The children were terribly excited. They had two really big clues, though quite how to fit them to the stolen cat they didn't know.
'What is turps used for?' asked Bets.
'Oh, to clean paint-brushes — to get paint-marks off things,' said Larry. 'It's quite clear that this paint and the turps are connected in some way.
Buster had stuffed his blunt nose into the hole, and a shower of earth covered everyone. The little dog at last came out backwards, and in his mouth he held a small paint-brush!
'Listen, there's Tupping yelling to Luke,' said Fatty. 'We'd better get over the wall, quick. Here, Larry, just help me to clear up round this hole. We don't want whoever hid these things to see that we've found them. It would warn him — or her — that we were after them.'
The boys cleared up the mess quickly, whilst the two girls ran for the wall, and Daisy helped Bets over. Then the others came, with Buster. They got over just in time, for Tupping came along that way half a minute later, grumbling away to himself.
The children retired to their old summer-house with their Clues, and looked at them closely.
'One small bottle of turps, one small tin of light-brown paint, and one small, very old paint-brush,' said Fatty. 'And if we only knew how they had been used, why they had been used, and who had used them, we should have solved the unsolvable Mystery of the Disappearing Cat!'
'Fatty,' said Bets earnestly, 'do you think it would be any good going into the cage and sniffing about to see exactly what place had got the turps on it? I mean — if it was the benches, or the floor, or the ceiling, or the wire-netting I can't see how it would help us even if we did find the place that smelt of turps, but it just might.'
'Seems rather a silly idea to me,' said Pip.
'Well, I can't say I can see what good that would do,' said Larry. 'And anyway, how could we get into the cage? Miss Harmer has the key.'
'Well, you know — I think there is something in Bets' idea,' said Fatty. 'Like Larry, I can't see how it would help us if we found out the exact place where the turps had been used, but I've a sort of hunch we'd better go and try. Bets, you're a good one at ideas just now.'
Bets was thrilled. She did love a word of praise, because she got plenty of teasing, and praise from Fatty made up for a lot.
'Well, how could we get the key?' said Daisy. 'Miss Harmer keeps it in her pocket.'
Fatty thought hard for a while. 'It's a very hot day,' he said. 'I should think Miss Harmer will have taken her coat off and hung it up somewhere. She won't be doing the cats just now — I expect she'll be at work in the greenhouses. It's part of her job to help there too, you know.'
'I guess she'll have her coat under her eye, with all these disappearing acts going on,' said Larry.
'Let's go and see,' said Pip, getting up. He moved the loose board at the back of the summer-house and tucked the three clues there. He put the loose board over them. 'There! No one will find those clues but us. Come on, let's go and see what Miss Harmer is doing.
They all went over the wall again, having first shut Buster into the shed. They couldn't have him rushing round the cat-house if they were going inside.
Fatty went to scout about and find out where Miss Harmer was. She was, as he had guessed, in one of the greenhouses tying up peach-tree branches. Fatty looked about for her coat.
It was hung on a nail inside the greenhouse where she was working. Blow! No one could possibly look for a key in the pockets without being seen by Miss Harmer! Fatty went back to the others and told them.
'We must get Miss Harmer out of the greenhouse for a minute, somehow,' said Pip. They all thought hard, and some very complicated plans were talked of. It was Daisy who thought of a very simple one that could be done without anyone being seen at all.
'I know!' she said. 'I'll slip along to the end of the greenhouse farthest from the coat — there are doors each end, aren't there? I'll hide in a thick bush in one of the beds, and then I'll call loudly, 'Miss Harmer! Miss Harmer! ' And I bet Miss Harmer will walk out of the door of the greenhouse to see who's calling her, and that will just give one of you time to slip in at the other door and get the key!'
'We'd get into an awful row if anyone saw us taking the key,' said Larry. 'But after all, we are the Find-Outers, and we've got to take a few risks in our work, haven't we? Who's going to get the key?'
'I will,' said Pip. 'Let me do it. I'm very nippy.'
'Yes, you are,' said Fatty. 'All right, you do it, Pip. Are you and Larry and Bets going to wait for me by the cat- house?'
'Yes,' said Fatty. 'Come on, let's get going, or Miss Harmer will put on her coat again!'
Daisy and Pip left the others and crept through the bushes to the greenhouses. Miss Harmer was still at work near the other end. Daisy settled herself in a thick bush near the farther end. She waited until she saw that Pip was safely in another bush near the door inside which Miss Harmer's coat was hanging.
Then the whole plan worked as if it had been oiled! 'Miss Harmer! MISS HARMER!' called Daisy.
Miss Harmer heard. She turned her head and listened. Daisy called again, 'MISS HARMER!'
Miss Harmer opened the greenhouse door and stepped out. 'Who's calling me?' she cried. And at that very moment Miss Trimble appeared, trotting down the path, her glasses set crooked on her nose.
'Oh, Miss Trimble! Did you call me? What did you want me for?' asked Miss Harmer.
'No, I didn't call you,' said Miss Trimble, her glasses falling off. 'But I certainly heard someone shouting for you. Would it be Lady Candling?'
'Why does she want me?' said Miss Harmer, going up the path. 'Where is she?'
'She's over by the lawn,' said Miss Trimble. 'I'll show you.'
The two went up the path together and were soon out of sight of the greenhouse. Pip at once saw his chance, slipped in at the other door, went to Miss Harmer's coat and ran his hand quickly through the big pockets. He found the key at once!
Then he and Daisy made their way joyfully through the bushes to the cat-house, where the others were waiting most impatiently for them. 'Here's the key,' said Pip proudly. 'Now, come on, let's hurry up and sniff round the cage.'
'I'll go in with Bets,' said Fatty. 'Not you others, or the cats will have a fit. I've got a very good nose for smelling, and as it was Bets' idea I think she ought to come in too.'
So the two of them went in together, shutting the door carefully behind them. Then they began to sniff round the cage. It smelt of disinfectant. But there was still a distinct smell of turps somewhere.
'Here, Bets, sniff just there — don't you think there's a smell of turps there?'
A big cat was tying on the bench. Bets pushed her gently away so that she could smell. 'No,' said the little girl. 'I can't smell turps on this bench, Fatty.'
Fatty sniffed again and looked astonished. 'The smell isn't there now,' he said. 'But it was, a minute ago!'
Bets lifted back the cat she had moved. 'There, Puss,' she said, 'take your place again.'
'Golly! the smell's come back,' said Fatty, wrinkling up his nose. 'Smell, Bets.'
'Why!' said Bets in surprise, 'it can't be on the bench. It must be on the cat. I can smell it now I've put the cat back. But I couldn't before.'
'Bets,' said Fatty, 'where do you smell the turps on the cat?'
'Just here,' said Bets, and she bent her small nose down to the middle of the cat's dark tail.
'So do I,' said Fatty. He looked very carefully indeed at the long tail, which the cat was now trying to swing from side to side.
'Fatty! Bets! There's someone coming!' cried Larry in a low voice. 'Come out, quick!'
But, alas for Fatty and Bets, Mr. Tupping appeared on the scene before they could get out of the cage! And then there was a storm!
Mr. Tupping stared as if he could not believe his eyes. Fatty and Bets got out of the cage and shut the door, turning the key in the lock. Bets was trembling. Fatty did not feel at all comfortable himself. The other children had disappeared into the friendly shelter of the bushes.
'What you doing in there?' demanded Tupping. 'How did you get the key? I believe it's you children that have
