Puzzle for the Secret Seven Part.11

Eleven
A very interesting meeting

THE Secret Seven stared at Peter in the utmost amazement. What! The violin thief had been dressed in the clothes stolen from the scarecrow? But WHY?
‘You don’t suppose it was the scarecrow who stole out in the night and took the violin, do you?’ said Pam, with one of her sudden giggles.
‘Don’t be silly. You know the scarecrow hasn’t any clothes now — unless Matt has found some more for him,’ said Janet.
‘This is very, very interesting,’ said Peter slowly. ‘It certainly rules out jokers like Susie or Binkie.’
‘Well, I did ask them,’ said Jack, ‘and honestly I couldn’t make out whether they knew anything about the scarecrow’s clothes or not, they giggled so. I half thought they did, as a matter of fact.’
‘Well, they couldn’t have. They were just pulling your leg,’ said Peter. ‘Now let’s think carefully about this, and if anyone has a sensible remark, please make it. We know two things — one, that a man stole a very valuable old violin last night — and two, that for some reason he wore old clothes belonging to a scarecrow. Now what do we make of that?’
‘Well, if the violin was old and valuable, and was obviously the one thing he had made up his mind to steal, it’s clear that he must have been a violinist himself, or know about the value of old ones,’ said Colin at once. ‘The odds are that he is a musician, if not a violinist.’
‘And he wore those awful old clothes as a disguise so that if he were seen he couldn’t possibly be recognized,’ said Barbara.
‘And he didn’t want to buy them at an old clothes shop or borrow them from any tramp, in case of questions being asked,’ said Jack.
‘So he spotted our scarecrow and took the clothes from him!’ said Peter. ‘And presumably he will throw them away now or hide them somewhere.’
‘He might put them on the scarecrow again,’ suggested George.
‘No. He’d be afraid that it might be watched,’ said Peter. ‘Anyway, it’s sure to be dressed up again now. No — he’ll either burn or bury those clothes.’
‘We could look for them — only we’d probably never find them!’ said Janet. ‘I mean — there’s the whole countryside to hide them in!’
‘Yes, that’s true,’ said Peter. ‘Well — has anyone any other suggestion?’
Nobody had. It seemed impossible to hunt for a violinist they didn’t know who had been dressed in clothes he had probably already hidden away!
‘Do we know any first-class violinists who would love a valuable old violin?’ asked Pam hopefully.
‘Well, yes we do,’ said Peter, ‘but none of them would dress up in scarecrow clothes and smash a shop-window. I mean, there’s old Mr Scraper at school, who teaches the violin — but I can’t possibly imagine him doing things like that. Or Mr Luton, our churchwarden — he plays the violin too, so does his wife. But they wouldn’t go about smashing windows. No — it must be someone a bit mad, I think, who has an urge to steal and use a really precious old violin.’
‘But yet sensible enough to use the scarecrow’s clothes as a disguise!’ said Jack.
‘Yes. Well, it’s a puzzle. I don’t really see that there’s anything we can do to solve it at the moment,’ said Peter. ‘Except look out for old clothes stuffed in a ditch or a bush, or buried somewhere.’
Scamper suddenly began to bark loudly, and everyone looked up. ‘I bet that’s Susie,’ said Jack, in disgust. ‘We’ve got to go and see my granny this morning, and Susie said she’d call for me here. I told her not to! Interrupting our meeting!’
The rude Secret Seven song came on the air at that moment, sung lustily by two voices — Susie’s and Binkie’s.
‘Oh see the Secret Seven,
So very smug and pi,
Eyes turned up to Heaven,
When they come walking by!
They think . . .’
Colin flew to the door and opened it. He sang at the top of his voice — and he had a really loud one —
‘Oh Binkie has the habit
Of a silly little rabbit,
Twitching up and down her little nose!
And in her mouth beneath
Are lots of rabbit teeth
And that’s the way a little Binkie grows!’
The Secret Seven listened in delight. That would serve Binkie right for making up such a horrid poem about them! They hadn’t heard the end of the poem before, because Colin had only thought of it that very minute!
Susie marched right up to Colin, red in the face with anger.
‘You’ve made Binkie cry with that song!’ she said. ‘How dare you? I’ll pay you out, you Secret Seven, for making up such an unkind song about my best friend.’
‘Well, Binkie started it, with her rude Secret Seven song,’ said Colin stoutly. But all the same he felt rather ashamed of making Binkie cry. Perhaps it was rather an unkind song.
‘Jack, you’re to come now,’ ordered Susie. ‘Granny will be waiting for us.’
‘All right, all right. Don’t order me about,’ said Jack. He turned to the others. ‘What about this afternoon?’ he said. ‘Are we going anywhere?’
‘We might go up and have a look to see how the gingerbread woman, Mrs Bolan, is getting on in her caravan,’ said Peter. ‘Mother has given us some baby clothes to take up, and I thought I’d take my old toy bus for Benny.’
‘Right. I’ll be along about half-past two. Is that all right?’ asked Jack.
‘Make it three,’ said Peter, and the others nodded. ‘We’ll keep an eye open for scarecrow clothes on the way,’ he added, lowering his voice.
‘I heard you,’ said Susie, at once. ‘And what’s more, I know you and the others think that Binkie and I were the idiots who took the scarecrow clothes, but we didn’t. Jack asked us about them. It’s just about time you Secret Seven made a mistake about something! You think you’re too clever for words. So look out — else you’ll be sorry!’ And away she went with Binkie.
‘Now what exactly does she mean by that?’ said Peter.

to be continued…

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