6 SOME PECULIAR FINDS

CHAPTER SIX SOME PECULIAR FINDS THE SEVEN made their way to Little Thicket, where they had played their game of American Indians the day before. 'Now, where exactly did you say that the man climbed over?' Peter asked Colin. Colin considered. Then he pointed to a holly tree. 'See that holly? Well– he came over the wall between that tree and the little oak. I'm pretty certain that was exactly the place.' 'Come on, then– we'll go and see,' said Peter. Feeling really rather important, the Seven walked across Little Thicket and came to the place between the holly tree and the

little oak. They stood and gazed up at the wall. It was at least two metres high. How could anyone climb a sheer wall like that without even a ladder? 'Look– here's where he leapt down,' said Pam, suddenly, and she pointed to a deep mark in the ground near the holly tree. They all looked. 'Yes– that must have been where his feet landed,' said George. 'Pity we can't tell anything from the mark– I mean, if it had been footprints, for instance, it would have helped a lot. But it's only just a deep mark– probably made by his heels.' 'I wish we could go to the other side of the wall,' said Peter, suddenly. 'We might perhaps find a footprint or two there. Let's go and ask the gardener if we can go into the grounds. He's a friend of the cow-man who works on our farm, and he knows me.' 'Good idea,' said George, so off they all

went again. The gardener was working inside the front garden, beyond the great iron gates. The children called to him, and he looked up. 'Hey John!' shouted Peter. 'Could we come in and look round? About that thief, you know. We saw him climb over the wall, and the inspector of police has asked us to keep our eyes open. So we're looking round.' John grinned. He opened the gates. 'Well, if I come with you, I don't reckon you can do much harm,' he said. 'Beats me how that thief climbed those walls. I was working here in the front garden all yesterday afternoon, and if he'd come in at the gates I'd have seen him. But he didn't.' The seven children went round the walls with John. Colin saw the top of the holly tree and the top of the little nearby oak jutting above the wall. He stopped. 'This is where he climbed up,' he said. 'Now let's look for footprints.'

There were certainly marks in the earth– but no footprints. The Seven bent over the marks. 'Funny, aren't they?' said Peter, puzzled. 'Quite round and regular– and about ten centimetres across– as if someone had been pounding about with a large-sized broom handle– hammering the end of it into the ground. What could have made these marks, John?' 'Beats me,' said John, also puzzled. 'Maybe the police will make something of them, now they know you saw the thief climb over the wall just here.' Everyone studied the round, regular marks again. There seemed no rhyme or reason for them at all. They looked for all the world as if someone had been stabbing the ground with the tip of a broom handle or something– and why should anyone do that? And anyway, if they did, how would it help them to climb

over a wall? 'There's been no ladder used, that I can say,' said John. 'All mine are locked up in a shed– and there they all are still– and the key's in my pocket. How that fellow climbed this steep wall, I can't think.' 'He must have been an acrobat's all,' said Janet, looking up to the top of the wall. Then she spotted something, and pointed to it in excitement. 'Look– what's that– caught on that sharp bit of brick there– half-way up?' Everybody stared. 'It looks like a bit of wool,' said Pam at last. 'Perhaps, when the thief climbed up, that sharp bit caught his clothes, and a bit of wool was pulled out.' 'Help me up, George,' ordered Peter. 'I'll get it. It might be a very valuable clue.' George hoisted him up, and Peter made a wild grab at the piece of wool. He got it, and George let him down to the ground again.

They all gathered round to look at it. It was really rather ordinary– just a bit of blue wool thread with a tiny red strand in it. Everyone looked at it earnestly. 'Well– it might have been pulled out of the thief's jumper,' said Janet at last. 'We can all look out for somebody wearing a blue wool pullover with a tiny thread of red in it!' And then they found something else– something much more exciting!