They all stared at one another. Then Pip had an idea, "I know! We'll go and find Peeks after tea today3 instead of wailing for tomorrow. We'll see him and try to make up our minds if he did it or not If we think he didn't do it, we'll give him Lily's letter!"
"Good idea!" said the others, pleased. "After all, we can't post a letter without a stamp - but we can deliver it by hand." They looked at the address.
Mr. H. Peeks. Ivy Cottage.
Wilmer Green.
"We'll go on our bikes," said Larry. "Come on - we must tell the others!"
Interviewing Mr. Horace Peeks.
The three of them went back to Fatty and Bets. Buster greeted them uproariously.
"Hallo," said Fatty, "how did you get on?"
"Awfully badly at first," said Larry, "and then, right at the end, we had a slice of good luck."
He told Bets and Fatty about the afternoon and they listened with the greatest interest. They all examined Peek's address, and were thrilled.
"So now Pip and Daisy and I are going on our bikes to Wilmer Green," said Larry. "It's only about five miles. At least, we'll have tea first and then go."
"I want to go too," said Bets at once.
"I'd like to go, but I believe I'm too stiff," said Fatty.
"You stay with Bets," said Pip. "We don't want to appear in a crowd. It might put Peeks on His guard."
"You keep leaving me out," said Bets sadly.
"No, we don't," said Larry. "Do you really want a job? Well, find out Mr. Smellie's address, see? Fatty will help you. It may be in the telephone book, or somebody may know it. We shall want His address tomorrow, because we must go and see him too. All the Suspects must be interviewed!"
"Two of them are crossed off now," said Pip. "Mrs. Minns didn't do it - and I'm sure the tramp didn't either. That only leaves Mr. Smellie and Mr. Peeks. I do wish we could find some one wearing rubber-soled shoes with those markings. It would be such a help!"
"I'll find out Mr. Smellie's address!" said Bets joyfully, pleased at having something real to do. "I'll bring the telephone book out here to Fatty."
The tea-bell rang. The children ran indoors to wash,, and were soon sitting down eating bread and butter and jam. Larry and Daisy stayed to tea, but Fatty had to go back to the hotel, as his mother was expecting him.
After tea Fatty came back and joined Bets. Larry and Pip and Daisy got out bicycles and cycled off. They knew the way to Wilmer Green quite well.
"What excuse shall we make for asking to see Horace Peeks?" said Larry, as they cycled quickly along.
Nobody could think of a good excuse. Then Pip had an idea. "Let's go to the house and just ask for a drink of water," he said. "If Peeks's mother is there I expect she'll talk nineteen to the dozen, and we may find out what we want to know - which is - where was Horace Peeks on the evening of the lire? If his mother says he was at home with her all the evening we can cross him off."
"Good idea!" said Larry. "And I'll tell you what I'll do, too; just before we get to the house I'll let the air out of my front tyre, see - and pumping up the bike will make a further excuse for staying and talking."
"Right!" said Pip. "I do think we are getting clever."
After some hard cycling they came to the village of Wilmer Green. It was a pretty place, with a duck-pond on which many white ducks were swimming. The children got off their bicycles and began to look for Ivy Cottage. They asked a little girl where it was, and she pointed it out to them. It was well set back from the road, and backed on to a wood.
The children rode to it, dismounted and went into the old wooden gate. Larry had already let the air out of his front tyre and it was almost flat.
"I'll ask for the water," said Daisy. They went up to the door, which was half-open. There was the sound of an iron going thump, thump, thump.
Daisy knocked on the door. "Who's there?" said a sharp voice.
"Please could we have a drink of water?" asked Daisy.
"Come in and get it," said the voice. Daisy opened the door wide and went in. She saw a sharp-faced old lady ironing a shirt. She nodded her head towards a tap over a sink.
"Water's there," she said. "Cup's on the shelf behind."
The two boys came in whilst Daisy was running the water. "Good evening," they said politely. "Thank you so much for letting us have some water. We've cycled quite a way, and we're awfully hot," said Larry. The old lady looked at him approvingly. He was a good-looking boy, and had beautiful manners when he liked.
"Where have you come from?" she asked, thumping with her iron.
"From Peterswood," said Larry. "I don't expect you know it, do you?"
"That I do," said the old lady. "My son was in service there with a Mr. Hick."
"Oh, how funny!" said Daisy, sipping the cup of water. "We were down in Mr. Hick's garden the other night, when there was a fire."
"A fire!" said the old woman, startled "What fire?
I hadn't heard anything of that Not Mr. Hick's house., surely?"
"No - only his cottage workroom," said Pip. "No one was hurt. But surely your son would have told you about it, wouldn't he - didn't he see it?"
"When was the fire?" asked the old lady.
Pip told her. Mrs. Peeks stopped ironing and thought. "Well, now, that was the day Horace came home," she said. "That's why he didn't know anything about it. He'd had a quarrel with Mr. Hick, and he gave notice. He got here in the afternoon and gave me a real start."
Then he must have missed the fire," said Pip. "I expect he was with you all the evening, wasn't he?"
"No, he wasn't," said Mrs. Peeks. "He went out after tea on his bike, and I didn't see him again til it was dark. I didn't ask him where he went. I'm not one for poking or prying. I expect he was down at the Pig and Whistle, playing darts. He's a rare one for darts, is our Horace."
The children exchanged glances. So Horace disappeared after tea - and didn't come back till dark! That seemed very suspicious indeed. Very suspicious! Where was he that evening? It would have been so easy to slip back to Peterswood on His bike, hide in the ditch, and set fire to the cottage when no one was about - and then cycle back unseen in the darkness!
Larry wondered what sort of shoes Horace wore. He looked round the kitchen. There was a pair of shoes wait-ing to be cleaned in a corner. They were about the size of the footprint. But they didn't have rubber soles. Perhaps Peeks was wearing them now. The children wished he would come in.
"I must just go and pump up my front tyre," said Larry, getting up. "I won't be a minute."
But although he left the other two quite five minutes to talk, there didn't seem anything more to be found out.
"Didn't find out anything else," said Pip in a low voice. "Hallo - who's this? Do you think it is Horace?"
They saw a weedy-looking young man coming in at the gate. He had an untidy lock of hair that hung over his
forehead, a weak chin, and rather bulging blue eyes, a little like Mr. Goon's. He wore a grey flannel coat!
All the children noticed this immediately. Daisy's heart began to beat fast. Could they have found the right person at last?
"What you doing here?" asked Horace Peeks.
"We came to ask for a drink of water," said Larry, wondering if he could possibly edge round Horace to see if there was a tear in his grey coat anywhere!
"And we found out that we come from the same place that you lived in only a little while ago," said Daisy brightly. "We live at Peterswood."
"That's where I worked," said Horace. "Do you know that bad-tempered old Mr. Hick? I worked for him, but nothing was ever right. Nasty old man."
"We don't like him very much ourselves," said Pip. "Did you know there was a fire at His place the day you left?"
"How do you know what day I left?" asked Mr. Peeks, astonished.
"Oh, we just mentioned the fire to your mother and she said it must have been the day you left, because you didn't know anything about it," said Pip.
"Well, all I can say is that Mr. Hick deserved to have his whole place burnt down, the mean, stingy, bad-tempered old fish!" said Horace. "I'd like to have seen it!"