Mystery #02 — The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat

"Well, Lady Candling had quite a big party," said Pip, "and it stands to reason she couldn't leave a big party and go off to steal her own cat in the middle of it. The cook and parlourmaid were very busy all the time during the tea-hour, so that rules them out too. Miss Tremble had to help as well, and I'm sure Lady Candling would have been very suspicious if she'd gone off for ten minutes or so to steal the cat!"

"Go on, Pip," said Fatty. "Where's your list of Suspects, Larry? Let's cross them off one by one."

"And you can cross off Miss Harmer," said Pip, "because she went home yesterday and her home is at Langston, miles away. And look, here's the return-half she gave me, because the collector didn't take it when she got back. So we can cross her off too."

"That's all the Suspects crossed off — except Luke," said Larry. "Golly! it does look as if it might have been a friend of Luke's, doesn't it — someone who came slipping up, winked at Luke, took the cat and went off, trusting to Luke not to give him away. I wish we could find Luke and question him about Jake."

"I know where Luke is — I bet I know!" said Pip. "I bet he's gone to the circus — and he's with his friend Jake! I'll bet he'll go off with the circus, too, when it moves away!"

Everyone felt certain that Pip was right Of course that was where Luke would be.

"Look here, let's get out our bikes after tea and ride over to Farring," said Fatty. "We'll soon find the circus-tents, and if Luke's there we'll find him too!"

"Good idea!" said everyone, brightening up at the thought of doing something exciting. "Come on, let's hurry up over tea and go."

Mrs. Daykin (Larry's mother and Daisy's) was astonished to find the children galloping so fast through the lovely tea she had provided for them. She looked at them in astonishment.

"Are you terribly hungry, or just in a hurry?" she asked. "Didn't any of you have any dinner?"

"We're just in a hurry, Mrs. Daykin, that's all," said Fatty, as politely as he could with his mouth full. "We want to go for a bike-ride after tea."

"To Farring," put in Bets. She got two hard nudges at once, one from Pip and one from Larry. They were both afraid she would say too much.

"Why to Farring?" said Mrs. Daykin, surprised. She didn't know the circus was there. "It's not a very pretty place."

"Well, we thought it would be quite a nice ride there and back," said Larry. "We'd better be going now. We'll not be late home, Mother."

Fatty had to go and get his bicycle, and so had Bets and Pip. To her joy Bets was allowed to come, as Farring was not a great distance away. The children rode off gaily.

Soon, in front of them, they saw another bicyclist — a big burly one, dressed in dark blue.

"Golly! There's old Clear-Orf!" said Pip. "Don't catch him up, anyone. He may turn off somewhere, and then we can get on quickly on our way to Farring."

But Clear-Orf took the way to Farring too! "I say! I hope he isn't going to see Jake as well," said Fatty in dismay. "Do you suppose he got out of Luke that he had a circus friend? Blow! We can't let Clear-Orf get ahead of us like this. After all, Jake may be a fine big Clue."

Then a lovely thing happened. Mr. Goon got a puncture! He rode over a piece of glass, and his back tyre went flat quite suddenly. The big policeman bumped along the road, gave a loud and angry exclamation, and got off.

He took his bike to the side of the road and got out a puncture-mending outfit. The children, grinning, rode quickly by. Fatty waved to him.

"Evening, Mr. Goon! Sorry to see you are in trouble!"

The policeman looked up in surprise that turned to annoyance when he saw the five children cycling quickly on the way to Farring. He began to mend his inner tube. The children simply sped along, knowing that they had at least a quarter of an hour before Clear-Orf could catch them up.

"There's the circus-tents," said Bets, as they topped a hill and rode down. "And look at the cages, too — and the gay caravans. Oh, I do think it looks exciting!"

It was exciting. A big elephant was tethered by a hind leg to a stout tree. Five tigers in a very strong cage roared for their dinner. Seven beautiful black horses were being ridden round the field by the grooms, who were giving them a little exercise.

Smoke rose from the chimneys of the gay caravans, and all kinds of exciting smells rose on the air.

"What's our plan?" said Larry, jumping off his bicycle and leaning it against the fence. "Do we hunt round for Luke, or do we ask for Jake?"

"We'll all go, except Bets," said Larry. "It can't matter us wandering separately round the field. I can see other children doing it too. But Bets had better stay and look after the bikes."

The others climbed over the fence and went in to the field. They separated and wandered about, waiting to meet someone they could ask about Jake.