Colin and George ran up to the antique shop. The little man who owned it was wringing his hands as he saw his smashed windows, and everything inside covered with broken glass.
"What's all this?" said the big policeman, looming up silently, and taking out a notebook. "Who did this?"
"A man," said someone. "I just caught sight of him across the road. I couldn't tell you what he was like, though. He raced off at once."
"What's been taken, sir?" said the policeman to the shopkeeper.
"Oh, that I can't say till I've had a good look," said the man. "My word , that picture's done for ... that battle picture. The flying glass has cut it to bits ... and the brick has smashed that lovely old vase. I don't rightly know what was in the window, sir, till I ask my assistant. He did the window for me yesterday, when I was away. Oh my word, what a mess!"
There was quite a crowd now, round the shop, and soon another policeman came. Colin and George wondered if they ought to say that they, too, had seen the man smash the window, and were just screwing up their courage to do so, when one of the policemen saw that there were a few children in the crowd.
"You get off home," he said sternly. "Go on now. You can't help us, you only hinder us. Clear off!"
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Colin and George slipped away at once. They had seen all they wanted to, and they were pretty sure that they couldn't give much help. Also, they didn't much like the thought of being stared at by so many people if they went up to the policemen and spoke to them. Why, some of them might think that they had smashed the window, and were owning up!
"We must get Peter to call a meeting tomorrow and tell the Secret Seven about this," panted George as they ran home. "I don't expect we can do anything. But I think we ought to tell the others."
Colin agreed. Anyway, it would be most exciting to relate the story to them! How he wished he and George had managed to trip the man up, and perhaps catch him. What a thrill that would have been!
Colin telephoned to Peter the next morning. "Peter... is that you? Listen, George and I saw a thief smash a window coming home from the cinema last night and steal something out of the antique shop. We actually saw the man. Do you think we could have a meeting about it? It's really very exciting."
"My word, did you actually see him?" said Peter. "Dad heard about it from his cowman, and told us at breakfast ... and Janet and I groaned because we thought we'd been just too early to see it happen."
"Well, we had to go back to see if we could find my watch," said Colin. "If we hadn't done that we'd have missed all the excitement. What time shall we come to the meeting, Peter? George and I can go round and tell the others now, if you like."
"Right. Well, bring them along as soon as possible," said Peter. "Janet and I will be waiting down in the shed."
It was quite an excited group of children who met in the shed some time later. All of them had heard of the smashing of the window, but nobody except Pam knew what had been stolen.
She listened quietly to the story told by Colin and George, as did the others. Peter and Janet wished that Colin had discovered that his watch was missing before he had said good-bye to them ... then they, too, would have seen the excitement.
"Actually," said Colin, "I hadn't lost my watch, after all! I found it on my dressing-table when I got home!"
"Did you?" said George. "Gosh ... and to think how we searched every inch of the pavement! By the way, does anyone know if the man has been caught yet?"
"Not so far," said Peter. "My father had to see the police this morning about a dog that's worrying our sheep ... and the policeman told him they hadn't the foggiest idea who the thief was ... or why the man wanted to steal anything from the antique shop. Dad didn't hear what was stolen, however. Does anyone know?"
"Yes, I know," said Pam at once. "It was a very, very old violin, worth hundreds of pounds! It was in the very front of the window, with a card telling its history. The man took that, and the bow too!"
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"Ah ... he must be a violinist, then," said Peter, saying what everyone was thinking. "They'll be checking on all the local violinists, I expect."
"I hope they won't question Miss Hilbrun, the violin teacher at our school!" said Pam. "She's a wonderful player ... but I'm sure she would go into a dead faint if a policeman wanted to ask her questions. She even had to go and sit down for half an hour once, in the middle of teaching, because someone let the piano-lid drop with a bang!"
"I bet you were the one that did that," said Jack.
"I was not. It was your sister Susie," said Pam. "You might have guessed that! Oh dear ... it really makes me smile to think of our mouse-like Miss Hilbrun throwing a brick into a window to steal a violin!"
"Listen, George and Colin," said Peter. "According to the policeman Dad spoke to this morning when he was reporting that dog, nobody seemed to know exactly how the man was dressed or what he looked like. Did you happen to notice? You ought to have done, because that's one of the rules of the Secret Seven ... always to be observant, and keep our eyes open."
"Well ... yes ... I think I can tell you more or less what he looked like," said George, though Colin looked rather blank. "I can't say that I actually noted it all , but I did get a jolly good view of him in the bright light from the window, just as he smashed it ... a sort of quick photograph of him in my mind, if you know what I mean."
"Tell us, then," said Peter, taking out his notebook. "It might be jolly useful. We could look out for him if we know, for instance, what he's wearing."
"Well ... he was medium size," said George, half-shutting his eyes to picture the man in his mind. "And he had a very torn old coat of brown tweed " very torn. And trousers that were a kind of light grey and very dirty. And a black hat with a hole in it. And, oh yes ... a scarf round his neck with red-and-white spots."
Peter gave a loud exclamation. "George!Do you know what you've just described exactly? The clothes that werestolen from the scarecrow!"
