SECRET SEVEN MYSTERY by Enid Blyton

CHAPTER 14 A REAL MYSTERY !

The light from the torch inside the house moved here and there. Then it disappeared completely, as if it had been switched off. All the watchers listened, and strained their eyes in the darkness. Now Elizabeth would be leaving the house, and they must stop her. What door - or what window - would she creep from?

Nothing happened. No door opened. No window creaked or rattled. For ten whole minutes the watchers stood silent and tense. Then a man's voice called from somewhere in the garden.

'Will! Seen anyone?'

To Peter's intense surprise another's man's voice answered. 'No. Not a thing. The kid must be still in the house. We'll knock up Miss Wardle and search.'

So there were two policemen in the garden then! How very quiet the other one had been! The boys were most surprised. Now what should they do? They watched the policemen switch on torches and heard them go to the front door of the house.

Peter hooted once more, and the others, realizing that he wanted them, left their hiding-places and came cautiously to find him. Tom slid down the tree and joined them too.

'The policemen didn't hear or see anyone - any more than we did!' said Peter. 'We could only have seen what they saw - a light in the downstairs of the house. Tom, did you see anything else?'

'Not a thing,' said Tom. 'Look - I'll slip off, I think. The police don't know me, and they might wonder what I'm doing here with you. So long!'

He disappeared into the night and left the four boys together. They went near to the front door, at which the policemen had rung a minute ago, keeping in the dark shadows. The door was being opened cautiously by a very scared Miss Wardle, dressed in a long green dressing-gown, her hair in pins.

'Oh - it's you!' the boys heard her say to the police. 'Come in. I'm afraid I was asleep, although I said I'd try and keep awake to-night. Do you want me to go and see if anything is taken?'

'Well, Miss Wardle, we know that someone was in your house just now,' said one of the policemen. 'We saw the light of a torch in two rooms. One of us would like to come in and search, please - the other will stay out here in case the girl - if it is the girl -tries to make a run for it. We haven't seen her come out - or go in either for that matter! But we did see the light of her torch.'

'Oh, I see. Well, come in, then,' said Miss Wardle. 'But please make no noise, or you'll scare the old lady. Come into the kitchen -1 can soon tell if food is gone again.'

The policeman disappeared into the cottage with Miss Wardle, leaving the other man on guard in the garden. The four boys watched from the safety of the shadows. Surely Elizabeth must be in the house? She couldn't have left by any door or window without being seen or heard! They watched lights going on in each room, as Miss Wardle and the policeman searched.

After what seemed like a very long time, they heard voices again in the hall. Miss Wardle came to the door with the policeman.

'Nothing to report, Will,' said the policeman to the man left on guard. 'Nobody's in the house. Miss Wardle even went into the old lady's room to make sure the girl hadn't crept in there, feeling that she was cornered.'

'Well - nobody's come out of the house,' said Will, sounding surprised. 'Has anything been taken?'

'Yes - more food. Nothing else,' said the first policeman. 'Queer, isn't it? How could anyone have got in under our very eyes and ears - taken food -and got out again without being heard or seen going away? Well - thanks, Miss Wardle. Sorry to have been such a nuisance for nothing. How that girl and it must be the girl - gets in and out like this beats me. And where she's hiding beats me too. We've combed the countryside for her! Well - her brother's coming over to this country to-morrow - not that he can do much, if we can't!'

The police departed. The front door shut. The light went off in the hall, and then one appeared upstairs. Then that went out too. Miss Wardle was presumably safely in bed again.

'What do you make of it, Peter?' whispered Jack. 'Peculiar, isn't it?'

'Yes. I can't understand it,' said Peter. 'I mean -there were us four hiding here - and two policemen -and Tom up the tree - and yet not one of us saw Elizabeth getting in and out - and not one of us even heard her.'

'And yet she must have come here, into this garden,' said Jack. 'She broke in somewhere - or unlocked a door - she even put on her torch in the house to see what she could take - and then she got out again, with us all watching and listening - and disappeared. No -1 don't understand it either.'

'Come on - let's go home and sleep on it,' said Peter.' I feel quite tired now, with all the waiting and watching - and the excitement - and now the disappointment. Poor Elizabeth - what must she be feeling, having to scrounge food at night, and hide away in the daytime? She must be very miserable.'

'Well - maybe her brother can help,' said Colin. 'He'll be here to-morrow. Come on - I'm going home!'