Seventeen.

Back at the circus field.

THE key turned in the lock and the door of the caravan was pushed open. A powerful torch was switched on, and the beam flashed round the inside of the van.

The boys were under the bunks and could not be seen. But the man was so certain that somebody was inside the van that he pulled aside the draperies that hung over the side of the bunk where Peter was hiding. At once he saw the boy.

He shouted angrily and dragged poor Peter out. He shook him so hard that the boy yelled. Out came Colin at once to his rescue!

"Ah-so there are two of you!" said the man. "What are you doing here? How long have you been in this van?"

"Not long," said Peter. "We came in by mistake. We wanted to get into another van-but in the dark we missed our way."

"A pretty poor sort of story!" said the man, angrily. "Now I'm going to give you each a good hiding-that will teach you to get into other people's caravans."

He put down his torch on a shelf, so that its beam lighted the whole caravan. He pushed back his coat sleeves and looked very alarming indeed.

Colin suddenly kicked up at the torch. It jerked into the air and fell to the floor with a crash. The bulb was broken and the light went out. The caravan was in darkness.

"Quick, Peter, go for his legs!" yelled Colin, and dived for the man's legs. But in the darkness he missed them, shot out of the door, and rolled down the steps, landing with a b.u.mp on the road below.

Peter got a slap on the side of his head and dodged in the darkness. He, too, dived to get hold of the man's legs and caught one of them. The man hit out again arid then staggered and fell. Peter wriggled away, half fell down the steps and rolled into the hedge.

At the same moment the horse took fright and galloped off down the road with the caravan swinging from side to side behind it in a most alarming manner. The man inside must have been very very surprised indeed!

"Colin! Where are you?" shouted Peter. "Come on, quickly. The horse has bolted with the caravan and the man inside it. Now's our chance!"

Colin was hiding in the hedge, too. He stepped out to join Peter, and the two set off down the road as fast as they could, running at top speed, panting loudly.

"Every single thing in this adventure goes wrong," said Colin at last, slowing down. "We can't even get into the right caravan when we want to-we have to choose the wrong one."

"Well, we learnt quite a bit," said Peter. "And we know the thief is wearing those socks now, even if we still don't know who he is. Funny thing is-I seem to know his voice."

"Have you any idea at all where we are?" asked Colin. "I mean-do you suppose we're running towards home, or away from it? As this is a most contrary adventure, I wouldn't be surprised if we're running in the wrong direction as fast as ever we can!"

"Well, we're not," said Peter. "I know where we are all right. In fact, we'll soon be back at the circus field. I say-should we slip into the field again and just have a squint round for the man who's wearing the socks? I feel as if I simply must find out who he is!"

Colin didn't want to. He had had enough adventure for one night. But he said he would wait for Peter outside the gate if he badly wanted to go into the field again.

So Peter slipped over the fence and made his way to where he saw many lights. The show was over, and the people had gone home. But the circus folk were now having their supper, and the light from lanterns and fires looked very bright and gay.

Peter saw some children playing together. One of them appeared very tall indeed-and Peter saw that she was walking on stilts, just as the stilt-walkers did in the ring. It was the rude little girl who had told him there was no one-legged man in the circus. She came walking over to where he stood by a caravan, but she didn't see him. She was absorbed in keeping her balance on the stilts.

She came and went-and Peter stared at something showing on the ground. Where the child had walked, her stilts had left peculiar marks pitted in the ground-regular, round marks-just like the ones by the wall round Milton Manor! There they were, showing clearly in the damp ground, lit by the flickering light of a nearby lantern!

"Look at that!" said Peter to himself. "We were blind I Those marks weren't made by a one-legged man-they were made by a stilt-walker! Why ever didn't we think of it before?"

Eighteen.

Peter tells his story.

PETER gazed down at the number of queer round marks. He looked over at the child who was stilt-walking-yes, everywhere she went, her stilts left those round marks on the ground. Now another bit of the jigsaw had fitted into place.

"The thief was a stilt-walker," said Peter to himself. "He took his stilts with him to help him to get over the wall. I must find Colin and tell him!"

He ran over to where Colin was waiting for him. "Colin, I've discovered something exciting!" he said. "I know what makes those peculiar round marks-and they're nothing to do with a one-legged man!"

"What makes them then?" asked Colin, surprised.

"Stilts!" said Peter. "The ends of stilts! The thief was on stilts-so that he could easily get over that high wall. What a very clever idea!"

"But how did he do it?" said Colin, puzzled. "Come on, let's go home, Peter. I shall get into an awful row, it's so late. I'm terribly tired, too."

"So am I," said Peter. "Well, we won't discuss this exciting evening any more now-we'll think about it and have a meeting tomorrow morning. I'll send Janet round for the others first thing. As a matter of fact, I haven't quite worked out how the thief did climb over the wall with stilts."

Colin yawned widely. He felt that he really could not try to think out anything. He was bruised from his fall out of the caravan, he had banged his head hard, and he felt rather dazed. All he wanted to do was to get into bed and go to sleep!

Janet was fast asleep when Peter got home, so he didn't wake her. He got into bed, meaning to think everything out carefully-but he didn't, because he fell sound asleep at once!

In the morning he wouldn't tell Janet a word about the night's adventures. He just sent her out to get the others to a meeting. They came, wondering what had happened. One by one they hissed the pa.s.sword-'Adventure!"-and pa.s.sed through the door. Colin was last of all. He said he had overslept!

"What happened last night? Did you find the pearls? Do you know who the thief is?" asked Pam, eagerly.

"We didn't find the pearls-but we know everything else!" said Peter, triumphantly.

"Do we?" said Colin, surprised. "You may, Peter-but I don't. I still feel sleepy!"

"Peter, tell us," said George. "Don't keep us waiting. Tell us everything!"

"Come on up to Little Thicket and I'll show you exactly how the thief got over that wall," said Peter, suddenly deciding that that would be a very interesting way of fitting all the bits of the jigsaw together.

"Oh-you might tell us now!" wailed Janet, bitterly disappointed.

"No. Come on up to Little Thicket," said Peter. So they all went together to Little Thicket, and walked over to the big gates of Milton Manor. Johns the gardener was there again, working in the front beds of the drive.

"Johns! May we come in again?" shouted Peter. "We won't do any harm."

Johns opened the gates, grinning. "Discovered anything yet?" he asked as the children crowded through.

"Yes, lots," said Peter, and led the way to the place where the thief had climbed over the wall. "Come along with us and I'll tell you what we've discovered, Johns!"

"Right-but I'll just let this car in at the gates first," said Johns, as a big black car hooted outside.

The children soon came to the place where they had been before. "Now look," said Peter, "this is what happened. The thief was a stilt-walker, so all he had to do was to come to the outside of this wall, get up on his stilts-walk to the wall, lean on the top, take his feet from the stilts and sit on the wall. He then draws his stilts over the wall and uses them on this soft ground. On the hard garden paths they don't mark, and foe is safe to come to earth and hide his stilts along the box hedging of the border."

"Go on!" said Janet in excitement.

"He gets into the house, takes the pearls, and comes back to the wall," said Peter. "Up he gets on his stilts again and walks to the wall-and he leaves more of these peculiar round stilt-marks behind in the earth, of course!"

"Goodness-that's what they were!" said Pam.

"Yes. And as he clambers on to the wall, his cap catches a high branch of a tree and is jerked off," said Peter. "He leaves it there because he doesn't want to waste time getting it back. He catches one of his socks on that little sharp piece of brick and leaves a bit of wool behind . . . then he's up on the top of the wall, and down he jumps on the other side!"

"Which I heard him do!" said Colin. "But, Peter-he had no stilts when I saw him. What did he do with his stilts?"

Nineteen.

Where are the pearls?

"You want to know what he did with the stilts he used when he climbed up on the wall after he had stolen the pearls?" said Peter. "Well-I don't really know-but if all my reasoning is right, he must have flung them into a thick bush, somewhere, to hide them!"

"Yes-of course," said Pam. "But which bush?"

They all looked round at the bushes and trees near by. "A holly bush!" said Colin, pointing over the wall. "That's always so green and thick, and people don't go messing about with holly because it's too p.r.i.c.kly!"

"Yes-that would certainly be the best," said Peter. "Come on, everyone,"He led the rest out of the Manor grounds and round to the other side of the wall at top speed.

They were soon finding out what a very scratchy, p.r.i.c.kly job bending back the branches of the thick holly tree could be. But what a reward they had! There, pushed right into the very thickest part, were two long stilts! Colin pulled out one and Peter pulled out the other.

"You were right, Peter!" said Janet. "You are clever! We've explained simply everything now-the old cap high up on a branch-the bit of wool-the peculiar round marks-how the thief climbed an unclimbable wall. Really, I think the Secret Seven have been very, very clever!"

"And so do I!" shouted another voice. They all turned, and there, flushed and breathless, was their friend the inspector of police, with Johns the gardener still a good ten y;irds off.

"Hallo!" said Peter, surprised. "I say-did you hear that?"

"Yes," said the inspector, beaming but breathless. "Johns here opened the gate to my car, and told me he thought you had solved the mystery. We knew you must be hot on the scent of something when you chased out of the gate like that. Well, what's your explanation? You've certainly beaten the police this time!"

Peter laughed. "Ah well, you see-we can go snooping about the circus without anyone suspecting us-but if you sent seven policemen to snoop round the circus field, you'd certainly be suspected of something!"

"No doubt we should," agreed the inspector. He picked up the stilts and examined them. "A very ingenious way of scaling an enormously high wall. I suppose you can't also tell me who the thief is, can you?"

"Well-it's a stilt-walker, of course," said Peter. "And I think it's a fellow called Louis. If you go to the circus you'll probably find him wearing blue socks with a little red thread running down each side."

"And he'll have black hair with a little round bare place at the crown," said Colin. "At least-the thief I saw had a bare place there."

"Astonishing what a lot you know!" said the inspector, admiringly; "you'll be telling me the colour of his pyjamas next! What about coming along to find him now? I've got a couple of men out in the car. We can all go."

"Oooh," said Pam, imagining the Secret Seven appearing on the circus field with three big policemen. "I say-won't the circus folk be afraid when they see us?"

"Only those who have reason to be afraid," said the inspector. "Come along. I do want to see if this thief of yours has a bare place on the crown of his head. Now, how do you know that, I wonder? Most remarkable!"

They all arrived at the circus field at last. The police got there first, of course, as they went in their car, but they waited for the children to come. Through the gate they all went, much to the amazement of the circus folk there.

"There's Louis," said Peter, pointing out the sullen-looking young fellow over by the lions' cage. "Blow-he's got no socks on again!"

"We'll look at the top of his head then," said Colin.

Louis stood up as they came near. His eyes looked uneasily at the tall inspector.

"Got any socks on?" inquired the inspector, much to Louis's astonishment. "Pull up your trousers."

But, as Peter had already seen, Louis was bare-legged. "Tell him to bend over," said Colin, which astonished Louis even more.

"Bend over," said the inspector, and Louis obediently bent himself over as if he were bowing to everyone.

Colin gave a shout. "Yes-that's him all right! See the bare round patch at the crown of his head? Just like I saw when I was up in the tree!"

"Ah-good," said the inspector. He turned to Louis again. "And now, young fellow, I have one more thing to say to you. Where are the pearls?"

Twenty.

The end of the adventure.

Louis stared at them all sullenly. "You're mad!" he said. "Asking me to pull up my trouser legs, and bend over-and now you start talking about pearls. What pearls? I don't know nothing about pearls-never did."

"Oh yes, you do," said the inspector. "We know all about you, Louis. You took your stilts to get over that high wall-didn't you?-the one that goes round Milton Manor. And you got the pearls, and came back to the wall. Up you got on to your stilts again, and there you were, nicely on top, ready to jump down the other side."

"Don't know, what you're talking about," mumbled Louis sulkily, but he had gone very pale.

"I'll refresh your memory a little more then," said the inspector. "You left stilt-marks behind you-and this cap on a high branch - and this bit of wool from one of your socks. You also left your stilts behind you, in the middle of a holly bush. Now, you didn't do all those things for nothing. Where are those pearls?"

"Find 'em yourself," said Louis. "Maybe my brother's gone off with them in the caravan. He's gone, anyway."

"But he left the pearls here-he said so," said Peter, suddenly. "I was in the caravan when you were talking together!"

Louis gave Peter a startled and furious glance. He said nothing.

"And you said the pearls would be safe with the lions!" said Peter. "Didn't you?"

Louis didn't answer. "Well, well!" said the inspector, "we'll make a few inquiries from the lions themselves!"

So accompanied by all the children, and the two policemen, and also by about thirty interested circus folk, and by the little bear who had somehow got free and was wandering about in delight, the inspector went over to the big lions' cage. He called for the lion-keeper.

He came, astonished and rather alarmed.