Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage (4 page)

“What shall I do, Larry?” asked Fatty, quite humbly, for once in a way.

“You and I could go and talk to the chauffeur,” said Larry. “He might let out something that would be useful to us. He usually washes down the car in the morning.”

“What about me?” said Bets, in dismay. “Aren’t I to do anything? I’m a Find-Outer too.”

“There’s nothing you can do,” said Larry.

Bets looked very miserable. Fatty was sorry for her. “We shan’t want Buster with us,” he said. “Do you think you could take him for a walk over the fields? He just loves a good rabbitty walk.”

“Oh yes, I could do that,” said Bets, brightening up at once. “I should like that. And, you never know, I might find a glue on the way.”

Everyone laughed. Bets simply could not remember the way to pronounce that word. “Yes - you go and find a really important glue,” said Larry. So Bets set off with Buster at her heels. She went down the lane towards the fields, and the others heard her telling Buster that he could look for rabbits and she would look for glues.

“Now then, to work!” said Larry, getting up. “Daisy, you and Pip go down to Mrs. Minns.” “What excuse shall we give for going to see her?” asked Daisy.

“Oh, you must think of something yourself,” said Larry. “Use your brains. That’s what detectives do. Pip will think of something, if you can’t.”

“Better not all go down the lane together,” said Pip. “You and Fatty go first, and see if you can find the chauffeur at work, and Daisy and I will come a bit later.” Larry and Fatty went off. They walked down the lane and came to Mr. Hick’s house, which stood a good way back in its own drive. The garage was at the side of the

house. A loud whistling came from that direction., and the sound of water.

“He’s washing the car,” said Larry, in a low voice. “Come on. We’ll pretend we want to see someone who doesn’t live here, and then ask if he’d like us to help him.”

The boys went down the drive together. They soon came in sight of the garage, and Larry went up to the young man who was hosing the car.

“Morning,” he said. “Does Mrs. Thompson live here?”

“No,” said the young man. “This is Mr. Hick’s house.”

“Oh,” said Larry, in a vexed tone. Then he stared at the car.

“That’s a fine car, isn’t it?” he said.

“Yes, it’s a Rolls Royce,” said the chauffeur. “Fine to drive. She’s very dirty today, though. I’ve got all my work cut out to get her clean before the master wants her this morning!”

“We’ll help you,” said Larry eagerly. “I’ll hose her for you. I often do it for my father.”

In less than a minute the two boys were at work helping the young chauffeur, and the talk turned on to the fire.

“Funny business that fire,” said the chauffeur, rubbing the bonnet of the car with a polishing cloth. “The master was properly upset about losing those valuable papers of his. And now they say it was a put-up job - some one did it on purpose! Well - Peeks did say that it was a wonder no one had given Mr. Hick a slap in the face for the way he treats everybody!”

“Who’s Peeks?” said Larry, pricking up his ears.

“Peeks was his manservant - sort of valet and secretary mixed,” said the chauffeur. “He’s gone now - went off the day of the fire.”

“Why did he go?” asked Fatty innocently.

“Got kicked out!” said the chauffeur. “Mr. Hick gave him his money, and he went! My word, there was a fine old quarrel between them, too!”

“Whatever about?” said Larry.

“Well, it seehis that Mr. Hick found out that Peeks sometimes wore his clothes,” said the chauffeur. “You see, he and the master were much of a size, and Peeks used to fancy hihiself a bit - I’ve seen him prance out in Mr. Hick’s dark blue suit, and his blue tie with the red spots, and his gold-topped stick too!”

“Oh,” said Fatty. “And I suppose when Mr. Hick found that out he was angry and told Peeks to go. Was Peeks very upset?”

“You bet he was!” said the chauffeur. “He came out to me, and the things he said about the master would make anybody’s ears burn. Then off he went about eleven o’clock. His old mother lives in the next village, and I guess she was surprised to see Horace Peeks marching in, baggage and all, at that time of the morning!”

The two boys were each thinking the same thing. “It looks as if Peeks burnt the cottage! We must find Peeks and see what he was doing that evening!”

There came a roar from a window overhead. “Thomas! Is that car done yet? What are you jabbering about down there? Do I pay you for jabbering? No, I do not.”

“That’s the master,” said Thomas, in a low tone. “You’d better clear out. Thanks for your help.”

The boys looked up at the window. Mr. Hick stood there, a cup of tea or cocoa in his hand, looking down furious—

ly.

“Mr. Hick and cup,” said Larry, with a giggle. “Dear old good-tempered Hiccup!”

Fatty exploded into a laugh. “We’ll call him Hiccup,” he said. “I say - we’ve got some news this morning, haven’t we! I bet it was Peeks, Larry. I bet it was!”

“I wonder how Daisy and Pip are getting on,” said Larry, as they went down the drive. “I believe I can hear them chattering away somewhere. I guess they won’t have such exciting news as we have!”

Mrs. Minns does a lot of Talking.

Daisy and Pip were getting on very well indeed. As they had stood outside Mr. Hick’s garden, debating what excuse they could make for going to the kitchen door, they had heard a little mew.

Daisy looked to see where the sound came from. “Did you hear that?” she asked Pip. The mew came again. Both children looked up into a tree, and there, unable to get down or up, was a small black and white kitten.

“It’s got stuck,” said Daisy. “Pip, can you climb up and get it?”

Pip could and did. Soon he was handing down the little creature to Daisy, and she cuddled it against her.

“Where does it belong ? ” she wondered.

“Probably to Mrs. Minns, the cook,” said Pip promptly. “Anyway, it will make a marvellous excuse for going to the kitchen door, and asking!”

“Yes, it will,” said Daisy, pleased. So the two of them set off down the drive, and went to the kitchen entrance, which was on the opposite side of the house to the garage.

A girl of about sixteen was sweeping the yard, and from the kitchen nearby there came a never-ending voice.

“And don’t you leave any bits of paper flying around my yard, either, Lily. Last time you swept that yard you left a broken bottle there, and half a newspaper and goodness knows what else! Why your mother didn’t teach you how to sweep and dust and bake, I don’t know! Women nowadays just leave their daughters to be taught by such as me, that’s got all their work cut out looking after a particular gentleman like Mr. Hick, without having to keep an eye on a lazy girl like you!”

This was all said without a single pause. The girl did not seem to be paying any attention at all, but went on

sweeping slowly round the yard, the dust flying before her.

“Hallo,” said Pip. “Does this kitten belong here?”

“Mrs. Minns!” shouted the girl. “Here’s some children with the kitten.”

Mrs. Minns appeared at the door. She was a round, fat woman, short and panting, with sleeves rolled up above her podgy elbows.

“Is this your kitten?” asked Pip again, and Daisy held it out to show the cook.

“Now where did it get to this time?” said Mrs. Minns, taking it, and squeezing it against her. “Sweetie! Sweetie! Here’s your kitten again! Why don’t you look after it better?”

A large black and white cat strolled out of the kitchen, and looked inquiringly at the kitten. The kitten mewed and tried to jump down.

“Take your kitten, Sweetie,” said Mrs. Minns. She put it down and it ran to its mother.

“Isn’t it exactly like its mother?” said Daisy.

“She’s got two more,” said Mrs. Minns. “You come in and see them. Dear little sweets! Dogs I can’t bear, but give me a cat and kittens and I’m happy.”

The two children went into the kitchen. The big black and white cat had got into a basket, and the children saw three black and white kittens there too, all exactly alike.

“Oh, can I stay and play with them a bit?” asked Daisy, thinking it would be a marvellous excuse to stop and talk to Mrs. Minns.

“So long as you don’t get into my way,” said Mrs. Minns, dumping down a tin of flour on the table. She was going to make pastry. “Where do you live?”

“Not far away, just up the lane,” answered Pip. “We saw the fire the other night.”

That set Mrs. Minns off at once. She put her hands on her hips and nodded her head till her fat cheeks shook.

“What a shock that was!” she said. “My word, when I saw what was happening, anyone could have knocked me down with a feather.”

Both the children felt certain that nothing short of a bar of iron would ever knock fat Mrs. Minas over. Daisy stroked the kittens whilst the cook went on with her talk, quite forgetting about the pastry.

“I was sitting here in my kitchen, treating myself to a cup of cocoa, and telling my sister this, that and the other,” she said. “I was tired with turning out the larders that day, and glad enough to sit and rest my bones. And suddenly my sister says to me, ‘Maria!’ she says, el smell burning!’”

The children stared at her, Mrs, Minns was pleased to have such an interested audience.

“I said to Hannah - that’s my sister - I said ‘Something burning! That’s not the soup catching in the saucepan surely?’ And Hannah says, ‘Maria, there’s something burning terrible!’ And then I looked out of the window and I saw something flaring up at the bottom of the garden!”

“What a shock for you!” said Daisy.

” ‘Well,’ I says to my sister, ‘it looks as if the master’s workroom is on fire! Glory be!’ I says. ‘What a day this has been! First Mr. Peeks gets tie sack and walks out, baggage and all. Then Mr. Smellie comes along and he and the master go for one another, hammer and tongs! Then that dirty old tramp comes and the master catches him stealing eggs from the henhouse! And now if we haven’t got a fire!’ “

The two children listened intently. All this was news to them. Goodness! There seemed to have been quite a lot of quarrels and upsets on the day of the fire. Pip asked who Mr. Peeks was.

“He was the master’s manservant and secretary,” said Mr. Minns. “Stuck-up piece of goods he was. I never had much rime for him myself. Good thing he went, I say. And I shouldn’t be surprised if he had something to do with that fire either!”

But here Lily had something to say. “Mr. Peeks was

far too much of a gentleman to do a thing like that,” she said, clattering her broom into a comer. “If you ask me, it’s old Mr. Smellie.”

The children could hardly believe that any one could be called by such a name. “Is that his real name?” asked Pip.

“It surely is,” said Mrs. Minns, “and a dirty neglected old fellow he is too! What his housekeeper can be about, I don’t know. She doesn’t mend him up at all - sends him out with holes in his socks, and rents in his clothes, and his hat wanting brushing. He’s a learned old gentleman, too, so they say, and knows more about old books and things than almost any one in the kingdom.”

“Why did he and Mr. Hick quarrel?” asked Pip.

“Goodness knows!” said Mrs. Minns. “Always quarrelling, they are. They both know a lot, but they don’t agree about what they know. Anyway, old Mr. Smellie, he walks out of the house muttering and grumbling, and bangs the door behind him so hard that my saucepans almost jump off the stove! But as for him firing the cottage, as Lily says, don’t you believe a word of it! It’s my belief he wouldn’t know how to set light to a bonfire! It’s that stuck-up Mr. Peeks who’d be spiteful enough to pay Mr. Hick back, you mark my words!”

“He would not,” said Lily, who seemed determined to stick up for the valet. “He’s a nice young man, he is. You’ve no right to say things like that, Mrs. Minns.”

“Now, look here, my girl! ” said the cook, getting angry, “if you think you can talk like that to your elders and betters, you’re mistaken! Telling me I’ve no right to say this, that and the other! You just wait till you can scrub a floor properly, and dust the tops of the pictures, and see a cobweb when it’s staring you in the face, before you begin to talk big to me!”

“I wasn’t talking big,” said poor Lily. “All I said was…”

“Now don’t you start all over again!” said Mrs. Minns, thumping on the table with the rolling-pin as if she was hitting poor Lily on the head with it “You go and get me

the dripping, if you can find out where you put it yesterday. And no more back-chat from you, if you please!”

The children didn’t want to hear about Lily’s faults, or where she put the dripping. They wanted to hear about the people that Mr. Hick had quarrelled with, and who might therefore have a spite against him. It looked as if both Mr. Peeks and Mr. Smellie would have spites against him. And what about the old tramp too?

“Was Mr. Hick very angry with the tramp when he found him stealing the eggs?” asked Pip.

“Angry! You could hear him all over the house and the garden too!” said Mrs. Minns, thoroughly enjoying talking about everything. “I said to myself, ‘Ah, there’s the master off again! It’s a pity he doesn’t use up some of his temper on that lazy girl Lily!’”

Lily appeared out of the larder, looking sulky. The children couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. The girl put the dripping down on the table with a bang.

“Any need to try and break the basin?” inquired Mrs. Minns. “It’s a bad girl you are today, a right down bad girl. You go and wash the back steps, madam! That will keep you busy for a bit.”

Lily went out, clanking a pail. “Tell us about the tramp,” said Pip. “What time did Mr. Hick see Mm stealing eggs?”

“Oh, sometime in the morning,” said Mrs. Minns, rolling out pastry with a heavy hand. “The old fellow came to my back door first, whining for bread and meat, and I sent him off. I suppose he slipped round the garden to the henhouse, and the master saw him there from the cottage window. My word, he went for him all right, and said he’d call the police in, and the old tramp, he went flying by my kitchen door as if a hundred dogs were after him!”

“Perhaps he fired the cottage,” said Pip. But Mrs. Minns would not have it that any one had fired the cottage but Mr. Peeks.