"Oh, you are clever, Fatty!" said Bets, in great admiration. Fatty blew again, and an owl's hoot sounded over the garden. He really was very good at it.
"Simply wonderful!" said Bets. Fatty opened His mouth to say that he could make much better bird and animal noises than that, but caught a look in Larry's eye that warned him in time to say nothing. He shut His mouth again hurriedly.
"Well," said Larry, that's settled then. You meet me at half-past nine behind Mr. Smellie's house, and hoot like an owl to tell me you're there. I shall probably be finding in the bushes somewhere, waiting for you."
The children all felt excited as they went to bed that night. At least, Fatty didn't go to bed, though Larry did. But then Larry's mother usually came to tuck Mm up and say good night, and Fatty's didn't. So Fatty felt quite safe as he sat, fully-dressed, in His bedroom, reading a book to make the time pass.
At ten past nine he switched off His light and put His nose outside His bedroom door. There was no one about.
He slipped along the passage and down the stairs. Out of the garden door he went, and into the hotel garden. In half a minute he was in the lane, and running up it with the shoe
tucked under his coat.
At just before half-past nine he came to Mr. Smellie's house, and stopped outside the front gate. The house was quite dark. Fatty walked up and down outside for a moment or two to make quite certain that there was no one about.
He didn't see some one standing quite still by one of the big trees that lined the road. He walked down in front of the house once more, making up his mind to go into the drive and then quite suddenly he felt a strong hand on his shoulder!
Poor Fatty almost jumped out of his skin. "Oooh!" he said, frightened, and the shoe dropped from beneath his coat!
"Ho!" said a voice that Fatty knew only too well. "Ho!" A torch was flashed into his face, and the voice said "Ho!" again, this time more loudly.
It was Clear-Orf s voice. He had been standing quietly beside the tree, and had been astonished to see Fatty come up the lane, and walk softly up and down in front of the house. Now he was even more astonished to find that it was "one of them children!" He bent down and picked up the shoe. He stared at it in the greatest astonishment.
"What's this?" he said.
"It looks like a shoe," said Fatty. "Let me go! You've no right to clutch me like that."
"What are you doing with this shoe?" asked Clear-Orf, in an astonished voice. "Where's the other?"
"I don't exactly know," said Fatty truthfully. The policeman shook him angrily.
"None of your cheek," he said. He turned the shoe upside down and saw the rubber-sole. At once the same thought flashed across his mind as had flashed across Daisy's when she had first seen it the markings were like those on the footprint!
Mr. Goon stared at the shoe in amazement. He flashed his torch at Fatty again. "Where did you get this?" he asked. "Whose is it?"
Fatty looked obstinate. "Some one found it and gave it to me," he said at last.
"I shall keep it for the time being," said Mr. Goon. "Now you just come-alonga-me for a minute."
But Fatty didn't mean to do that. With a sudden quick twist he was out of Clear-Orf s grasp and tearing up the lane as fast as he could go. He went right to the top, and then round and into the lane in which Larry's house stood. He slipped into Larry's drive when he came to it and made his way to the bottom of the garden, his heart beating loudly. He shinned up to the top of the wall and dropped down. He made his way cautiously to the back the house.
Then he hooted like an owl. "Oooo-oo! Oooo-ooo-ooo-OOOOO!"
A Fright for Larry and Fatty
"Oooh!" said Fatty, startled.
"Sh!" came Larry's voice in a whisper. "Have you got the shoe?"
"No," said Fatty, and explained quickly what had happened to it. Larry listened in dismay.
"You are an idiot!" he said. "Giving one of our best clues away to old Clear-Orf like that! He'll know we are after the same ideas as he is now!"
"The shoe wasn't a clue," argued Fatty. "It was a mistake. We thought it was a clue, but it wasn't. Anyway, Clear-Orf s got it, and I really couldn't help it He nearly got me too. I only just managed to twist away,".
"What shall we do?" asked Larry. "Shall we go in and hunt now? There's no light in the study. Old Mr. Smellie must have gone to bed."
"Yes, come on," said Fatty. "Where's the garden door?"
They soon found it, and to their great delight it was still unlocked. As there was a light from the kitchen, the two boys thought that Miss Miggle was still up. They decided to be very cautious indeed.
They slipped in at the door. Larry led the way to the study where he and Daisy had talked to Mr. Smellie that day. "You'd better stay on guard in the hall," he said. "Then if Miss Miggle or Mr. Smellie do happen to come along you can warn me at once. I shall open one of the windows of the study if I can do it without making a lot of noise then I can slip out of it if any one thinks of walking into the room."