Mystery of the Burnt Cottage - Blyton Enid (читать книги онлайн бесплатно полные версии .txt) 📗

"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 himself 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 himself 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.

"I'll see that he does," said the astonishing man, getting up. "Leave it to me. Call at your police station tomorrow at ten o'clock, will you? I'll be there and we'll finish up everything nicely."

He picked up his rod and put it over his shoulder. "A most interesting talk," he said. "Valuable to both of us, as I hope you will agree."

He strode off in the evening twilight, and the children watched him go. "Ten o'clock tomorrow at the police station," said Fatty, feeling rather uncomfortable. "Whatever's going to happen there? And how is that man going to find the tramp?"

Nobody knew. Larry looked at His watch, gave a yell and leapt to His feet. "I say — it's awfully late. We shall get into a row. Come along, quickly."

They hurried home, with Buster at their heels. "Goodbye!" they called to one another. "Ten o'clock tomorrow at the police station. Don't be late!"

The End of the Mystery

The next morning the Five Find-Outers and their dog arrived punctually at the police station. With them they brought their clues, as the big man had requested. There was Fatty's drawing of the footprints, the bit of grey cloth in the match-box, and the rubber-soled shoes that had been scraped up by Buster.

"You know, the only clue that wasn't any use was the bit of grey flannel," said Larry, opening the box. "We never found out whose coat it belonged to, did we? And yet it must belong to some one who went through that gap! Perhaps Mr. Hick wore a grey suit that night. If so, he hasn't worn it since, because he's always had on dark blue whenever we've seen him."

They went into the police station feeling a little awed. Mr. Goon was there, without his helmet, and also another policeman the children didn't know. They stared at Mr. Goon, expecting him to rise up and say "Clear-Orf".

But he didn't. He told them to sit down in such polite tones that the children were overcome with astonishment. They sat down. Buster went to inspect the policeman's legs, and Clear-Orf didn't even kick out at him.

"We were to meet some one here," said Fatty. Clear-Orf nodded.

"He'll be along in a minute," he said. As he spoke, a small police-car drove up, and the children looked round, expecting to see their friend, the big man. But he wasn't in the car.

To their surprise there was some one else in it that they knew. It was the old tramp! He was muttering to himself, and looking rather scared.

"I'm an honest old fellow, I am, and nobody never said I wasn't. I'll tell anything I know, course I will, but I won't do nothing to get me self into trouble, that I won't I've not done nothing wrong."

There was a plain-clothes policeman in the car with him, besides the driver. Bets was surprised when Larry told her that the man in the dark grey suit was a policeman.

"I thought they never, never wore anything, but their uniform his," she said.

Then another car drove up, driven by an extremely smart-looking man in blue uniform. He wore a peaked cap, and the other policemen saluted him smartly when he heaved himself out of the car. The car was big, but the man was big too!

The children gazed at him — and Bets gave a squeal. "It's the fisherman! It's the man we saw yesterday! Hallo!"

"Hallo, there!" said the big man, smiling.

"We've found the tramp, Inspector," said the plain-clothes policeman to the big man. The children looked at one another. So their friend was an Inspector of Police! Golly!

"An Inspector is a very, very high-up policeman," whispered Pip to Bets. "He's terribly clever. Look at old Clear-Orf. He's trembling like a jelly!"

Clear-Orf was not really trembling, but it was plain that he was quite overcome by the visit of the Inspector to his small police station. His hands shook as he turned over the pages of his notebook.

The Inspector beamed at the children. "Nice to see you again, if I may say so," he said. He spoke to Clear-Orf, making Mr. Goon jump. "You are lucky to have five such smart children in your district, Goon," he said.

Clear-Orf opened and shut his mouth but said nothing. He didn't want smart children in his district, especially any that were smarter than he was! But he couldn't very well say so to his Inspector.

Then the tramp was brought before the Inspector and questioned. He answered willingly enough, once he had been assured that he would only do himself good, not harm, by answering truthfully. The children listened intently.

"Tell us all the people you saw in Mr. Hick's garden that night," said the Inspector.

"Well," said the tramp. "There was meself, hiding under a bush near the workroom, not doing no harm to nobody — just taking a rest, like."