Buster went to Bets and laid the shoe down at her feet Then he stood looking up at her, as if he was telling her something, wagging his tail hard. Bets picked up the shoe. She turned it over.
“Look!” said Bets. “The real proper shoe at last! The one that made the footprints!”
The others nearly fell off the fence in their excitement. Bets was perfectly right. It was THE SHOE!
“Buster followed the footprints and knew their smell, and when he smelt the shoes hidden over there he knew the smell again, and that’s why he brought them to me” cried Bets. “We had followed the prints together, you see. Oh, and now I know why he kept on and on sniffing round Mr. Hick’s shoes when I went to see him. He could smell the same smell!”
“Clever dog,” said Fatty, patting Buster. “Where’s the other shoe, old fellow? Find it, find it!”
Buster rushed off to a bush not far away and began to scrape violently beneath it. Soon he unearthed the other shoe and laid it at Fatty’s feet. The children picked it up.
“Well!” said Fatty. “This is very queer. I suppose old Hiccup got the wind up after Bets had told him she had followed the footprints, and went out and buried the shoes in case the police should find them in his house, or spot him wearing them. And good old Buster smelt them out. Clever good, marvellous dog! Big bone for you tomorrow, Buster., a GREAT BIG BONE!”
“And now – whatever are we going to do about everything?” said Larry, going back to the path. “It’s no good telling the police. We’re in disgrace and wouldn’t be listened to. It’s no good telling our parents. We’re in enough trouble as it is.”
“Let’s go and sit down by the river and talk about it,” said Pip. “Come on. We’ll simply have to decide something. Things are getting very serious.”
An Unexpected Friend.
The children made their way along the path that led to the river. They found a sheltered place on the high bank of the river and sat down. Buster growled a little but sat down with them.
“What are you growling for Buster?” said Bets. “Don’t you want to sit down?”
Buster growled again and then stopped. The children began to talk.
“It’s a queer thing,” said Pip, “we’ve found the man who started the fire – and we’ve got all the facts – we know how he got on to the London train – we know that his shoes fit the footprints – we know that he was afraid and hid those shoes – which we’ve found – and we know why all the other Suspects were down in the garden that evening. We know everything – and yet we can’t do anything about it because Mr. Goon would be sure to pretend that he found out everything!”
“Yes – it’s no good telling the police,” said Fatty gloomily. “And it’s no good telling our parents either, because they would just ring up Mr. Goon. Isn’t it perfectly sickening to think that we’ve solved the mystery and found out simply everything3 and we can’t get the criminal punished. Horrid Mr. Hick! He ought to be punished. Don’t you think it was mean the way he tried to lay the blame on poor old Peeks when he thought we were getting to know too much?”
“Yes,” agreed every one.
“It was funny the way he gave hihiself away by mentioning those aeroplanes,” said Lany. “It was really smart of Fatty to spot that, I think.”
“It certainly was,” said Daisy warmly, and the others nodded.
Fatty swelled up at once. “Well, as I’ve told you before,” he said, “I really have got brains. Now, at school…”
“Shut up, Fatty,” said every one together, and Fatty subsided and shut up, still feeling pleased, however, that the others admired him for spotting such a curious clue.
They all went on talking about the burnt cottage and the Suspects and clues for a little while longer, and then Buster growled so fiercely and so long that every one was surprised and puzzled.
“What is the matter with Buster?” said Bets. “Has he got a tummy-ache or something, do you think? “
She had hardly finished saying these words when a large round face appeared above the rim of the high river bank. It was a kindly face, set with big intelligent eyes that had a real twinkle in them.
“Oh!” said every one, startled.
“Pardon me,” said the face. “I’m afraid I’ve frightened you. But, you see, I was sitting down here, below the bank, in my favourite corner, fishing. Naturally I kept quiet, because I didn’t want to disturb the fish. I couldn’t help hearing what you were talking about – it was most interesting, most interesting, if you’ll pardon my saying so!”
Buster barked so loudly that the children could hardly hear what the hidden person was saying. He climbed up on to the bank beside them, and they saw that he was a very big fellow, burly and strong, dressed in a tweed suit and enormous brown shoes.
The man sat down beside them and took out a bar of chocolate, which he broke into bits and offered the children. They couldn’t help liking him.
“Did you hear everything we said?” asked Bets. “It was really all a secret, you know. We’re the Find-Outers.”
“The Fine Doubters?” said the man, puzzled. “What do you doubt then? “
Every one giggled. “No – the Finddddd-Outers,” said Daisy, sounding the letter D loudly at the end of Find. “We find out things.”
“Ah! I see,” said the big man, lighting a pipe. Buster
was now quite friendly towards him and licked his hand. The big man patted him.
“What are you?” asked Bets. “I haven’t seen you before.”
“Well – if you don’t mind my saying so – I’m a bit of a Find-Outer myself,” said the man. “I have to solve mysteries too. Most interesting it is – I’m sure you agree with me?”
“Oh yes” said every one.
“I gather that you are in a spot of bother at the moment?” said the man, puffing at his pipe. “You have solved your mystery – but you can’t make your discoveries known? Is that right?”
“Yes,” said Larry. “You see – Mr. Goon, the policeman here, doesn’t like us, and has complained to our parents about some things we did. Well – I dare say some of them were pretty awful, really – but we did them in a good cause. I mean – we wanted to find out who burnt down Mr. Hick’s cottage.”
“And now that you have found out, you have got to keep quiet about it,” said the man, puffing away. “Most annoying for you. Tell me more about it. As I say – I’m a bit of a Find-Outer too, in my way – so I enjoy talking over a mystery as man to man, if you see what I mean.”
The children looked at the big, burly fellow on the bank. His keen eyes twinkled at them, and his big hand patted Buster. Larry looked round at the others.
“I think we might as well tell him everything, don’t you?” said Larry. They nodded. They all trusted the big fisherman, and somehow knew that their secrets were safe with him.
So Larry, interrupted sometimes by Daisy, Fatty and Pip, told the whole story of the Find-Outers, and what they had discovered. The big man listened keenly, sometimes putting in a question, nodding His head every now and again.
“Smart boy, you,” he said to Fatty, when Larry came to the bit about how Mr. Hick had given hihiself away by saying that he had seen the seven Tempests on the
evening of the fire. Fatty went red with pleasure, and Bets squeezed his hand.
The story was finished at last. The big man knocked out His pipe and looked round.
“An extremely good piece of work, if I may say so,” he said, beaming round. “I congratulate the Five Find-Outers – and Dog! And – I think I can help you a bit.”
“How?” asked Larry.
“Well, we must get hold of that tramp again,” said the big man. “From what you say he said to you, he probably saw Mr. Hick in the garden too – hiding in the ditch – and that would be valuable evidence. And er – certainly the police ought to know about all this.”
“Oh,” said every one in dismay, thinking of Clear-Orf, and how he would say that he hihiself had found out everything. “And we could never, never find that tramp again!” said Larry. “He may be miles and miles away.”
“I’ll find him for you all right,” promised the big man.
“And old Clear-Orf – that’s Mr. Goon, you know -won’t listen to a word we say, I’m sure,” said Fatty gloomily.