by Энид Блайтон
"Look," said Fatty, pointing into the cage. "One of Luke's whistles again!"
Luke stared at it in amazement. Then he went to feel in his coat, which was hanging on a tree nearby.
"It must have been taken from my pocket," he said. "I had it in there, ready to finish. It was for Pip. And someone must have taken it."
"And put it on the floor of the cage so that you'd be suspected again!" said Fatty grimly. He stared at the whistle on the floor.
"Can't we get it out again," said Daisy. "Like we did last time?"
"I don't expect there would be time," said Fatty. "Look around for some other clues — quick."
The children began to hunt around. Bets put her nose to the cage and sniffed hard.
"There's the same smell as I smelt last time," she said.
Fatty pressed his nose to the wire and sniffed. "Yes, it's turps," he said, puzzled. "Golly! this is very queer. Everything seems to be repeating itself, doesn't it — the whistle on the floor — the smell of turps. I do think this is the strangest mystery I've ever come across."
"Fatty, I suppose this isn't a clue, is it?" said Daisy, pointing to a little round blob of paint on a stone beside the path. Fatty looked at it.
"Shouldn't think so," he said. He picked up the stone and looked at the blob of paint.
"Luke paints our whistles," he said. "Probably this is a drop of paint he spilt. Have you ever painted our whistles here, Luke?"
"No, never," said Luke at once. "I always do them in the shed where the pots of paint are kept. Anyway, I don't use that light-brown colour. I always use bright colours — red and blue and green."
"It can't be a clue," said Fatty. But he put the stone into his pocket in case.
Just then there came the sound of footsteps, and down the path came Lady Candling, Miss Trimble, Tupping, and Miss Harmer. Tupping looked important. The others looked upset, and Miss Trimble could not keep her glasses on for more than two seconds at a time.
They all looked into the cage, apparently in the vain hope that Dark Queen might possibly be there after all. Miss Harmer gave a squeal.
"What's the matter?" said Lady Candling. Miss Harmer pointed to the floor of the cage.
"What's that?" she said. They all looked in.
"Ho!" said Tupping in a ferocious voice. "That's one of them whistles Luke is always making, that is! I'd just like to know how that got there!"
Miss Harmer took the key of the cat-cage and opened the door. Tupping picked up the whistle. He showed it to Lady Candling.
"Is this one of the whistles you make, Luke?" asked Lady Candling.
Luke nodded. He looked very pale. He could not understand how Dark Queen could have gone again, nor how his whistle could have been found in the cage.
"Luke has been making whistles for all of us," said Fatty. He pulled his own out from his pocket "I expect it's one of our whistles, Lady Candling."
"But how could it have got into the cage?" said Lady Candling, puzzled.
"Your ladyship, it's quite plain," said Tupping. "That boy went in to take the cat, like he did before — and he dropped this whistle by accident and never saw it. He went out of the cage, locked it, put the key back in its place, and went off with Dark Queen."
"I don't even know where the key's kept now," said Luke.
"I usually have it in my pocket, except on the days when I go out," said Miss Harmer. "Then I give the key to Tupping. What do you do with it, Tupping?"
"I keep it in my pocket, too," said Tupping. "But I left my coat along here somewhere this afternoon, so Luke could easily have got at the key. Mark my words, Dark Queen is hidden somewhere about, ready for somebody to fetch away! I knew you'd be sorry, Madam, if you took that boy back again. Stands to reason something of this sort will happen if you do that I said many a time to Mr. Goon —"
"I am not interested in what you say to Mr. Goon," said Lady Candling. "I think we will go over Mr. Goon's head this time and get in touch with Inspector Jenks immediately."
The children were simply delighted to hear this; but, alas, the good Inspector was away, so Mr. Goon had to be notified, and arrived, full of importance, to look for clues and to hear what everyone had to say.
He looked suspiciously at the five children. Then he looked at the cages as if he expected to find a whole lot of dues there again. But there was nothing to see except the whistle which Lady Candling had given him.
"You found any dues this time?" said Clear-Orf to Fatty.
"We've only found a smell and a stone with paint on it," said Bets. The others frowned at her so suddenly and severely that she nearly ran away.
"A smell?" said Mr. Goon disbelievingly. "And a stone with paint on? Ho! so you think you can trick me again, do you — with smells and stones this time!"
With that Mr. Goon turned his back on the children, who at once went to the wall, climbed over it, and sat down to talk about this new happening.
"Bets! Of all the IDIOTS!" said Pip. "You deserve to be spanked. Fancy telling Clear-Orf our own dues! Are you quite mad?"
"I must be," said Bets, almost in tears. "I can't think why I said it."
"Never mind, Bets," said Fatty comfortingly. "Just because you told him, he won't believe you — so if they are clues, it won't matter. Cheer up!"
"It really is a most extraordinary mystery," said Daisy.
Buster really has got Brains
"What is the most puzzling thing of all," said Fatty, "is the fact that nearly everything is the same as last time."
"It looks as if all those things had to be like that before the cat could be stolen," said Daisy.
"It's no good suspecting anyone but Luke this time," said Larry. "The cat was there at three o'clock, because both Tupping and Lady Candling saw it; and Luke was by the cat-house from three until Miss Harmer returned, and then she and Tupping go into the cage and find Dark Queen missing."
"And Luke says, as he said last time, that no one went near" the cage except himself, all that time," said Pip. "Well, I simply do not see how Dark Queen could have been stolen."
Everyone was silent. Again it seemed an absolutely mystifying problem with no solution at all — except that Luke was a very stupid and untruthful thief. But not one of the children could believe that.
The children stayed talking until it was Bets' bed-time. Then they said good-bye and got up to go home.
"Meet here again tomorrow," said Fatty in a gloomy voice. "Not that we can do much. We'll all think hard in bed tonight and see if we can possibly find some way out of this problem."
Nobody had got any good idea when they met the next morning — except Bets. And she hardly liked to mention her idea, because she thought the others would laugh at it.
"Anyone got anything to say?" asked Fatty.
"Well," said Bets, "I did get a sort of an idea about one of our clues."
"What?" said Fatty.
"You know that smell we smelt — turpentine," said Bets. "It was in the cage this time, and last time too. It must mean something — it must belong to the mystery somehow, mustn't it? So it must be a real clue, and we ought to follow it up."
"How?" said Pip, rather scornfully.
"Well, we could go and hunt about next door to find where the bottle of turps is kept or something like that," said Bets. "I don't say it will help; but after all, if it's a clue, we might find out something."
"Bets is right," said Fatty. "She really is. We did smell turps both times — and of course we ought to go and look to see if we can find where it's kept. Who knows, we might fine other clues then!"
"Let's go now, then," said Pip. "No time like the present! Come on. Look out for Tupping though. He won't like us snooping about."
They all went over the wall again, leaving poor Buster in the shed. They sent Pip into the garden to see whereabouts Tupping was.
Pip came back and reported that he was tying up something near the house. "So we're safe for a bit," he said. "Come on. Let's sniff in the cage again, and see i
f the smell is still there. Then we'll go hunting for the stuff."
They all sniffed in the cage. The faint smell of turps still hung there. Miss Harmer came up as the children were sniffing. She did not seem very pleased to see them.
"I don't want anyone near the cat-house now," she said. "This disappearing of Dark Queen twice running is getting on my nerves. I'd rather you kept away, children."
"Miss Harmer, do you use turps to clean out the cages at all?" asked Fatty.
Miss Manner looked surprised. "Of course not," she said. "I use an ordinary disinfectant. Cats hate the smell of turpentine,"
"Well, how did the smell of turps get into the cage then?" said Larry. "You sniff, Miss Harmer, and see if you can smell it."
But Miss Harmer had not got a very good nose for smelling, and she did not think she could smell anything like turps in the cage.
"Didn't you yesterday when you went in and found Dark Queen was gone?" said Larry.
"Well, perhaps I did," said Miss Harmer, trying to remember. "But I couldn't swear to it. I was so upset at Dark Queen disappearing again."
The children peered into the cage, still sniffing. Miss Harmer sent them off. "Do go," she said. "I really feel nervous now when anyone comes near the cats."
"Let's go to the shed and see if we can find any turps there," said Fatty. So they left the cat-house and went off to the two sheds that leaned back to back, not far from the greenhouses.
"You girls take one shed and search it and we boys will take the other," said Fatty.
So they all began to hunt hard in the two sheds, but there was no turps to be found anywhere.
Larry saw Luke passing by, looking very gloomy indeed. He whistled to him.
"Hie, Luke! You look as if you had lost a shilling and found sixpence. Cheer up!"
"You wouldn't feel very cheerful if you felt as frit as I do," said poor Luke.
"What you doing in them sheds?" he said. "You'll catch it if Mr. Tupping comes along and sees you messing about there."
"We're looking for the turpentine," said Fatty, poking his round face out of the shed. Luke looked astonished.
"Turps?" he said. "What do you want turps for? It's kept in the other shed — on the shelf — I'll show you. But what do you want it for?"
Luke led the boys into the other shed, where Daisy and Bets were. He pointed to a shelf on which various bottles and tins stood. "It's there somewhere," he said.
The children looked. They picked up one bottle after another and sniffed it. But there was no turpentine at all.
"We've already looked, anyway," said Daisy.
Luke was puzzled. "It was there," he said. "I saw it myself yesterday. Where's it gone?"
Fatty began to feel excited, though he didn't quite know why.
"We've got to find that bottle," he said.
"Why?" asked Daisy.
"Don't know," said Fatty. "But we've got to. It's gone. Maybe it's been hidden away. We've got to find it."
"I bet old Buster could find it for us," said Fatty.
Luke went off to his work, still looking extremely gloomy. The others went to the wall. Pip and Fatty climbed over it and dropped down to the other side. Pip went to the garden-shed at the top of the garden, and found a small jar of turps.
Fatty opened the bicycle shed and let out Buster, who tore round and round him, barking as if he had not seen Fatty for at least five years.
"Come on, Buster," said Fatty, picking him up. "You've got to do a little work."
In a short time Fatty, Buster, and Pip were over the wall with the others.
"The coast is all clear at the moment," said Larry.
Fatty shook some turps on to his rather grubby hanky, and held it to Buster's nose. "Smell that, old fellow. Smell it good and hard. That's turps. Now, you just run all over the place and see if you can find the same smell again. Good old bloodhound, aren't you?"
Buster did not like the smell of the turps at all. He looked away from the hanky with a face showing intense disgust. Then he sneezed violently three times.
"Go on, Buster dog, find it, find it!" said Fatty, flapping the hanky at him. Buster looked up at Fatty. He knew quite well what "find it" meant. He was always finding things for Fatty. He trotted off, his pink tongue hanging out, his tail in the air.
"He's looking for rabbits, not turps," said Larry in disgust. "Look — he's found a rabbit-hole — and now we shan't be able to make him see sense for ages!"
Buster had found a hole. It was in a bank. He stuck his nose into it, gave a whine, and began to dig hard in his usual way, sending the earth flying out behind him.
"Come out, idiot," said Fatty. "I didn't say rabbits, I said turps."
Fatty pulled Buster out by his hind legs. Something rolled out behind the little dog. All the children stared at it. It was a cork. Fatty picked it up and smelt it.
"It smells of turps!" he said in excitement, and the others crowded round to smell it. It did. There was no doubt about it at all.
In a trice Fatty was down on his hands and knees, feeling in the hole.
He pulled out a bottle. On it was an old label, half-torn, but the letters "turp" could still be faintly seen. There was still a little turpentine in the bottle, too.
"Here's what were were looking for," said Fatty triumphantly. He showed the bottle to the others. Bets went to the hole and peered in out of curiosity.
"There's something else, Fatty," she cried in excitement, and put in her hand. She pulled out a tin. The others crowded round again to look, feeling very thrilled.
"What is it?" said Larry eagerly. "A tin of paint. Here's a knife. Let me prise off the lid."
He did so — and the children saw that the tin was nearly full of a light-brown paint.
"How queer!" said Fatty. "It's the colour of that blob of paint on the stone we found. Look!"
He compared the stone with the paint in the tin. It exactly matched.
"Now," said Fatty, in glee, looking at the turps and the tin of paint, "now — who put the paint and turps down that hole — and WHY?"
A Hunt for a Smell!
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."
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!"