"You have understood my orders, Goon?" he said in a voice that sounded quite pleasant and yet had a very hard note in it. Mr. Goon nodded hastily.
"Yes, sir, perfectly, sir," he said. "I'll go to the boy's stepfather now, sir. Name of Brown. And I'll make it my business to see Mr. Tupping too, sir."
"Naturally, if any complaints are made to me of ill-treatment, I shall hold you responsible, Goon," said Inspector Jenks. "But I imagine you will impress it carefully on these two men that the orders are mine, and that one of your duties is to see that my orders are carefully carried out. I am sure you agree with me in this, Goon?"
"Oh yes, sir, of course, sir," said Mr. Goon. "And — er — about the stolen cat, sir. About the case, I mean. Are we to drop the case, sir — not make any more inquiries, I mean."
"Well, you might study those clues of yours and see if they shed any light on the case," said the Inspector gravely, with a wicked twinkle in his eye.
Mr. Goon did not answer. The Inspector turned to the children, and gravely shook hands with them all.
"It's been splendid to see the Five Find-Outers — and Dog — again," he said. "Good-bye — and thanks for a wonderful tea — the nicest I've had for weeks, if I may say so."
The Inspector got out his shiny black car. He roared down the drive, waving to the children. He was gone.
"I'm going to see Mr. Tupping," said Mr. Goon, with a scowl at the children and Luke. "But don't you think this case is all dosed and forgotten. It isn't I'm still working on it, even if the Inspector don't pay much attention to it. And I'll get the thief all right in the end — you see if I don't!"
He gave Luke such a nasty look that the boy knew quite well he was still suspected. He watched Mr. Goon go down the drive on his way to see Tupping.