Mystery of the Disappearing Cat (10 page)

“It’s Fatty — and Buster! Hie, Fatty, here we are in the summer-house.”

Fatty came up the garden with Buster. The little Scottie darted into the summer-house, barking with delight to see his friend there. Luke patted him.

Fatty stopped at the entrance to the summer-house, his mouth falling open in the greatest amazement when he saw Luke there. Bets laughed at his surprise.

“We’re going to hide him here,” she explained to Fatty. “And we’re going to bring him food. It’s exciting. Oh, Fatty, can’t we solve the mystery so that Luke isn’t afraid any more? Do let’s hurry up and solve the mystery!”

Fatty had to hear all about the night’s happenings. Then Daisy and Larry came, and added their surprise and delight to the little company. Altogether it was a very pleasant morning.

“Where’s that whistle we found in the cats’ cage?” said Pip. It was produced and held up for Luke to see.

“We found it in the cage,” said Fatty. “And as we thought Mr. Goon would be sure to find it, and Mr. Tupping would tell him it was yours, we took it out and kept it. And we put a lot of false clues in the cage. You’d have laughed to see them. I put a cigar-end in the cage and one under it!”

Luke whistled. “Oho!” he said, “so that’s why Mr. Goon got all excited when he found my uncle smoking a cigar! I couldn’t think why he did. My uncle said he went quite purple in the face when he took out a cigar and lighted it He had a box given to him once, and when he wants to be careful what he says to anyone, he lights one of those cigars and smokes it He says it helps him to think.”

The children giggled to think that Fatty’s cigar-ends had made Mr. Goon get all excited when he saw Jake smoking a cigar. Then Luke looked at the whistle that Fatty held.

“Yes; that’s one I made,” he said. “I lost it somewhere in the garden. How could it have got into the cats’ cage? I made that whistle months ago.”

They all talked over the mystery again, but somehow they could not make head or tail of it

Between them the children managed to supply Luke with plenty of food. They gave him a pail of water and soap and an old towel. They made up a bed for him each night in the summer-house. And, in return, Luke worked in the vegetable garden whenever Pip’s mother was out, weeding it carefully and doing all he could to make it nice. The kitchen-garden was far away from the house and he could not be seen.

“Must do something in return for your kindness,” he said to the children. And they liked him all the better for it. For three days Luke stayed in Pip’s garden, and then things began to happen again.

Mr. Goon is Very Suspicious.

One afternoon Mr. Goon met Fatty and Buster, and he stopped them.

“I want a word with you, Master Frederick,” he said in his pompous voice.

“I’m afraid I can’t stop,” said Fatty in a polite voice. “I’m taking Buster for a walk.”

“You just stop where you are,” said Clear-Orf angrily. “I tell you I’ve got something to say to you.”

“Well, what you say to me is usually ‘clear orf,’ ” said Fatty. “Are you sure that isn’t what you want to say?”

“Now, look here,” said Mr. Goon, coming to the point at last, “I think you and them other children knows where Luke is. See? And I’m just warning you. If you hide him or know where he’s hiding and don’t inform the police, you’ll get into Serious trouble. Very Serious Trouble.”

Fatty was startled. Why did Mr. Goon suspect that they knew where Luke was, or were hiding him?

“What makes you think we’d try to hide Luke?” he said. “As if we could hide him without you knowing, Mr. Goon! Why a clever policeman like you knows everything!”

“Ah,” said Mr. Goon. “I know a lot more than you think.”

That apparently was the end of the talk. Mr. Goon shut his notebook with a snap and went on his way. Fatty went down the lane, thinking hard.

“Old Tupping must have popped his head over the wall, and either spotted Luke or thought he did,” thought Fatty. “Blow! We don’t want to get into trouble. But what are we to do with poor old Luke? Perhaps we had better give him some money and get him away.”

The others listened to what Fatty told them. Bets was upset. “Don’t send Luke away,” she said. “We might solve the mystery any time, and then he could go back to Lady Candling’s.”

“We shan’t solve this mystery,” said Fatty gloomily. “We aren’t so clever as we thought we were. I bet even Inspector Jenks wouldn’t be able to solve the mystery of Dark Queen.”

“Oooh!” said Daisy at once, remembering how nice and friendly the Inspector had been in the Easter holidays when they had solved another mystery. “Inspector Jenks! I’d forgotten about him. Can’t we get into touch with him and tell him about poor old Luke? I’m sure he wouldn’t want to put him into prison or anything. He’d keep our secret all right”

“Do you think he would?” said Larry. “Well, I’m blessed if I can see any way out of this. If old Clear-Orf starts searching Pip’s garden he’ll find Luke, and then maybe it will be worse for him, and bad for us. Let’s tell the Inspector. He always said he would help us and be a friend to us if he could.”

“I’ll telephone,” said Fatty. The others looked at him respectfully. They thought it was rather marvellous of Fatty to offer to telephone to what Bets called “A very, very high-up policeman.”

Fatty kept his word. He went back home, waited until no one was about to hear him, and then put a call through to the police-station in the nearest big town, where the Inspector lived.

Very luckily for him, Inspector Jenks happened to be there. He came to the telephone and spoke pleasantly to Fatty.

“Ah, Master Frederick Trotteville? I hope you are well. Yes, yes; I well remember the most interesting time we had together in the Easter holidays, when you so kindly solved the mystery of the burnt cottage — very clever piece of work, if I may say so. And have you solved any other mysteries since?”

“Well, sir, there is a mystery here we can’t solve,” said Fatty, relieved to find the Inspector so very friendly. “We simply can’t. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. A very valuable cat disappeared.”

The Inspector appeared to think hard for a minute. Then his voice came again over the phone.

“Yes; the report came in to me. I remember it. I believe our friend Mr. Goon is in charge of that particular puzzle.”

“Well, he isn’t exactly a friend of ours,” said Fatty honestly. “But the person who is supposed to have done the crime is a friend of ours. And that’s what I’m really ringing up about. We’re in a bit of a muddle about him. I was just wondering if by any chance you could give us a little advice.”

“Very nice of you to ask me,” said the Inspector. “It so happens I am coming through your village tomorrow. I suppose you couldn’t invite me to tea — say a picnic tea by the river?”

“Oh, yes,” said Fatty joyfully. “That would be simply fine. We could tell you everything then.”

“Then that’s settled,” said the Inspector. “I’ll be along your lane about four o’clock. It will be most pleasant for us all to meet again. I hope you agree with me.”

“Oh, I do,” said Fatty. “Good-bye, sir, and thank you very much.”

Fatty put down the receiver and sped down the lane to Pip’s house, full of excitement He ran up the drive and found the others in the garden.

“Well,” said Fatty, “that’s all settled. The Inspector is coming to tea with us tomorrow — a picnic tea down by the river. We’ll tell him everything.”

“Fatty! Is he really coming? Did you ask him to tea? Oh, Fatty, how marvellous!” cried the others. Fatty swelled up, full of pride and importance.

“You want a fellow like me to arrange these things,” he said. “It’s nothing to me to get things like this done. You’d better leave everything to me.”

“Shut up!” said Larry and Pip at once. But they could not be annoyed with Fatty’s boasting for long, because they were all so excited at the thought of seeing the big, kindly Inspector once more. Bets was really thrilled. She had liked him so much, and he had put everything right at once last time. Perhaps he could this time.

“We’ll plan a fine tea,” said Daisy. “Well tell our mothers who is coming with us, and they are sure to let us have anything we want. Even grown-ups seem to think that Inspectors are somebody to make a fuss about!”

Daisy was right. As soon as the children’s mothers knew that the great Inspector Jenks had condescended to have a picnic tea with the children, they provided a very fine meal.

The children packed up the food, and went to stand at the front gate to watch for the Inspector. Mr. Goon came riding down on his bicycle. He jumped off when he saw them.

“I’d like a word with you,” he said in his pompous voice.

“Sorry,” said Larry, “but we’re on our way to a picnic. I bet you’d like to come — it’s going to be a gorgeous one.”

Mr. Goon looked in astonishment at all the food. “You going to eat all that yourselves?” he said suspiciously. Fatty guessed that he thought they were going to take some to Luke. He grinned.

“Oh, no,” said Fatty. “The food is for somebody else besides ourselves, Mr. Goon. We shan’t tell you who. That would be giving away a secret.”

“Hmmmm!” said Mr. Goon, feeling more and more suspicious. “Where are you going for your picnic?”

“Down by the river,” said Bets. Mr. Goon got on his bicycle and rode away, thinking hard. Fatty chuckled.

“He thinks we’re taking this food to Luke in some hiding-place somewhere,” he said. “He doesn’t know we’re having a picnic with the Inspector. I say, wouldn’t it be perfectly marvellous if he tried to follow us and pounced on us to see if we really had got Luke with us — and all the time it was Inspector Jenks?”

“Yes, marvellous,” said Daisy. “Oh, look, here’s the Inspector!”

It was. He drove up in a very smart black police car, parked it in Pip’s garage, and then shook hands solemnly all round. “Very, very pleased to meet you all again,” he said, with his beaming smile.

They all went down the lane to the river, Bets hanging on to his arm. The Inspector was a tall, burly man, with twinkling eyes, a smiling mouth, and a very clever face. He looked very fine indeed in his uniform. Bets chattered to him, telling him all the good things they had got for tea.

“We’ll have our meal straight away, shall we?” said the Inspector. “You are making my mouth water. Now, where shall we sit?”

Mr. Goon has a Bad Time.

They found a nice sheltered place close to the water. Behind them rose an overhanging bank with trees. No one could see them there. It was a good place to talk.

“Well, now,” said the Inspector, when the meal was finished and there was very little left — “Well, now, what about a little business? I’ve looked up the report of the case you told me about, so I know all the details. But I should very much like to hear what you have to say. You tell me that this boy, Luke, is a friend of yours?”

The children began to talk eagerly, telling Inspector Jenks all that they knew, but they did not tell him about the false dues they had laid for Tupping and Clear-Orf. Nobody quite liked to tell him that.

Then they came to where they had talked to Luke at the circus, and how he had come to them one night.

“And ever since then we’ve fed Luke and let him sleep in the summer-house,” said Pip. “But now we think Clear-Orf — Mr. Goon, I mean — has guessed we’re hiding him, and we’re afraid if we go on doing it we may get him and ourselves into trouble.”

“Very wise of you to come to me,” said the Inspector. “Yes; you mustn’t hide Luke, that is certain. For one thing it tells against Luke, if he runs away and hides. That is never a good thing to do. But he won’t be put into prison, don’t be afraid of that For one thing, he is only fifteen — and for another thing, we don’t put people into prison unless it is really proved that they have committed a crime. And it is by no means proved that Luke stole the cat, although I admit that things do look very black against him. I am sure you agree with me?”

“Yes. We think they do too,” said Fatty. “It has puzzled us very much. Because, you see, Inspector, we know and like Luke, and we don’t see how a boy like him could have done such a thing.”

“Well, I would advise Luke to come out of hiding and go back to his job,” said the Inspector. “Er — I don’t see that he need say anything about where he has been, or who has hidden him. No need for that at all.”

“He’ll have to go back to his stepfather,” said Bets, “and oh, Inspector Jenks, he’s got such a cruel stepfather. He’ll beat him.”

“No, he won’t,” said the Inspector. “I shall have a word with him. I think you’ll find that he’ll let Luke severely alone. In the meantime, I will look more carefully into this mystery and see if I can get a little light shed on it. It certainly sounds most interesting now that I have heard all you have told me.”

“What’s up with Buster?” said Fatty at that moment Buster had left the little company and could be heard barking madly at the top of the bank. Then a voice came to their ears.

“Call this dog orf! Get him under control, or I’ll report him!”

“It’s old Clear-Orf!” whispered Daisy gleefully. “He’s tracked us after all! I bet he thinks we’ve got Luke down here! Old Buster must have heard him creeping up and gone and barked at him!”

Fatty went up the bank and through the overhanging bushes, and stood on the top, looking at a very angry Mr. Goon.

“Ho! I knew you were down there,” said Mr. Goon. “Yes, and I know who you’ve got with you too!”

“Then I wonder you’re not a bit more polite about it,” said Fatty in a smooth voice.

“Polite about it! Why should I be?” said Mr. Goon. “Ah, I’ve caught you properly, I have — harbouring someone who’s done a crime! You’ve gone too far this time, you have. You call this dog orf, and let me go down the bank and get my hands on you-know-who.”

Fatty gave a chuckle. He called Buster off and held him by the collar, standing politely aside whilst Mr. Goon pushed his way through the bushes, and then jumped down beside the water, expecting to find four frightened children and a very scared Luke.

Instead, to his awful horror and amazement, he found his Inspector! Mr. Goon simply could not believe his eyes. They always bulged out, but now they looked as if they were going to drop out. He stood and stared at Inspector Jenks and could not utter a word.