11 ANY IDEAS

CHAPTER ELEVEN ANY IDEAS? PETER OPENED the door. Scamper tore out, barking. Then he stopped by a bush and wagged his tail. The Secret Seven ran to him. A pair of feet showed at the bottom of the bush. Jack gave a shout of rage and pushed into the bush. He dragged someone out– Susie! 'How dare you!' he yelled. 'Coming here and listening! How dare you, Susie?' 'Let me go,' said Susie. 'I like you asking me how I dare! I'm only copying what you did on Saturday! Who hid in the laurel bush, and–' 'How did you know we were having a

meeting?' demanded Jack, shaking Susie. 'I just followed you,' said Susie, grinning. 'But I didn't hear anything because I didn't dare to go near the door, in case Scamper barked. I did a sudden sneeze, though, and he must have heard me. What are you calling a meeting about?' 'As if we'd tell you!' said Peter, crossly. 'Go on home, Susie. Go on! Jack, take her home. The meeting is over.' 'Bother!' said Jack. 'All right. Come on, Susie. And if I have any nonsense from you, I'll pull your hair till you yell!' Jack went off with Susie. Peter faced round to the others and spoke in a low voice. 'Listen. All of you think hard about what has been said, and give me or Janet any good ideas tomorrow. It's no good going on with this meeting. Somebody else belonging to the Famous Five might come snooping round too.' 'Right,' said the Secret Seven, and went

home, excited and very much puzzled. How could they think of anything that would help to piece together the jumble of words they knew? Points. Six-two, seven-ten. Fog, mist, darkness. Dalling's. Hammond's. Each of them tried to think of some good idea. Barbara could think of nothing at all. Pam tried asking her father about Dalling's or Hammond's. He didn't know either of them. Pam felt awkward when he asked her why she wanted to know, and didn't go on with the subject. Colin decided that a robbery was going to be done one dark and foggy night, and that the goods were to be unloaded from a lorry somewhere. He couldn't imagine why they were to be sent in a truck. All the boys thought exactly the same thing, but, as Peter said, it wasn't much help because they didn't know what date, what place, or what lorry! Then Jack had quite a good idea. He

thought it would be helpful if they tried to find a man called Zebedee, because surely he must be the Zeb at Tigger's Barn. There couldn't be many Zebedees in the district! 'All right, Jack. It's a good idea,' said Peter. 'You can do the finding out for us. Produce this Zeb, and that may be the first step.' 'Yes, but how shall I find out?' said Jack. 'I can't go round asking every man I meet if he's called Zeb.' 'No. That's why I said it was a good idea,' said Peter, grinning. 'But that's about all it is. It's an impossible thing to do, you see; so that's why it will remain just a good idea and nothing else. Finding the only Zebedee in the district would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.' 'I shouldn't like to have to do that,' said Janet, who was with them. 'Peter and I have got about the only good idea, I think, Jack.' 'What's that?' asked Jack.

'Well, we looked in our telephone directory at home to see if any firm called Dalling or Hammond was there,' said Janet. 'But there wasn't, so we thought they must be somewhere farther off, not in our district at all. Our telephone book only gives the names of people in this area, you see.' 'And now we're going to the post office to look in the big telephone directories there,' said Peter. 'They give the names of districts much farther away. Like to come with us?' Jack went with them. They came to the post office and went in. Peter took up two telephone books, one with the Ds in and one with the Hs. 'Now I'll look for Dalling,' he said, and thumbed through the Ds. The other two leaned over him, looking down the Ds too. 'Dale, Dale, Dale, Dales, Dalgleish, Daling, Dalish, Dallas, DALLING!' read Peter, his finger following down the list of names. 'Here it is–

Dalling. Oh, there are three Dallings! Bother!' 'There's a Mrs A. Dalling, Rose Cottage, Hubley,' said Janet. 'And E.A. Dalling, of Manor House, Tallington, and Messrs. E. Dalling, Manufacturers of Lead Goods. Well– which would be the right Dalling? The manufacturers, I suppose.' 'Yes,' said Peter, sounding excited. 'Now for the Hs. Where are they? In the other book. Here we are– Hall, Hall– goodness, what a lot of people are called Hall! Hallet, Ham, Hamm, Hammers, Hamming, Hammond, Hammond, Hammond, Hammond– oh, LOOK!' They all looked. Peter was pointing to the fourth name of Hammond. 'Hammond and Co. Ltd. Lead Manufacturers, Petlington.' 'There you are,' said Peter, triumphantly. 'Two firms dealing in lead, one called Hammond, one called Dalling. Cheeky Charlie must be something to do with both.' 'Lead!' said Jack. 'It's very valuable