Pip told her. Mrs. Peeks stopped ironing and thought. "Well, now, that was the day Horace came home," she said. "That's why he didn't know anything about it. He'd had a quarrel with Mr. Hick, and he gave notice. He got here in the afternoon and gave me a real start."
Then he must have missed the fire," said Pip. "I expect he was with you all the evening, wasn't he?"
"No, he wasn't," said Mrs. Peeks. "He went out after tea on his bike, and I didn't see him again til it was dark. I didn't ask him where he went. I'm not one for poking or prying. I expect he was down at the Pig and Whistle, playing darts. He's a rare one for darts, is our Horace."
The children exchanged glances. So Horace disappeared after tea - and didn't come back till dark! That seemed very suspicious indeed. Very suspicious! Where was he that evening? It would have been so easy to slip back to Peterswood on His bike, hide in the ditch, and set fire to the cottage when no one was about - and then cycle back unseen in the darkness!
Larry wondered what sort of shoes Horace wore. He looked round the kitchen. There was a pair of shoes wait-ing to be cleaned in a corner. They were about the size of the footprint. But they didn't have rubber soles. Perhaps Peeks was wearing them now. The children wished he would come in.
"I must just go and pump up my front tyre," said Larry, getting up. "I won't be a minute."
But although he left the other two quite five minutes to talk, there didn't seem anything more to be found out.
"Didn't find out anything else," said Pip in a low voice. "Hallo - who's this? Do you think it is Horace?"
They saw a weedy-looking young man coming in at the gate. He had an untidy lock of hair that hung over his
forehead, a weak chin, and rather bulging blue eyes, a little like Mr. Goon's. He wore a grey flannel coat!