'I shall question the tramp closely tomorrow,' said Larry, rather grandly. 'I feel certain he can tell us plenty. Fatty, do you think you and Daisy could find out about Peeks tomorrow? I'll stay here with Pip and Bets and question the tramp.'
'Right!' said Fatty and Daisy joyfully. If only they could get ahead of Clear-Orf! They simply must beat him!
Lily comes into the Story.
Fatty really was too stiff to want to do anything more that day, so Larry, Pip and Daisy left him in the garden with Bets and Buster, reading quietly. They thought they would go down to Mr. Hick's house and talk to Mrs. Minns again.
'We ought really to find out if Mrs. Minns could have fired the cottage herself,' said Larry. 'I don't feel as if she did, but you can't go by feelings if you are a detective. Also, we must get Horace Peek's address.'
'We'll take some fish for Sweetie, the cat,' said Daisy.
'I think there was some left over that cook might let me have. Mrs. Miens will be awfully pleased to see us if we take a present for Sweetie.'
The cook gave her a fish-head, wrapped up in paper. Buster smelt it and wanted to follow Daisy., but Fatty held him firmly by the collar.
'It's no good him coming,' said Daisy. 'He'd be sure to chase Sweetie, and then Mrs. Minns would chase us!'
They went down the lane together. 'Leave me to do the talking,' said Larry.
Daisy laughed. 'Don't you worry - it will be Mrs. Minns who does it!' she said.
They arrived at the kitchen door and looked inside. Lily was there, writing a letter. She looked as if she had been crying. 'Where's Mrs. Minns?' asked Larry.
'Upstairs,' said Lily. 'She's in a bad temper. I upset a jug of milk over her, and she keeps on saying I did it on purpose.'
'Were you here on the night of the fire?' asked Larry. Lily shook her head.
'Where were you, then?' asked Larry. 'Didn't you see the fire?'
'I saw it when I came back from my evening off,' said Lily. 'Never you mind where I was. It's got nothing to do with you!'
'I know,' said Larry, surprised at Lily's violent tone. 'What I can't understand is - why didn't Mrs. Minns or her sister smell the fire when it began!'
'Here's Mrs. Mirhis's sister now,' said Lily, looking up as a very fat woman, with twinkling eyes under a big hat trimmed with flowers, came up to the kitchen door. She looked in and seemed surprised to see the children.
'Hallo, Mrs. Jones,' said Lily sulkily. 'Mrs. Minns is upstairs changing her dress. She won't be a minute.'
Mrs. Jones came in and sank into a rocking-chair, breathing heavily. 'My, it's hot today,' she said. 'Who are all these children?'
'We live up the lane,' said Pip. 'We've brought a fish-head for Sweetie.'
'Where are all the kittens?' said Daisy, looking at the empty basket.
'Oh!' said Lily. 'I hope they haven't gone out of the kitchen and upstairs. Mrs. Minns told me to keep the door shut!'
'Perhaps the kittens are outside,' said Larry, shutting the door that led into the hall. He didn't particularly want Mr. Hick to hear the talking in the kitchen and come in. 'Oh - there's Sweetie!'
The big black and white cat came into the kitchen, her tail straight up in the air. She smelt the fish-head and went to Daisy. Daisy unwrapped it and put it into the cat's dinner-bowl in a corner of the kitchen. Sweetie immediately took it out of the bowl and began to eat it on the floor.
'Was Sweetie frightened of the fire the other night?' asked Pip, thinking it was about time to start on the subject.
'She was kind of restless,' said Mrs. Jones.
'Oh, were you here?' said Daisy, pretending to be surprised. 'Goodness - how was it you didn't know the cottage was burning then?'
'I did/' said Mrs. Jones indignantly. 'Didn't I keep saying to Maria, 'Maria, there's something burning!' I've a very good nose, but Maria hasn't. I kept sniffing round the kitchen, and I even put my nose into the hall, thinking there might be something burning there.'
'Didn't Mrs. Minns go and see if there was anything burning too?' asked Larry.
'Ah, Maria didn't want to move that evening,' said Mrs. Jones. 'She'd got her rheumatism back something cruel. She was stuck, real stuck.'
'What do you mean, stuck?' asked Larry, with interest.
'Well, she sat down in this rocking-chair at tea-time, and she says to me, 'Hannah,' she says, I'm stuck. Me rheumatism's got me again, and I can't move.' So I says
to her, 'Maria, you just stay put. I'll get the tea and everything. Mr. Hick is out, so there's no dinner to get. I'll just stay with you till your poor legs are better.' '
The children listened, and each of them thought tie same thing. 'If Mrs. Minns was stuck in a chair all the evening with rheumatism,, then she couldn't have fired the cottage!'
'And didn't poor Mrs. Minns get up at all out of the rocking-chair?' asked Daisy. 'Not till you really knew there was a fire, I mean?'
'No - Maria just stayed put,' said Mrs. Jones. 'It wasn't till me nose told me there really was something burning terrible that Maria got up. I went to the kitchen-door and sniffed - and then I went out into the garden -and I saw the flare down at the bottom there. I shouted out, 'There's a fire, Maria!' and she turned as white as a sheet. 'Come on, Maria!' I says, 'We've got to do something.' But poor Maria,, she can't get out of her chair, she's so stuck!'
The children drank all this in. It certainly could have been nothing to do with Mrs. Minns. If she had been so 'stuck' with rheumatism, she wouldn't have been likely to rush around setting fire to cottages. And anyway her sister was with her all the time. It was quite plainly nothing to do with Mrs. Minns. That was another Suspect crossed off!
Mrs. Minns opened the kitchen door and came in, looking angry. She had been upstairs to take off her milk- drenched dress. She glared at Lily., and then looked in surprise at the three children.
'Well, Maria,' said Mrs. Jones, 'how's the rheumatics?'
'Good afternoon, Mrs. Minns,' said Daisy. 'We came to bring a fish-head for Sweetie.'
Mrs. Minns beamed. She was always touched when any one did anything for her precious cat. 'That's nice of you,' she said. 'My rheumatism's better,' she said to her sister. 'Though what it will be like after being drenched with milk, I don't know. Really, things are coming
to a pretty pass when that girl Lily throws milk all over me.'
'I didn't do it on purpose,' said Lily sulkily. 'Can I go to the post with this letter ? '
'No, that you can't,' said Mrs. Minns. 'You fust get the tea ready for Mr. Hick. Go on now - stop your letter- writing and get a bit of work done for a change.'
'I want to catch the post,' said Lily, looking ready to cry.
'Well, you won't,' said Mrs. Minns unkindly. Lily started to cry, and the children felt sorry for her. She got up and began to get out cups and saucers.
The children wondered how to mention Horace Peeks. They wanted to get his address so that they might go and see him.
'Has Mr. Hick got a new man-servant yet?' asked Larry, at last.
'He's been seeing some today,' said Mrs. Minns,, sinking into an arm-chair, which creaked dolefully beneath her weight. 'I only hope he gets one that doesn't put on airs and graces like Mr. Peeks, that's all.'
'Does Mr. Peeks live near here?' asked Pip innocently.
