"Then Mr. Hick went to the little cottage nearby, stayed there a while, came out and locked the door, and hid in the ditch again," said the tramp. "I lay under my bush as still as a mouse. After a time, when it was really dark, I heard Mr. Hick getting out of the ditch and going down
the lane towards the railway. Then I saw a light in the cottage and I guessed it was on fire, and I went off mighty quick. I didn't want to be found there and accused of firing it."
"Thank you," said the Inspector. "Was there any one else at all that you saw ? "
"Not a soul," said the tramp.
"A very pretty plot," said the Inspector. "Mr. Hick wants money. He manages to pick a quarrel with a good many people that day, so that if by chance the insurance company suspect foul play, there are many people who have reason to fire his cottage out of spite. He gets his chauffeur to take him to the station in the afternoon., to catch the train to town. He must have got out at the next station, and walked back over the fields to his garden, where he hid until he fired the cottage. Then he walked back to the railway, waited at the place where the London train always halts for a minute, and gets into an empty carriage, unseen in the darkness. He arrives at Peterswood Station, is met by his chauffeur and driven home, to be told that his workroom is on fire. Very pretty indeed."
"And now, I think, we must ask Mr. Hick a few questions," said the plain-clothes man.
"That is so," agreed the Inspector. He turned to the children. "We will let you know what happens," he said. "And, if I may say so, I am very proud to have met the Five Find-Outers - and Dog. I trust that we shall work together on other mysteries in the future. I should be extremely grateful for your help - and I am sure Mr. Goon feels the same as I do."
Mr. Goon didn't at all, but he could do nothing but nod and try to smile. He was angry to think that the five "pests" had actually solved the mystery before he had, and that the Inspector was praising them.
"Good-day, Goon," said the Inspector pleasantly, walking out to his car.
"Good-day, Inspector Jenks," said poor Clear-Orf.