"Not a thing!" said Mr. Smellie.
"Didn't you go near Mr. Hick's house when you went for your evening walk?" asked Larry. "If you had, you might have seen the fire starling."
Mr. Smellie looked up startled. His glasses fell right off his nose. He picked them up with a trembling hand and put them on again. Miss Miggle put a hand on his arm.
"Now, now," she said, "you just drink up your milk, sir. You're not yourself this last day or two. You told me you didn't know where you went that evening. You just wandered about."
"Yes," said Mr. Smellie, sitting down heavily in a chair. "That's what I did, didn't I, Miggle? I just wandered about. I can't always remember what I do, can I?"
"No,, you can't, sir," said kind Miss Higgle, patting Mr. Smellie's shoulder. "The quarrel and the fire have properly upset you. Don't you worry, sir!"
She turned to the children and spoke in a low voice, "You'd better go. He's got himself a bit upset."
The children nodded and slipped out They went into the garden, ran down to the bottom and climbed over the wall.
"Funny, isn't it?" said Daisy. "Why did he act so strangely when we began to ask him what he did the even-ing of the fire? Do you suppose he did start it - and has forgotten all about it? Or remembers it and is frightened? Or what?"
"It's a puzzle," said Larry. "He seehis too gentle a man to do anything so awful as burn a cottage down - but he might be fierce in some queer way. What have you got under your jersey, Daisy? "