His hand felt something small and round and smooth at the bottom of the cage. He rifled away the thick straw, and drew out the object underneath it. He stared and stared at it in the utmost surprise. Charlie saw him looking at it, snatched it away and hid it in the straw again. He made a few growly noises as if he were angry.

“Charlie, where did you get that little clock?” said Tinker. “Oh, CHARLIE! Well, as you’re so sad this morning, I’ll give it to you for your very own. Just to cheer you up. But oh, Charlie, I am surprised at you!”

He slid out of the cage and went back over the fence and into his own garden. Up the path he ran and burst into the dining-room, where the others were still finishing their breakfast.

“What’s up?” said Dick.

“Listen! I know who the thief was who climbed in at the tower window… I KNOW WHO HE WAS!” cried Tinker, almost shouting in his excitement.

“WHO?” said everyone, in amazement.

“It was CHARLIE the CHIMP!” said Tinker. “Why didn’t we think of him before? He can climb anything! It would be quite easy for him to swing himself up that rough-stoned tower wall, hanging on to the bits of creeper here and there — and to the uneven stones — and climb through the window into the tower room, collect all the papers he could hold — and climb down again — slither down again, probably…”

“THAT must have been the slithering sound I heard!” said Jenny. “I told you I heard a queer slithering noise!”

“And the whispering you heard must have been Mr Wooh trying to make him go up the tower wall and into the window!” said Julian. “Gosh — I bet poor old Charlie’s been taught to get into all sorts of windows and take whatever he sees. Mr Wooh must have known Tinker’s father worked out all his ideas up in the tower.”

“Wooh could easily teach him to take papers,” said Julian. “But there were, of course, too many for old Charlie in the tower room. He wouldn’t be able to carry them all in his front paws, for he needed all his paws to climb down that steep wall — so he must have crammed as many as he could into his mouth — and dropped the rest under the table! CHARLIE the CHIMP — well! Who would have thought he could be the thief?”

“Wait a bit — how on earth do you know it was Charlie?” said Dick. “Nobody saw him. It was at night.”

“Well, I do know it was Charlie,” said Tinker. “You remember that dear little clock on the tower room mantelpiece? Well, it disappeared on the night when those papers were stolen — and I found it hidden in the straw in Charlie’s cage this morning! He snatched it away from me, and almost cried — so I let him keep it! It was ticking loudly just like it always did. It was the loud ticking that told me it was there in the cage!”