The five children stared at her. This was indeed news.
"But why didn't you tell every one that?" asked Larry at last. "If you said that, no one would say that Horace burnt down the cottage."
Lily's eyes filled with tears. "Well, you see," she said, "My mother says I'm too young to say I'll marry any one, but Horace Peeks, he loves me, and I love him. My father said he'd thrash me if he caught me walking out with Horace, and Mrs. Minns said she'd tell my father if ever she caught me speaking a word to him. So I didn't dare to go out to the pictures with him, or even to talk to him in the house."
"Poor Lily," said Daisy. "So when you heard every one talking against him, you were very upset and wrote to warn him?"
"Yes," said Lily. "And, you see, if I tell that I was out with him that night, my father will punish me, and maybe Mrs. Minns will send me off, so I'll lose my job. And Horace can't say he was with me because he knows it will be hard for me if he does."
"Where did you go?" asked Fatty.
"I went on my bicycle half-way to Wilmer Green," said Lily. "We met at his sister's there and had tea together, and a bite of supper. We told his sister all about how poor Horace had lost his fob that day, and she said maybe her husband would give Mm some work till he could find another job."
Fatty remembered that the tramp had seen Horace Peeks in the garden that evening, and he looked sharply at Lily. Could she be telling all the truth?
"Are you sure that Horace didn't come here at all that night?" he said. The others knew why he said it — they too remembered that the tramp had said he had seen Horace Peeks.
"No, no!" cried Lily, raising her voice in fright. She twisted her handkerchief round and round in her hands, and stared at the children. "Horace wasn't anywhere near here. I tell you, we met at his sister's. You can ask her. She'll tell you."
Larry felt certain that Lily was frightened and was not telling the truth. He decided to be bold.
"Lily," he said, in a very solemn voice, "somebody saw Horace in the garden that evening."
Lily stared at Larry with wide, horrified eyes. "No!" she said. "They couldn't have seen him. They couldn't!"
"Well, they did," said Larry. Lily stared at him for a moment, and then began to sob.
"Who could have seen him?" she said. "Mrs. Minns and her sister were here in the kitchen. Mr. Hick and the chauffeur were out. There wasn't any one about; I know there wasn't."
"How do you know, if you weren't here?" asked Larry.
"Well," said Lily, swallowing a sob. "Well, I'll tell you. I was here! Now don't you forget you've said honour bright you won't tell a soul! You see, this is what happened. I rode off to meet Horace, and when I met him he told me he'd left some of his things at Mr. Hick's, and he wanted them. But he didn't dare to go and ask Mr. Hick for them. So I said to him, 'Well, Horace, I said, 'Mr. Hick's out, and why don't you come along and get them now, before he comes back?"
The children listened breathlessly. They were getting the truth at last!
Lily went on, twisting her handkerchief round and round all the time. "So when we'd had a cup of tea, we rode off here, and we left our bikes behind the hedge up the lane. Nobody saw us. We walked down, behind the hedge, till we got to Mr. Hick's. Then we both slipped into lie bushes and waited a bit to see if any one was about."
The children nodded. The tramp had said that he had heard Peeks whispering to some one — and that some one must have been Lily!
"I soon found out that Mrs. Mirhis had got her sister talking to her," went on Lily, "and I knew they'd sit there for ages. I said to Horace that I'd get his things for him if he liked, but he wanted to get them himself. Sol kept watch whilst he slipped into the house by an open window, got his things and came out into the bushes again. Then we went off on our bikes, without seeing a soul."
"And Horace didn't slip down the garden to the workroom?" asked Larry. Lily looked indignant.
"That he didn't!" she said. "For one thing I'd have seen him. For another thing, he wasn't gone more than three minutes. And for another thing, my Horace wouldn't do a thing like that!"
"Well — that lets Horace out," said Larry, saying aloud what every one else was thinking. "He couldn't have done it. I'm glad you told us all this, Lily. Golly — I do wonder who did it then?"
"It only leaves Mr. Smellie," said Bets, without thinking.
Bets's words had an astonishing result. Lily let out a squeal, and stared at Bets as if she couldn't believe her ears. She opened and shut her mouth like a fish, and didn't seem able to say a word.
"Whatever's the matter?" asked Larry, in surprise.
"What did she say that for?" asked Lily, almost in a whisper. "How does she know that Mr. Smellie was here that night?"
Now it was the children's turn to look surprised. "Well," and Larry, "we don't know for certain. We only just wondered. But why are you so astonished, Lily? What do you know about it, anyway? You didn't see Mr. Smellie, did you? You said that no one saw you and Horace."
"That's right," said Lily. "But Horace saw some one! When he got in through the window, and went upstairs to get his things, he saw some one creeping in through the garden door. And it was Mr. Smellie!"
"Golly!" said Larry and Pip. They all stared at one another. "So Mr. Smellie did go down here that night!" said Larry.
"No wonder he was so startled when you asked him if he went anywhere near Mr. Hick's on the evening of the fire," said Daisy.
"He did it!" said Bets triumphantly. "Now we know. H e did it! He's a wicked old man."
"Do you think he did it?" Fatty asked Lily. She looked puzzled and perplexed.
"/ don't know," she said. "He's a nice, quiet old gentleman, / think, and always had a kind word for me. It's not like him to do such a violent thing as set something on fire. But what I do know is — it wasn't Horace."
"No — it doesn't look as if it could have been Horace," agreed Larry. "I see now why you didn't say anything before, Lily — you were afraid. Well we shan't tell any one. It see his to me that we must now turn more of our attention to Mr. Smellie!"
"No doubt about that!" said Fatty. "Well — we've certainly found out a few things this afternoon!"
Clear-Orf turns up at an Awkward Moment
The children stayed talking to Lily for a little while, and then, as it was getting near tea-time they had to go. The girl was relieved to have told somebody of her troubles, and she saw them off, after they had once more promised to keep to themselves all that she had told them.
They were all having tea at Pip's, which was nice because they could talk everything over. They were very excited indeed.
"Things are moving!" said Pip, rubbing His hands together. "They certainly are moving! I don't believe Horace Peeks had anything to do with it at all. Not a thing. I think it was Mr. Smellie. Look how scared he was when you and Daisy spoke to him about his walk that evening. Why should he be scared if he hadn't done anything wrong?"
"And we know His shoes are the right size, even if the rubber-soles don't match the drawing," said Daisy.
"Maybe he has got a pair that do match," said Fatty, "but he's hidden them somewhere in case he did leave footprints behind. He might have thought of that".
"Yes, that's so," said Larry. "If only we could find some one with a torn grey flannel suit — that really would settle matters!"
"We really ought to search and see if we can find those shoes," said Daisy. "I should think they are in His study somewhere. You know he told us that Miss Miggie isn't allowed to tidy up in there. He could easily pop them into a cupboard there, or behind those rows of books or somewhere."