Jack turned to the others, his face red with excitement. He pushed them on a little, till he was out of the man"s hearing.
"Did you see that coat he was wearing?" he asked. "It"s like that cap we found up in the tree-only not quite so filthy dirty! I"m sure it is!"
All seven turned to look round at the man, who was by now painting the outside of the lions" cage, making it look a little smarter than before. He had taken off his coat and hung it on the handle of the lions" cage. How the Seven longed to go and compare the cap with the coat!
"Have you got the cap with you?" asked Pam in a whisper. Peter nodded, and patted his coat pocket. He had all the "clues" with him, of course!
Their chance suddenly came. The man was called away by someone yelling for him, and went off, leaving his paint-pot, brush and coat. Immediately the children went over to the coat.
"Pretend to be peering into the lions" cage while I compare the cap with the coat," said Peter in a low voice. They all began to look into the cage and talk about the lions, while Peter pulled the cap out of his pocket and quickly put it against the coat.
He replaced the cap at once. There was no doubt about it-the cap and coat matched perfectly. Then was this fellow who was painting the lions" cage the thief? But how did it happen that he had thrown his cap high up in a tree? Why did he leave it behind? It just didn"t make sense.
The man came back, whistling. He stooped down to pick up his paint-brush, and Colin got a splendid view of the top of his head. He gazed at it.
Then all the children moved off in a body longing to ask Peter about the cap.^ Once they were out of hearing, he nodded to them. "Yes," he said. "They match. That fellow may be the thief, then. We"ll have to watch him."
"No good," said Colin, unexpectedly. "I just caught sight of the top of his head. He"s got black hair-but no round bare patch at the crown, like the man had who sat below me in that tree. He"s not the thief!"
Fourteen.
The peculiar marks again.
THE Seven went to sit on the rails of the fence that ran round the circus field.
They felt disheartened.
"To think we find somebody wearing a coat that exactly matches the cap we found-and yet he can"t possibly be the thief because the top of his head is wrong!" groaned Peter. "I must say this is a most aggravating adventure. We keep finding out exciting things-and each time they lead us nowhere at all!"
"And if we find anyone wearing those socks that we are sure belong to the thief, it won"t be him at all either," said Janet. "It will probably be his aunt, or something!"
That made everyone laugh. "Anyway," said Peter, "we"re not absolutely certain that the cap has anything to do with the theft of the necklace. We only found it flung high up in a tree, you know, near where the thief climbed over the wall."
"It has got something to do with the mystery," said George. "I"m sure of it-though I can"t for the life of me think how."
They all sat on the fence and gazed solemnly over the field. What an annoying adventure this was! And then Janet gave a little squeal.
"What is it? Have you thought of something?" asked Peter.
"No. But I"m seeing something," said Janet, and she pointed over to the right. The others looked where she pointed, and how they stared!
The field was rather wet just there, and in the damp part were round, regular marks just like those they had seen by the wall-and very like the smaller marks made by the one-legged man near his cottage!
"I think these marks are the right size," said Peter, jumping down in excitement. "They look bigger than the marks made by the one-legged man"s wooden leg. I"ll measure them."
He got out his bit of string and laid it carefully across one of the marks. Then across another and another. He looked up joyfully.
"See that? Exactly the same size! Every one of these round marks is the same as those we saw in the ground below the wall the thief climbed!"
"Then-there must be another one-legged man here, in the circus-a man with a wooden leg that measures the same as those round marks," said Colin, excitedly. "He"s not the thief, because a one-legged man couldn"t climb the wall, but he must have been with the thief!"
"We must find him," said George. "If we can find who his friend is, or who he shares a caravan with, we shall know his friend is the thief- and I expect we"ll find that the thief is wearing those socks, too! We"re getting warmer!"
Peter beckoned to the small circus girl who had turned cart-wheels some time before. "Hey, you!" he called. "We want to talk to the one-legged man here. Which is his caravan?"
"Don"t be daft," said the small girl. "There hain"t no one-legged man here. What"d he be doing in a circus? All of us here have got our two legs-and need "em! You"re daft!"
"Now look here," said Peter, firmly. "We know quite well there is a one-legged man here and we mean to see him. Here"s a penny if you"ll tell us where he is."
The little girl s.n.a.t.c.hed the penny at once. Then she laughed rudely. "Penny for nothing!" she said. "You"re nuts! I tell you, there bain"t no one-legged fellow here!"
And before they could ask her anything else, she was gone, turning over on hands and feet as fast as any clown in the circus!
"You run after her and spank her," called a woman from a nearby caravan. "But she won"t tell you no different. We ain"t got no one-leggy man here!"
She went into her caravan and shut the door. The Seven felt quite taken aback. "First we find marks outside Chimney Cottage and are certain they belong to the thief," groaned Peter, "but they belong to a one-legged man who is nothing to do with this adventure-and then we find the right marks, right size and all-and we"re told there isn"t a one-legged man here at all! It"s really very puzzling!"
"Let"s follow the marks," said Janet. "We shall find them difficult to see in the longer gra.s.s-but maybe we can spot enough to follow them up."
They did manage to follow them. They followed them to a small caravan parked not far off the lions" cage, next to a caravan where Louis was sitting on the steps. He watched them in surprise.
They went up the steps of the small caravan and peered inside. It seemed to be full of odds and ends of circus properties. n.o.body appeared to live there.
A stone skidded near to them and made them jump. "You clear off, peeping and prying where you"ve no business to be!" shouted Louis, and picked up another stone. "Do you hear me? Clear off!"
Fifteen.
A shock for Peter and Colin.
THE Seven went hurriedly out of the circus field and into the lane. George rubbed his ankle where one of Louis"s stones had struck him.
"Beast!" he said. "Why didn"t he want us to peep in that little old caravan? It"s only used for storing things, anyway."
"Maybe the thief has hidden the pearls there!" said Janet with a laugh.
Peter stared at her and thought hard. "Do you know-you might be right!" he said, slowly. "We are certain the thief belongs to the circus-we"re certain the pearls must be there-and why should Louis be so upset when we just peeped into that caravan?"
"I wish we could search it and see," said Colin, longingly. "But I don"t see how we can."
"Well, I do!" said Peter. "You and I will go to tonight"s performance of the circus, Colin-but we"ll slip out at half-time, when all the performers are in the ring, or behind it-and we"ll see if those pearls are hidden there!"
"But surely they won"t be?" asked Pam. "It seems such a silly place."
"I"ve got a sort of a hunch about it," said Peter, obstinately. "I just can"t explain it. Those queer round marks seemed to lead there, didn"t they? Well, that"s peculiar enough, to begin with."
"It certainly is," said Barbara. "Marks made by a one-legged man who doesn"t exist! This is a silly adventure, I think,"
"It isn"t really," said George. "It"s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle-the bits look quite odd and hopeless when they"re all higgledy-piggledy-but as soon as you fit them together properly, they make a clear picture."
"Yes-and what we"ve got so far is a lot of odd bits that really belong to one another-but we don"t know how they fit," said Pam. "A bit of blue wool belonging to socks we saw on the line-a tweed cap that matches a coat worn by someone we know isn"t the thief! Queer marks that turn up everywhere and don"t tell us anything."
"Come on-let"s get home," said Jack, looking at his watch. "It"s almost dinner-time. We"ve spent all the morning snooping about for nothing. Actually I"m beginning to feel quite muddled over this adventure. We keep following up trails that aren"t any use at all."
"No more meetings today," said Peter, as they walked down the lane. "Colin and I will meet tonight by ourselves and go to the circus. Bring a torch, Colin. Golly-suppose we found the pearls hidden in that old caravan!"
"We shan"t," said Colin. "I can"t think why you"re so set on searching it. All right-meet you at the circus gate tonight!"
He was there first. Peter came running up a little later. They went in together, groaning at having to pay out two more shillings. "Just for half the show, too," whispered Peter.
The two boys went into the big tent and found seats near the back, so that they could easily slip out unnoticed. They sat down and waited for the show to begin.
It really was very good, and the clowns, stilt-walkers and acrobats seemed better than ever. The boys were quite sorry to slip out before the show was over.
It was dark in the circus field now. They stopped to get their direction. "Over there," said Peter, taking Colin"s arm. "See-that"s the caravan, I"m sure."
They made their way cautiously towards the caravan. They didn"t dare to put on their torches in case someone saw them and challenged them. Peter fell over the bottom step of the caravan, and then began to climb up carefully.
"Come on," he whispered to Colin. "It"s all clear! The door isn"t locked, either. We"ll creep in, and begin our search immediately!"
The two boys crept into the caravan. They b.u.mped into something in the darkness. "Dare we put on our torches yet?" whispered Colin.
"Yes. I can"t hear anyone near," whispered back Peter. So, very cautiously, shading the beam with their hands, they switched on their torches.
They got a dreadful shock at once. They were in the wrong caravan! This wasn"t the little caravan in which all kinds of things from the circus were stored-this was a caravan people lived in. Good gracious!
Suppose they were caught, what a row they would get into.
"Get out, quickly!" said Peter. But even as he spoke, Colin clutched his arm. He had heard voices outside! Then someone came up the step. Whatever were they going to do now!
Sixteen.
Prisoners.
"QUICK! Hide under that bunk thing-and I"ll hide under this," whispered Peter in a Pamc. He and Colin crawled underneath, and pulled the hangings over them. They waited there, trembling.
Two men came into the caravan, and one of them lit a lamp. Each sat down on a bunk. Peter could see nothing of them but their feet and ankles.
He stiffened suddenly. The man on the bunk opposite had pulled up his trouser legs, and there, on his feet, were the blue socks with the faint red lines running down each side!
To think he was sitting opposite the man who must be the thief- and he couldn"t even see his face to know who it was! Who could it be?
"I"m clearing out tonight," said one man.
"I"m fed up with this show. Nothing but grousing and quarrelling all the time. And I"m scared the police"ll come along sooner or later about that last job."
"You"re always scared," said the man with the socks. "Let me know when it"s safe to bring you the pearls. They can stay put for months, if necessary."
"Sure they"ll be all right?" asked the other man. The man with the socks laughed, and said a most peculiar thing.
"The lions will see to that," he said.
Peter and Colin listened, frightened and puzzled. It was plain that the thief was there-the man with the socks, whose face they couldn"t see-and it was also quite plain that he had hidden the pearls away for the time being-and that the first man had got scared and was leaving.
"You can say I"m feeling too sick to go on again in the ring tonight," said the first man, after a pause.
"I"ll go now, I think, while everyone"s in the ring. Get the horse, will you?"
The man with the socks uncrossed his ankles and went down the steps. Peter and Colin longed for the other fellow to go too. Then perhaps they could escape. But he didn"t go. He sat there, drumming on something with his fingers. It was plain that he felt nervous and scared.
There were sounds outside of a horse being put between the shafts. Then the man with the socks called up the steps.
"All set! Come on out and drive. See you later."
The man got up and went out of the caravan. To the boys" intense dismay he locked the door! Then he went quietly round to the front of the van, and climbed up to the driving seat. He clicked to the horse and it ambled off over the field.
"I say!" whispered Colin. "This is awful! He locked that door! We"re prisoners!"
"Yes. What a bit of bad luck," said Peter, crawling out from his very uncomfortable hiding-place. "And did you notice, Colin, that one of the men had those socks on! He"s the thief. And he"s the one we"ve left behind, worse luck."
"We"ve learnt a lot," said Colin, also crawling out. "We know the pearls are somewhere in the circus. What did he mean about the lions?"
"Goodness knows," said Peter. "Unless he"s put them into the lions" cage and hidden them somewhere there. Under one of the boards, I expect."
"We"ll have to escape somehow," said Colin, desperately. "Could we get out of a window, do you think?"
The boys peeped cautiously out of the window at the front, trying to see where they were. The caravan came to a bright street lamp at that moment-and Peter gave Colin a sharp nudge.
"Look!" he whispered, "that fellow who"s driving the caravan has got on the tweed coat that matches the old cap we found up in the tree. It must be the fellow we saw painting the outside of the lions" cage!"
"Yes. And probably the thief borrowed his cap to wear, seeing that they live in the same caravan," said Colin. "That makes one of the bits of jigsaw pieces fit into the picture, anyway."
They tried the windows. They were tightly shut. Colin made a noise trying to open the window and the driver looked back sharply into the van. He must have caught sight of the face of one of the boys by the light of a street lamp, for he at once stopped the horse, jumped down, and ran round to the back of the van.
"Now we"re for it!" said Peter in despair. "He"s heard us. Hide quickly, Colin! He"s unlocking the door!"