Mystery #02 — The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat

"Turps?" he said. "What do you want turps for? It's kept in the other shed — on the shelf — I'll show you. But what do you want it for?"

Luke led the boys into the other shed, where Daisy and Bets were. He pointed to a shelf on which various bottles and tins stood. "It's there somewhere," he said.

The children looked. They picked up one bottle after another and sniffed it. But there was no turpentine at all.

"We've already looked, anyway," said Daisy.

Luke was puzzled. "It was there," he said. "I saw it myself yesterday. Where's it gone?"

Fatty began to feel excited, though he didn't quite know why.

"We've got to find that bottle," he said.

"Why?" asked Daisy.

"Don't know," said Fatty. "But we've got to. It's gone. Maybe it's been hidden away. We've got to find it."

"I bet old Buster could find it for us," said Fatty.

Luke went off to his work, still looking extremely gloomy. The others went to the wall. Pip and Fatty climbed over it and dropped down to the other side. Pip went to the garden-shed at the top of the garden, and found a small jar of turps.

Fatty opened the bicycle shed and let out Buster, who tore round and round him, barking as if he had not seen Fatty for at least five years.

"Come on, Buster," said Fatty, picking him up. "You've got to do a little work."

In a short time Fatty, Buster, and Pip were over the wall with the others.

"The coast is all clear at the moment," said Larry.

Fatty shook some turps on to his rather grubby hanky, and held it to Buster's nose. "Smell that, old fellow. Smell it good and hard. That's turps. Now, you just run all over the place and see if you can find the same smell again. Good old bloodhound, aren't you?"

Buster did not like the smell of the turps at all. He looked away from the hanky with a face showing intense disgust. Then he sneezed violently three times.

"Go on, Buster dog, find it, find it!" said Fatty, flapping the hanky at him. Buster looked up at Fatty. He knew quite well what "find it" meant. He was always finding things for Fatty. He trotted off, his pink tongue hanging out, his tail in the air.

"He's looking for rabbits, not turps," said Larry in disgust. "Look — he's found a rabbit-hole — and now we shan't be able to make him see sense for ages!"

Buster had found a hole. It was in a bank. He stuck his nose into it, gave a whine, and began to dig hard in his usual way, sending the earth flying out behind him.

"Come out, idiot," said Fatty. "I didn't say rabbits, I said turps."

Fatty pulled Buster out by his hind legs. Something rolled out behind the little dog. All the children stared at it. It was a cork. Fatty picked it up and smelt it.

"It smells of turps!" he said in excitement, and the others crowded round to smell it. It did. There was no doubt about it at all.

In a trice Fatty was down on his hands and knees, feeling in the hole.

He pulled out a bottle. On it was an old label, half-torn, but the letters "turp" could still be faintly seen. There was still a little turpentine in the bottle, too.

"Here's what were were looking for," said Fatty triumphantly. He showed the bottle to the others. Bets went to the hole and peered in out of curiosity.

"There's something else, Fatty," she cried in excitement, and put in her hand. She pulled out a tin. The others crowded round again to look, feeling very thrilled.

"What is it?" said Larry eagerly. "A tin of paint. Here's a knife. Let me prise off the lid."

He did so — and the children saw that the tin was nearly full of a light-brown paint.

"How queer!" said Fatty. "It's the colour of that blob of paint on the stone we found. Look!"

He compared the stone with the paint in the tin. It exactly matched.

"Now," said Fatty, in glee, looking at the turps and the tin of paint, "now — who put the paint and turps down that hole — and WHY?"

 

A Hunt for a Smell!

 

The children were terribly excited. They had two really big clues, though quite how to fit them to the stolen cat they didn't know.

"What is turps used for?" asked Bets.

"Oh, to clean paint-brushes — to get paint-marks off things," said Larry. "It's quite clear that this paint and the turps are connected in some way.

Buster had stuffed his blunt nose into the hole, and a shower of earth covered everyone. The little dog at last came out backwards, and in his mouth he held a small paint-brush!

"Listen, there's Tupping yelling to Luke," said Fatty. "We'd better get over the wall, quick. Here, Larry, just help me to clear up round this hole. We don't want whoever hid these things to see that we've found them. It would warn him — or her — that we were after them."

The boys cleared up the mess quickly, whilst the two girls ran for the wall, and Daisy helped Bets over. Then the others came, with Buster. They got over just in time, for Tupping came along that way half a minute later, grumbling away to himself.

The children retired to their old summer-house with their Clues, and looked at them closely.