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you that?”
    Mr. Goon would not even have dreamed of giving his nephew one of his precious notebooks, provided for him by the Inspector. Ern licked the end of the pencil and looked round triumphantly. “Give it me! I should think not! I pinched it out of his drawer.”
    There was a horrified silence. “Then you’ll jolly well give it back,” said Fatty. “Or you’ll be pinched one day. You’re disgusting, Ern.”
    Ern looked hurt and astonished. “Well, he’s my uncle, isn’t he? It won’t hurt him to let me have one of his notebooks - and I’m going detecting, aren’t I? You’re very high-and-mighty all of a sudden.”
    “You can think us high-and-mighty if you like, said Fatty, getting up. “But we think you’re very low-down to take something out of your uncle’s drawer without asking him.”
    “I’ll put it back,” said Ern, in a small voice. “I wouldn’t have taken it for my portry - but for detecting, well, somehow I thought that was different. I kind of thought I ought to have it.”
    “Well, you think again,” said Fatty. “And put it back before you get into trouble. Look - here’s a notebook of mine you can have. It’s an old one. We’ll tell you what to write in it. But mind - you put that black one back as soon as ever you get home!”
    “Yes, I will, Fatty,” said Ern, humbly. He took the old notebook Fatty held out to him, and felt about in his pocket for a pencil, for he did not feel he dared to use the one in the black notebook now. Fatty might get all high-and-mighty again.
    “Now,” said Fatty, “keep this page for clues. Write the word down - Clues.”
    “Clues,” said Ern, solemnly, and wrote it down. The word “Suspects” came next. “Coo,” said Ern, “do we have Suspects too? What are they?”
    “People who might be mixed up in the mystery,” said Fatty. “You make a whole list of them, inquire into their goings-on, and then cross them off one by one when you find they’re all right.”
    Ern felt very important as he put down the things Fatty told him. He licked his stump of a pencil, and wrote most laboriously, with his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth all the time.
    Buster suddenly growled and cocked up his ears. Fatty put his hand on him. “Quiet, Buster,” he said. He winked at the others. “I bet it’s Old Clear-Orf snooping round,” he said. Ern looked alarmed.
    “I wonder he dares to come snooping after Ern, considering the way he got ticked off by Ern himself this morning,” said Fatty, innocently. “If it is your uncle, Ern, you’d better send him off at once. Bit of cheek, tracking you down like this!”
    Ern felt even more alarmed. A shadow fell across the cosy room, and the Find-Outers and Ern saw Mr. Goon’s head peering in at the window. He saw Ern with a notebook. Ern looked up with a scared face.
    “You come on out, Ern,” boomed Mr. Goon. “I got a job for you to do!”
    Ern got up and went to the door. He opened it and out shot Buster in delight. He flew for Mr. Goon’s ankles at once, barking madly.
    “Clear-orf!” yelled Mr. Goon, kicking out at Buster. “Here you, call off your dog! Ern, hold him! He’ll take a bit out of my ankle soon! Clear-orf, you pestering dog!”
    But it was Mr. Goon who had to clear-orf, with Buster barking at him all the way, and Ern following in delight. “Go on, Buster” he muttered under his breath. “Keep it up! Good dog then, good dog!”
     

Ern Gets into Trouble
     
    The Five Find-Outers were very pleased with their little bit of work that morning. “We’ll keep Ern busy,” said Fatty. “And as I’m pretty sure he’ll let everything out to Goon - or Goon will probably dip into Ern’s notebook - we shall keep him busy too!”
    “It’s a pity Mr. Goon came and interrupted our talk this morning,” said Bets, getting up to go. “We were just getting on nicely. Fatty, what’s the first clue to be?”
    “Well, I told Ern that this morning,” said Fatty. “Mysterious lights flash on Christmas Hill at night! Ern will have to go and find out what they