Now it was the turn of the others to get excited. ‘Oooh,’ said Bets. ‘How silly of Mr. Goon to give them all to us.’
Fatty put his hand in once again and drew out a little, torn scrap of paper with some untidy writing on it. There were only two or three words to be made out. One was ‘spoonful,’ another was ‘stir,’ and another was ‘oven.’ Fatty read them and nodded. He was evidently very pleased indeed with this find.
‘Poor old Goon!’ he said. ‘He makes the one glorious find in this Mystery - and throws it down at our feet. Won’t he kick himself when he knows? What a bit of luck, oh what a bit of luck!’
INSPECTOR JENKS ARRIVES
The other four tried in vain to make Fatty tell them more. But he wouldn’t. ‘You can look at all these clues as much as you like,’ he said, ‘and if you use your brains they will tell you exactly what they tell me. Exactly. I could tell you everything in two minutes - but I do really think you should try to find out what I have found out.’
‘But that silly alphabet book!’ said Daisy. ‘It doesn’t tell me a thing!’
‘And all that time-table tells me is that there’s a bus to Sheepsale at 10.15, and it’s the bus the letter-writer probably took - but it doesn’t tell me anything else,’ said Pip. ‘As to my dictionary - well, that beats me!’
‘Come on - let’s get back home,’ said Fatty. ‘I’ve got to think this all out. It’s not a scrap of good going to Goon about it. He won’t believe a word. In fact I think he’s got it firmly in his head that I’m mixed up in all this letter-writing. I’m sure he thinks I wrote the letter to him!’
‘Well - who are we going to, then?’ asked Bets. ‘Inspector Jenks? I’d like that!’
‘I thought perhaps we’d better tell your mother first,’ said Fatty. ‘I don’t somehow feel as if I want to bring Inspector Jenks down here for an affair like this - and go right over Goon’s head with the clues that Goon himself presented us with. Doesn’t seem quite fair somehow.’