17 Good work!

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Good work! PETER QUICKLY told the girls all that had happened, and they listened in silence, feeling very thrilled. Now they were really finding out something, and even that button had helped! 'I think the short-haired man has either just come out of prison or escaped from it,' said Peter. 'He may have committed a robbery before he went in, and have hidden what he stole, and it's these goods he and the other man are trying to sell to Sid.' 'Well, who's Q, then?' asked Janet. 'Where does he come in?' 'He's probably holding the stolen goods,' said Peter, working everything out in his mind. 'And I expect he's sheltering the thief, too, If

only we could find out who Q is and where he lives. He's the missing link.' The five of them talked and talked, and Scamper listened and joined in with a few wuffs now and again, thumping his tail on the ground when the chatter got very loud. 'When will George and Jack be back?' asked Pam. 'I ought not to be too late home, and it's a quarter past six now!' 'Here they are!' said Colin, hearing voices outside. A knock came at the door. 'Password!' shouted everyone. 'Bonfire!' said two voices, and in went George and Jack, beaming all over their faces, glad to be out of the cold, dark November night. 'What happened? Did you shadow them?' demanded Peter, as they sat down on boxes. 'Yes,' said George. 'We followed them all the way down the street, and away by the canal and up by Cole Square. We only once

got near enough to hear them say anything.' 'What was that?' asked Peter. 'One of them said "Is that a policeman lying in wait for us over there? Come on, run for it!"' said George. 'And just as a bobby came out of the shadows they ran round the corner, and the policeman never even noticed them! We shot after them, just in time to see them trying the handles of some cars parked there.' 'Then they slid quickly into one and drove off,' finished Jack. 'That was the end of our shadowing.' 'So they stole another car!' said Colin.

'You didn't take the number by any chance, did you?' asked Peter. 'Of course!' said Jack, and took out his notebook. 'Here it is, PLK 100. We didn't go back and tell the policeman. We thought we'd race back here and let you decide what we ought to do next.' 'Good work,' said Peter, pleased. 'If only we knew where Q lived, we'd know where the men were, and could tell the police to go and grab them there. They'd get the stolen goods

too. I bet they're being held by our mysterious Q!' 'I know! I know!' suddenly yelled Pam, making everyone jump. 'Why can't we look up all the names beginning with Q in our local telephone directory? If Q lives somewhere here, his name would be there, and his number.' 'Yes but there might be a lot of Qs, and we wouldn't know which was the right one,' objected Janet. 'Why, we ourselves know a Mrs Queen, a Mr Quigley and a Miss Quorn.' 'But don't you see what I mean!' said Pam, impatiently. 'We'll go down all the list of Qs, and the one with the telephone number of 8061 will be our Q! Don't you see?' Everyone saw what she meant at once. Peter looked at Pam admiringly. 'That's a very good idea, Pam,' he said. 'I've sometimes thought that you're not as good a Secret Seven member as the others are, but now I know you

are. That's a Very Good Idea. Why didn't we think of it before instead of messing about with KEW?' 'I'll get our telephone directory with all the numbers in,' said Janet and raced off. She soon came back, gave the password and joined the others. She opened the book at the Qs, and everyone craned to look at them. There were not very many. 'Quant,' read Pam, 'telephone number 6015. Queen, 6453, Quelling, 4322, Quentin, 8061…! That's it. Look, here it is, Quentin, 8061, Barr's Warehouse East End. Why, that's only about two miles away, right at the other end of the town.' 'Gosh!' said Peter, delighted. 'That's given us JUST the information we wanted. A warehouse, too. A fine place for hiding stolen goods! My goodness, we've done some excellent work. Pam, you deserve a pat on the back!'