“Yes,” said Larry. “Might as well whilst we’ve got the chance. I don’t wonder Fatty fell off the rick. It was pretty exciting, wasn’t it?”
“Fancy old Clear-Orf having a drawing of that footprint in his notebook.” said Pip thoughtfully. “He’s smarter than I thought. Still – we’ve got something he hasn’t got – a bit of grey flannel!”
Fatty, Daisy, Bets and Buster went off together. The other two set off in the direction the tramp had taken. They meant to find him again if they could!
What must be done next?
Larry and Pip ran quickly in the direction the tramp had gone. It seemed silly that, although all the children had seen him, and Clear-Orf too, nobody had managed to find out what kind of soles his shoes had! There was no sign of the tramp at all. The boys met a farm labourer and hailed him.
“Hie! Have you seen an old tramp going this way?” “Yes. Into that wood,” said the man, and pointed to a small copse of trees in the distance. The boys ran there,
and looked about among the trees and tangled undergrowth.
They smelt the smoke of a fire, and their noses and eyes soon guided them to it. By it3 on a fallen tree, sat the dirty old tramp, his hat of! now, showing his tangled, straggly hair. He was cooking something in a tin over the fire.
When he saw Larry he scowled. “What! You here again?” he said. “You get away. What do you mean, following me about like this? I haven’t done nothing.”
“Well,” said Larry boldly, “you tried to steal eggs from Mr. Hick’s henhouse the other day. We know that! But that’s nothing to do with us.”
“Mr. Hick! So that’s his name,” said the old tramp, sticking a skewer in whatever it was that he was cooking. “I didn’t steal his eggs! I didn’t steal nothing at all. I’m an honest old fellow, I am, and everybody will tell you the same!”
“Well – what were you doing hiding in the ditch at the bottom of his garden?” said Larry. The tramp looked astonished.
“I never hid in no ditch,” he said. “I wasn’t the one that did the hiding. Ho, dear me no! I could tell you something, I could – but I’m not going to. You put that policeman after me, didn’t you?”
“No,” said Larry. “He came along unexpectedly and went over to you. He didn’t know we were anywhere about.”
“Well, I don’t believe you,” said the old tramp. “You set that bobby after me. I know you did. I’m not going to be mixed up in anything that don’t concern me. But there was funny goings-on that night, ho yes, I should think there were.”
The old fellow suddenly groaned and rubbed his right foot. His big toe stuck out of the shoe, which was too small for him. He took the shoe off, showing a sock that was practically all holes, and rubbed his foot tenderly.
The boys looked at the shoe, which the tramp had thrown carelessly to one side. The sole was plainly to be
seen. It was of leather, and so much worn that it could not possibly keep any damp out.
“No rubber sole!” whispered Larry to Pip. “So it couldn’t have been the tramp hiding in the ditch. Anyway, I don’t believe he knows a thing. And look at the old coat he’s got under the mack – it’s green with age, not grey!”
“What you whispering about?” said the tramp. “You get away. Can’t I live in peace? I don’t do no harm to nobody, I don’t, but children and bobbies, they come after me like flies. You leave me alone. I’d be as merry as a blackbird if I had a pair of shoes that fitted me poor old feet. You got a pair of shoes that would fit me?”
“What size do you take?” asked Pip, thinking that perhaps he could get an old pair of his father’s boots for the footsore old tramp. But the tramp didn’t know. He had never bought a pair of shoes in his life.
“Well, if I can get an old pair of my father’s boots, I’ll bring them to you,” said Pip. “Or better still, you come and get them. I live in the red house in the lane not far from Mr. Hick’s house. You come there tomorrow, and I’ll perhaps have got some boots for you.”
“You’ll set that bobby after me again if I come back,” grumbled the tramp, taking out something peculiar from the tin, and beginning to eat it with his hands. “Or that Mr. Hick will. Well, he’d better be careful. 1 know a few things about Mr. Hick and his household, I do. Yes, I heard him shouting at quite a few people that day, besides me. Ho yes. There was funny goings on there, but I’m not mixed up in them, I tell you.”
Larry looked at his watch. It was getting late. “We’ll have to go,” he said. “But you come along to Pip’s house tomorrow, and you can tell us anything you want to. We shan’t give you away.”
The boys left the old tramp and tore home to their dinner, very late indeed. Their mothers were not pleased with them.
“Whatever have you been doing?” asked Pip’s mother. “Where have you been?”
Pip couldn’t possibly tell her, because the Find-Outers and their doings were very secret. “I was with the others.” he said at last.
“You weren’t. Pip,” said His mother. “Bets and Daisy have been here a long time – and that fat boy too, whatever his name is. Don’t tell stories.”
“Well, I was with Larry,” said Pip. Bets saw that he was in difficulties and she tried to rescue Mm by suddenly changing the subject.
“Fatty fell off a hay-rick this morning.,” she said. It certainly changed the subject. Her mother stared at her in horror.
“Who did? That fat boy? Did he hurt hihiself? Whatever were you doing on a hay-rick?”
Pip was afraid that Bets was going to say why they were all on the rick, so he changed the subject quickly too.
“Mummy, has Daddy got a very old pair of boots he doesn’t want?” he asked innocently. His mother looked at Mm.
“Why?” she asked. Pip was not usually interested in His father’s old clothes.
“Well, I happen to know some one who would be very glad of them indeed,” said Pip.
“Why?” asked His mother again.
“Well, you see, his toes are sticking right out of his shoes,” explained Pip, trying to interest His mother in the matter.
“Whose toes?” asked His mother, astonished.
Pip stopped. Now he would have to bring in the tramp, and that was part of the secret. Bother! Whatever they talked about seemed to lead back to something the Find-Outers were doing.
“It’s just a poor old tramp,” said Bets. Pip glared at her.
“A tramp!” said her mother. “Surely you are not making friends with people like that, Pip? “
“No,” said Pip desperately. “I’m not. I’m only sorry for him, that’s all. You always say, Mommy, that we should be sorry for people not so well-off as ourselves,
and help them., don’t you? Well, that’s why I thought of giving him some old boots, that’s all.”
“I see,” said his mother., and Pip gave a sigh of relief. “Well, I’ll find out if there is an old pair of Daddy’s boots, and if there is, you shall have them. Now, do get on with your dinner.”
After he had finished his very late meal, Pip escaped into the garden and went to find Bets, who was in the summer-house.
“Bets! Was Fatty all right? He wasn’t really hurt, was he?”
“No. He’s got some lovely bruises though,” said Bets. “The best I’ve ever seen. I guess he’ll boast about them till we’re sick of hearing about bruises. Didn’t he make a thump when he fell? Did you and Larry find the tramp? What happened?”
“Well, he’s not the person who hid in the ditch, nor the one whose coat got caught on the brambles,” said Pip. “We saw both his shoes and his coat. He heard all the quarrels that went on. Larry and I thought we’d ask him a few questions tomorrow, when he comes to get the boots. I believe he could tell us quite a few things if he was certain we wouldn’t put the police after him. He may even have spotted who was hiding in the ditch!”
“Oooh!” said Bets, thrilled. “Oh, Pip, wasn’t it funny when the tramp woke and saw Larry kneeling in front of him – and after that, old Clear-Orf doing the same thing!”
“Yes, it was funny,” said Pip, grinning. “Hallo, there’s Fatty and Buster.”
Fatty limped into the garden, walking extremely stiffly. He had tried to make up his mind whether to act very heroically, and pooh-pooh His fall, but limp to make the others sorry for him, or whether to make out that he had hurt hihiself inside very badly and frighten them.