"Well, what are clues?" asked Bets.
"Clues are things that help us to find out what we want to know," said Larry. "For instance, in a detective story I was reading the otter day, a thief dropped a cigarette end in the shop he was burgling, and when the police picked it up, they found it was an unusual kind of cigarette. They went round trying to find out who smoked that kind, and when at last they found out, they had got the thief! So the cigarette end was a clue."
"I see," said Bets. "I shall find heaps of glues - I mean clues. I shall love that."
"We must all keep our eyes and ears open for clues of any sort," said Larry. "Now, for instance, we might find footprint clues. You know - footprints leading to the cottage made by the criminal."
Fatty laughed scornfully. The others looked at him. "What's the joke?" asked Larry coldly.
"Oh, nothing," said Fatty. "It just made me laugh a bit when I thought of you hunting for footprints in Mr. Hick's garden. There can't be less than about a million, I should think - with all the people who were there watching the fire last night."
Larry went red. He glared at Fatty's round face, and Fatty grinned back.
"The man who started the fire might have been hiding in the hedge or somewhere, wailing for his chance," said Larry. "Nobody went into the hedge last night. We might find footprints there, mightn't we? In the ditch, where it's muddy?"
"Yes, we might," said Fatty. "But it's no good looking for footprints leading to the cottage! Mine are there, and yours, and old Clear-Orf's, and a hundred others,"
"I vote we don't let Clear-Orf know we are solving the mystery," said Pip.