Next morning the Five Find-Outers and Buster set off to Milton House. The snow was very thick, and they left the marks of their footprints behind them.
Pips and Bets had to pass Mr. Goon’s house to meet the others, and the policeman saw them. He wondered if they were doing something he ought to know about. He felt so certain that the children were on the track of some mystery, and old Clear-Orf couldn’t bear the idea of their getting in first again.
He decided to follow them. He couldn’t very well ride his bicycle in the thick snow, so he set out on foot, keeping them in sight, but trying not to be seen himself.
However, as soon as Pip and Bets joined up with the others, Buster knew they were being followed. He stopped and growled, looking back along the road. The children turned too, and caught sight of the familiar dark-blue uniform slipping into a gateway.
“It’s Clear-Orf following us,” said Fatty, in disgust. “What a nuisance he is! We can’t possibly go to Milton House with him hard on our heels all the time. What shall we do?”
“We’re not very far from my house,” said Larry. “Shall I slip in and write a note of some sort that will make him think we are solving a mystery - but not the one we really are in the middle of? A make-up one?”
Every one giggled.
“Yes,” said Fatty, “and we’ll drop it behind us for him to pick up! I bet he’ll pounce on it and read it - and then he’ll be properly on the wrong track! Maybe he will give up bothering us then.”
So Larry popped in at his gate and wrote a hurried note in pencil:
“DEAR FATTY, - Just to tell you that I am on the track of the robber who stole those jewels. Meet me on Felling Hill, and I will show you where he hid the things before he took them away again. - Yours, L.”
Larry grinned as he stuck up the envelope. He ran out to the others, and they set off down the road again, hoping that Mr. Goon was still watching them.
Fatty laughed when Larry told him what he had written.
“Good!” he said, “now old Clear-Orf will think we are tracking a jewel-thief, and he’ll hare off to Felling Hill and do a bit of exploring there. Keep him quiet for a bit!”
“There he is - behind that tree,” said Bets. “Don’t look behind, anybody. You two boys begin to push one another about, and then drop the note as you do it. Clear-Orf will think you really did drop it by accident then.”
“Good idea, Bets,” said Fatty, approving. “You’re getting to be quite a good detective.”
The children set off again, and when they thought they were nicely in view of Clear-Orf they began to jostle one another, as if in play.
Larry and Fatty tried to push each other off the kerb, and in the middle of the tussle Larry dropped the note. Then the five children, with Buster, went on their way again. Buster nearly spoilt things by running back to the note and sniffing at it.
“Buster! Idiot! Come here and leave that alone,” said Fatty, in a low voice. “Don’t you dare to pick it up and bring it!”
Buster, though surprised, had the sense to leave the note where it was. Limping badly, he went after the others, feeling rather hurt that Fatty should have scolded him.
“Can we manage to see if old Clear-Orf picks it up?” said Larry excitedly. “I do hope he does.”
“I’ll go into the sweet-shop and watch, whilst you others go on,” said Fatty.
So Fatty watched from the sweet-shop, whilst he was buying chocolate, and to his great delight he saw Mr. Goon pick up the note!
“I bet he’ll read it!” thought Fatty, pleased. “He’s so jolly snoopy.”
Mr. Goon put the note in his pocket. He certainly meant to read it! He pondered whether to go on following the children or to slip home and read the note. It might tell him something he wanted to know!
He went home. He opened the note and gave a snort. “Ho! Didn’t I know they were up to something? On the track of some thief now. I suppose it’s the Sparling Robbery they’ve heard about. Well, who would have thought the thief would have come in this direction? Felling Hill, they say. Well, I’ll be along there sometime or other, and if I don’t sniff something out, my name’s not Theophilus Goon!”
Mr. Goon felt very pleased. “Those children think they’re clever - but they go and drop a note like this and give their game away,” thought the policeman. “Now I know what they’re after. I knew they were interfering in something again. Can’t keep them children out of meddling!”
He sat and thought for a moment. “Now wait a bit - this boy Larry says the thief put the things on Felling Hill and took them away again. Where did he take them to? Why are those kids so interested in Milton House? Ah - now I’ve got it - the thief has hidden the jewels somewhere in that empty house!”
This wasn’t at all what Larry had wanted Mr. Goon to think. But Mr. Goon felt very pleased with himself. He thought he could see everything clearly now. Somehow those kids had got on the Sparling Robbery mystery, and somehow they had got on the track of the thief, and had found out where he had first hidden his booty. Now they were on the track of the booty again - and maybe Milton House was the key to the mystery!
“Ah! - I’ll keep a good watch on that there house now,” he thought. “If there’s any jewels hidden there, I’ll be the one to find them and not that fat boy. Got brains, has he - but mine are better than his. Ho! I’ll pay him out for saying mine want oiling!”
Meanwhile, not knowing that Mr. Goon was thinking all these tiresome things, the children were on their way to Milton House, keeping a sharp look-out in case Mr. Goon was still following them.
“I don’t think he is,” said Fatty. “He’s probably on his way to Felling Hill by now!”
They came to Milton House - and almost at once Fatty gave a low exclamation.
“Look there!’ What do you think of that? Footprints to the front door!”
The children stared at them. They saw a line of prints, very big prints too, leading down the drive, right to the front door. And they saw another line, criss-crossing the others, leading back!
“Some one’s been here,” said Fatty, excited.
“Yes - I bet you did put John Henry Smith on his guard, and he came down here in the night!” said Larry.
“How did he come?” said Pip.
“By car, I bet!” said Daisy. “I saw some car-prints outside, but I didn’t take much notice of them. Come and see.”
They all went to see - and sure enough, a car had been down Chestnut Lane the night before, and had stopped outside Milton House! And it had turned round there too and gone back up the lane again, for there were the same wheel-prints on opposite sides of the road.
“Now we’re getting somewhere!” said Pip. “We know that whoever you phoned to knew about Milton House, and was worried to know some one had mentioned it, and came down to inspect. Who was it? John Henry Smith? And who is Mr. Smith, anyhow? I wish I knew.”
“Let’s shin up the tree and see if anything is different in the room,” said Larry.
So they all climbed the tree and one by one looked in at the window. And they saw several things that interested them!
“Some one’s put a kettle on top of the electric stove,” said Daisy.
“And some one’s put tins of food on that shelf opposite,” said Pip.
“And there are some books on the window-sill that weren’t there before - books in a foreign language I don’t know,” said Larry.
“And the room’s been dusted,” said Bets. “It looks quite clean. And there are two thick rugs on the sofa. What does it all mean?”
“It means that the room has been got ready for a visitor!” said Fatty. “Yes - it can only mean that. Who’s the visitor? Not Mr. John Henry Smith, I bet! Some one who uses the room at intervals when he wants to be well hidden. It’s jolly queer.”
“I wish we could get in and explore the whole house,” said Pip. “But there’s no way in at all.”
“Wait a minute,” said Fatty, thinking hard. “There may be a way. I’ve just thought. That is, if there’s an outside coal-hole.”
“What do you mean?” said the others, puzzled.
“Come and see,” said Fatty.
So down the tree they went, and, led by Fatty, went round to the kitchen entrance. It began to snow again as they walked round, and Fatty was pleased.
“The snow will hide our footmarks,” he said. “I was a bit worried about those. Ah, look - this is what I hoped to see!”
He pointed down to the ground to a spot that he had rubbed clear of snow with his boot. The others saw a round iron lid, whose crevices were black with old coal-dust.
“An outside coal-hole,” said Fatty. “Now you all know that a coal-hole leads into a coal-cellar - and that steps lead up to the kitchen from the coal-cellar - and so any one slipping down this coal-hole can get into the house!”
“Jolly good, Fatty!” said every one admiringly.
“But do you think we’d better go down in these clothes?” added Pip. “We’d get filthy, and I know my mother would ask all sorts of awkward questions.”
“Yes - we can’t go down now,” said Fatty. “I shall go down myself tonight!”
The others looked at him in awe. To go down to Milton House, the mystery place, at night, and get down the coalhole! It seemed a most heroic feat to every one.
“I shall put on a disguise,” said Fatty. “Just in case.”
“In case of what?” said Bets.
“Oh, just in case,” said Fatty. “I don’t want to be recognized, do I?”
“Oh! - you mean Mr. Goon might see you,” said Bets.
Fatty didn’t mean that at all. He just wanted to disguise himself because he liked it. What was the good of buying disguises if you didn’t use them?
He felt pleased and important. The mystery, as he had said the day before, was decidedly warming up! Soon, no doubt, the Find-Outers would have solved it, and could tell Inspector Jenks all about it.
“We won’t tell the Inspector a word about all this till we’ve got to the bottom of the mystery and can tell him everything, down to the last detail,” said Fatty. “Then, if we find there’s any arresting or anything to be done, he can do it.”
“Oooo - do you think there will be people to be arrested and sent to prison?” said Bets, with large eyes.
“You never know,” said Fatty grandly. “Well - we’d better go now, and I’ll lay my plans for tonight.”