CHAPTER 18 PETER TELLS HIS STORY

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Peter gazed down at the number of queer round marks. He looked over at the child who was stilt-walking... yes, everywhere she went, her stilts left those round marks on the ground. Now another bit of the jigsaw had fitted into place.

"The thief was a stilt-walker," said Peter to himself. "He took his stilts with him to help him to get over the wall. I must find Colin and tell him!"

He ran over to where Colin was waiting for him. "Colin, I've discovered something exciting!" he said. "I know what makes those peculiar round marks... and they're nothing to do with a one-legged man!"

"What makes them then?" asked Colin, surprised.

"Stilts!" said Peter. "The ends of stilts! The thief was on stilts... so that he could easily get over that high wall. What a very clever idea!"

"But how did he do it?" said Colin, puzzled.  "Come on, let's go home, Peter. I shall get into an awful row, it's so late. I'm terribly tired, too."

"So am I," said Peter. "Well, we won't discuss this exciting evening any more now... we'll think about it and have a meeting tomorrow morning. I'll send Janet round for the others first thing. As a matter of fact, I haven't quite worked out how the thief did climb over the wall with stilts."

Colin yawned widely. He felt that he really could not try to think out anything. He was bruised from his fall out of the caravan, he had banged his head hard, and he felt rather dazed. All he wanted to do was to get into bed and go to sleep!

Janet was fast asleep when Peter got home, so he didn't wake her. He got into bed, meaning to think everything out carefully... but he didn't, because he fell sound asleep at once!

In the morning he wouldn't tell Janet a word about the night's adventures. He just sent her out to get the others to a meeting. They came, wondering what had happened. One by one they hissed the password 'Adventure!' and passed through the door. Colin was last of all. He said he had overslept!

"What happened last night? Did you find the pearls? Do you know who the thief is?" asked Pam, eagerly.

"We didn't find the pearls... but we know everything else!" said Peter, triumphantly.

"Do we?" said Colin, surprised. "You may, Peter" but I don't. I still feel sleepy!"

"Peter, tell us," said George. "Don't keep us waiting. Tell us everything!"

"Come on up to Little Thicket and I'll show you exactly how the thief got over that wall," said Peter, suddenly deciding that that would be a very interesting way of fitting all the bits of the jigsaw together.

"Oh"you might tell us now!" wailed Janet, bitterly disappointed.

"No. Come on up to Little Thicket," said Peter. So they all went together to Little Thicket, and walked over to the big gates of Milton Manor. Johns the gardener was there again, working in the front beds of the drive.

"Johns! May we come in again?" shouted Peter. "We won't do any harm."

Johns opened the gates, grinning. "Discovered anything yet?" he asked as the children crowded through.

"Yes, lots," said Peter, and led the way to the place where the thief had climbed over the wall. "Come along with us and I'll tell you what we've discovered, Johns!"

"Right... but I'll just let this car in at the gates first," said Johns, as a big black car hooted outside.

The children soon came to the place where they had been before. "Now look," said Peter, "this is what happened. The thief was a stilt-walker, so all he had to do was to come to the outside of this wall, get up on his stilts-walk to the wall, lean on the top, take his feet from the stilts and sit on the wall. He then draws his stilts over the wall and uses them on this soft ground. On the hard garden paths they don't mark, and foe is safe to come to earth and hide his stilts along the box hedging of the border."

"Go on!" said Janet in excitement.

"He gets into the house, takes the pearls, and comes back to the wall," said Peter. "Up he gets on his stilts again and walks to the wall... and he leaves more of these peculiar round stilt-marks behind in the earth, of course!"

"Goodness... that's what they were!" said Pam.

"Yes. And as he clambers on to the wall, his cap catches a high branch of a tree and is jerked off," said Peter. "He leaves it there because he doesn't want to waste time getting it back. He catches one of his socks on that little sharp piece of brick and leaves a bit of wool behind . . . then he's up on the top of the wall, and down he jumps on the other side!"

"Which I heard him do!" said Colin. "But, Peter... he had no stilts when I saw him. What did he do with his stilts?"

SECRET SEVEN ADVENTURE by Enid BlytonWhere stories live. Discover now