of Horace Peeks’s address when Mr. Hick came in,” said Larry.

“Was I, now?” said Mrs. Minns. “Well, it came into my mind in a flash, like - and now it’s gone again. Let me see-letme see….”

She was thinking hard, and the children were waiting breathlessly, when the sound of heavy footsteps came up to the kitchen door and a loud knock was heard.

Mrs. Minns went to the door. The children saw that it was Mr. Goon, the policeman! They never seemed to be able to get away from old Clear-Orf.

“Morning, Mam,” said Clear-Orf to Mrs. Minns, and he took out his large black notebook. “About this here fire - I think you’ve given me all the information I require. But I’d just like to ask you a few questions about that fellow Peeks.”

The children frowned at one another. So Clear-Orf was after Peeks too!

“Do you know his address?” asked Clear-Orf, looking at Mrs, Minns out of his bulging pale-blue eyes.

“Well,” said Mrs. Minns, “if that isn’t a peculiar thing, Mr. Goon - I was just trying to think of his address

at the very moment you knocked! These children wanted to know it”

“What children?” said Clear-Orf in surprise. He put His head in at the door and saw Larry, Daisy and Pip.

“You again!” he said in disgust. “Clear orf! You kids are always popping up. You’re a regular nuisance. What do you want Peeks’s address for? Just nosey, I suppose?”

The children said nothing. Mr. Goon pointed back-wards with his thumb. “Go home I” he said. “I’ve private business to do here. Clear orf!

There was nothing for it but to “clear orf,” and the children did so, running up the drive to the gate. They were very angry.

“Just as Mrs. Minns was thinking of the address!” said Larry.

“I hope she doesn’t think of it and tell Clear-Orf,” said Pip gloomily. “If she does, Clear-Orf will go over and see Peeks before we do.”

“Blow!” said Daisy. They all felt very disheartened. They were just going out of the gate when they heard a low whistle from the bushes nearby. They turned back to see who it was.

Lily appeared, a letter in her hand. She looked frightened, but determined. “Will you post this letter for me?” she asked. “It’s to Mr. Peeks, to warn him that people are saying he started the fire. But he didn’t, he didn’t. I know he didn’t! You post the letter, will you?”

There was a shout from the kitchen. “Lily! Where are you?”

Lily disappeared at once. The children ran out of the gate, excited and surprised. They stopped behind a hedge when they had gone a little way, and examined Lily’s envelope. It had no stamp on. The girl had forgotten it in her hurry.

“Golly!” said Larry, “here we’ve been all the afternoon trying to get Horace Peek’s address and couldn’t - and now, suddenly, it’s just been presented to us, given into our hands!”

“What a bit of luck!” said Daisy, thrilled. “I am pleased.”

“The thing is - do we want Peeks to be warned?” said Larry. “You see - if he is warned beforehand that people are suspecting him., he might run away. Then we shouldn’t solve the mystery.”

They all stared at one another. Then Pip had an idea, “I know! We’ll go and find Peeks after tea today3 instead of wailing for tomorrow. We’ll see him and try to make up our minds if he did it or not If we think he didn’t do it, we’ll give him Lily’s letter!”

“Good idea!” said the others, pleased. “After all, we can’t post a letter without a stamp - but we can deliver it by hand.” They looked at the address.

Mr. H. Peeks. Ivy Cottage.

Wilmer Green.

“We’ll go on our bikes,” said Larry. “Come on - we must tell the others!”

Interviewing Mr. Horace Peeks.

The three of them went back to Fatty and Bets. Buster greeted them uproariously.

“Hallo,” said Fatty, “how did you get on?”

“Awfully badly at first,” said Larry, “and then, right at the end, we had a slice of good luck.”

He told Bets and Fatty about the afternoon and they listened with the greatest interest. They all examined Peek’s address, and were thrilled.

“So now Pip and Daisy and I are going on our bikes to Wilmer Green,” said Larry. “It’s only about five miles. At least, we’ll have tea first and then go.”

“I want to go too,” said Bets at once.

“I’d like to go, but I believe I’m too stiff,” said Fatty.

“You stay with Bets,” said Pip. “We don’t want to appear in a crowd. It might put Peeks on His guard.”

“You keep leaving me out,” said Bets sadly.

“No, we don’t,” said Larry. “Do you really want a job? Well, find out Mr. Smellie’s address, see? Fatty will help you. It may be in the telephone book, or somebody may know it. We shall want His address tomorrow, because we must go and see him too. All the Suspects must be interviewed!”

“Two of them are crossed off now,” said Pip. “Mrs. Minns didn’t do it - and I’m sure the tramp didn’t either. That only leaves Mr. Smellie and Mr. Peeks. I do wish we could find some one wearing rubber-soled shoes with those markings. It would be such a help!”