6 Finding out a few things

CHAPTER SIX Finding out a few things ALL THE Secret Seven set off at once, feeling extremely important. Scamper went with Peter, Colin and Jack, his tail well up, and he also felt very important. He was mixed up in a Mystery with the Society! No wonder he turned up his nose at every dog he met. They left Pam and George at the corner, looking rather worried. The two looked at one another. 'How are we going to find out who owns the house?' said Pam. 'Ask at the post office!' said George, feeling that he really had got a very bright idea. 'Surely if the house is owned by someone who has put in a caretaker, there must be letters going there.'

'Good idea!' said Pam, and they went off to the post office. They were lucky enough to see a postman emptying the letters from the letterbox outside. George nudged Pam. 'Come on. We must start somewhere. We'll ask him!' They went up to the man. 'Excuse me,' said George. 'Could you tell us who lives at the old house down by the stream– you know, the empty house there?' 'How can anyone live in an empty house?' said the postman. 'Don't ask silly questions and waste my time! You children– you think you're so funny, don't you?' 'We didn't mean to be funny, or cheeky either,' said Pam in a hurry. 'What George means is– who owns the house? There's a caretaker there, we know. We just wondered who the house belongs to.' 'Why? Thinking of buying it?' said the postman, and laughed at his own joke. The

children laughed too, wishing the man would answer their question. 'How would I know who owns the place?' he said, emptying the last of the letters into his sack. 'I never take letters there except to old Dan the caretaker, and he only gets one once in a month– his wages, maybe. Better ask at the estate agent's over there. They deal with houses, and they might know the owner– seeing as you're so anxious to find him!' 'Oh, thank you,' said Pam, joyfully, and the two of them hurried across to the estate agent's. 'We might have thought of this ourselves,' said Pam. 'But hold on– what shall we say if the man here asks why we want to know? You only go to an estate agent's if you want to buy or sell a house, don't you?' They peeped in at the door. A boy of about sixteen sat at a table there, addressing some envelopes. He didn't look very frightening. Perhaps he would know– and wouldn't ask

them why they wanted the name of the owner. They went boldly in. The boy looked up. 'What do you want?' he said. 'We've been told to ask who owns the old house down by the stream,' said George, hoping the boy might think that some grown- up had sent him to find out. Actually it was only Peter, of course, but he didn't see why he should say so. 'I don't think the house is on the market,' said the boy, turning over the pages of a big book. 'Do your parents want to buy it, or something? I didn't know it was to be sold.'

The two children said nothing, because they didn't really know what to say. The boy went on turning over the pages. 'Ah– here we are,' he said. 'No– it's not for sale– it was sold to a Mr J. Holikoff some time ago. Don't know why he doesn't live in it, I'm sure!' 'Does Mr Holikoff live anywhere here?' asked Pam. 'No– his address is 64, Heycom Street, Covelty,' said the boy, reading it out. ''Course, I don't know if he lives there now. Do your people want to get in touch with him? I can find out if this is his address now, if you like– he's on the telephone at this address.' 'Oh, no, thank you,' said George hastily. 'We don't want to know anything more, as the house is– er– not for sale. Thank you very much. Good morning.' They went out, rather red in the face, but very pleased with themselves. 'Mr Holikoff,'

said Pam to George. 'It's a peculiar name, isn't it? Do you remember his address, George?' 'Yes,' said George. He took out his notebook and wrote in it: 'Mr J. Holikoff, 64, Heycom Street, Covelty. Well, we've done our part of the job! I wonder how the others are getting on.' They were getting on quite well. Janet and Barbara were busy examining the tracks down the lane that led to the stream. They felt quite like detectives. 'See– the car with the van behind, or whatever it was, turned into the lane from the direction of Templeton; it didn't come from our village,' said Janet. 'You can see quite clearly where the wheels almost went into the ditch.'