‘No, for a wonder he hasn’t,’ said his mother. ‘Stop howling, Bets. There’s nothing to wail about.’
Bets dried her eyes. ‘Why did Gladys go?’ she said. ‘I want her to come back.’
‘Well, maybe she will,’ said her mother. ‘I can’t tell you why she went, except that she was upset about something, that’s all. It’s her own private business.’
Mrs. Hilton went out of the room. Pip looked at Bets, and slipped his hand into the enormous black glove. ‘Golly, what a giant of a hand old Clear-Orf must have,’ he said. ‘I do wonder why he was here, Bets. It was something to do with Gladys, I’m certain.’
‘Let’s go up and tell Fatty,’ said Bets. ‘He’ll know what to do. Why is everything being kept such a secret? And oh, I do hate to think of Clear-Orf sitting here talking with Mother, and grinning to think we were not to know anything about it!’
They couldn’t go up to Fatty’s that evening, because Mrs. Hilton suddenly decided she wanted to wash their hair. ‘But mine’s quite clean,’ protested Pip.
‘It looks absolutely black,’ said his mother. ‘What have you been doing to it to-day, Pip? Standing on your head in a heap of soot, or something?’
‘Can’t we have our heads washed tomorrow night?’ said Bets. But it wasn’t a bit of good. It had to be then and there. So it wasn’t until the next day that Pip and Bets were able to see Fatty. He was at Larry’s, of course, because they had all arranged to meet there.
‘I say,’ began Pip, ‘a funny thing’s happened at our house. Old Clear-Orf went there yesterday to see my father and mother about something so mysterious that nobody will tell us what it was! And Gladys, our nice housemaid, has gone home, and we can’t find out exactly why. And look - here’s a glove Goon left behind.’
Every one examined it. ‘It might be a valuable clue,’ said Bets.