"I suppose Dark Queen must have escaped from whoever had her, and wandered back, that first time," said Daisy. "I wonder where she is now."
"Let's telephone to Inspector Jenks again," said Pip. "Now that we have solved the mystery we ought to let him know."
"What about the key of the cat-house?" said Larry. "Oughtn't we to put that back in Miss Harmer's pocket?"
"Yes. We'll go and do that now," said Fatty.
The five children and Buster went over the wall. They hunted about for Miss Harmer but could not see her. "Perhaps she's in one of the sheds," said Fatty. They went towards a shed near the greenhouses, one they had not been into before. Fatty put his head inside.
"Hallo!" he said, "this is where Tupping keeps his things. Look! there are his rubber boots and his mack."
"What a smell of turps again," said Bets, sniffing.
"You're right," said Fatty, and he sniffed too.
The boy suddenly pulled a dirty handkerchief out of the old mack hanging up. It was marked with Tupping's name, and smelt strongly of turps.
"He soaked this hanky with turps and used it to rub off the paint he had put on that cat's tail!" said Fatty. "Another clue! Let me see! It had been raining, hadn't it, the night before, and that morning too — so Tupping would have been wearing a mack — and rubber boots too. I say, look there!"