"That character clearly had something to hide," said the Sneaky Spy, when they were out of sight of the house.

"How could you possibly tell?" returned Ingrid, "You didn't exactly question him. It was the other way around. I wonder he didn't think that we had more to hide."

"He didn't hand us over to the police. He obviously doesn't want to attract police attention to Skilton's house, and I'm willing to bet my bottom dollar that it's because he's involved in the killing of Alicia Valtos."

"Do we go and explain our findings to Irwin then?"

"Not a chance. I want my guns back. The only reason I pretended to leave was the simple fact that his having got the drop on us had put your safety at risk. I'm going back to reverse the situation. I'll meet you back at the car later. If you get bored in the car, you can always go for a meal at Hornsby's all night service station and then come back. I'll see you after I've finished with that fellow."

They said their more than friendly goodbyes and headed in opposite directions, Ingrid towards a familiar car and the Sneaky Spy back towards the house inhabited by Anthony Skilton and the unknown with the gun.

"I must have made too much noise with the filing cabinet last time. That won't be a problem this time. I don't suppose old Gunfellow will attempt to repair his back door lock tonight. He'll tick me off on his mental list as having been his quota of attempted burglaries for the year, and toddle back off to bed. I can just slip in through the back door the way I did with Ingrid before."

Once inside the house, Percy took immeasurable degrees of care not to again awaken Gunfellow, and contemplated an ascent of the staircase.

"Not a chance," he thought, "If he heard me before, I would be sure to awaken him again. I shall have to lure Gunfellow down here and be ready for him."

Percy stood at the bottom of the stairs, performing the mental gymnastics which were to enable him to create a plan of action with a greater chance of success than those already attempted so far that night.

"If he heard another noise, he would probably assume that I came back for something in the study... That's if the noise comes from the study. I'll have to make sure that it does."

Percy took from his inner coat pocket a hollow pen and removed the cap. He had memorized the fact that the red pen was a torch, the purple pen was a knife, the green pen fired a tranquilising dart, and the pen selected for this little exercise was pink.

From inside the pen, Percy extracted a thin rod, around which was wound several metres of fishing line. Being one hundred per cent sure that he made not the slightest sound, Percy opened the door to the study and entered the room.

He stole over to the filing cabinet, and tied one end of the fishing line around the knob of one of the sliding drawers of the cabinet. He unravelled the fishing line as he crept back out into the hallway, and inwardly celebrated the fact that the line was long enough to allow him the opportunity to be hiding under the staircase when he pulled it. When he had reached the small area under the stairs, with its sloping roof which naturally supported the climbing flight of stairs, Percy found something to make his plan absolutely infallible.

"The master fuse panel! By the bath towel of Bartholomew Barnabas! This is too good to be true, but I'm glad that it is true all the same."

Percy examined the labels until he found the fuse for the light in the study. His purple knife pen cut through the thin piece of wire, while its plastic handle shielded him from an electric shock.

"There aren't any lights on the stairs, but if he turned on the light in the study as he entered the room, it's just possible that he would see the fishing line when the lights come on, which might make my next moves a little more difficult. He does well to find his way around in the dark anyway, but then he seems to live here. His kinaesthetic sense is aided by a knowledge of the geography of this building. He doesn't need to be as clever as a Sneaky Spy," thought Percy.

For his plan to succeed, Percy had to leave the door of the study open in order to manoeuvre the fishing line; but first of all, he needed to make another noise, in order to awaken Gunfellow.

So with both his leg sheath's knife and the fishing line in his left hand, he made a convincingly 'accidental' rattling of the study's doorhandle with his right hand, and disappeared soundlessly under the staircase. He felt the blade of the knife in his left hand, and then transferred the handle to his right hand. Percy thought:

"This knife was the obvious choice. I don't want to let too many people know about the special capabilities of my little goodies all masquerading as common pieces of stationery. So I shall leave the purple pen out of this performance for the rest of its duration."

When the man had almost reached the bottom of the dark staircase, Percy pulled the fishing line, listening to the noise as he did so, and waited for Gunfellow to creep into the doorway. The man was still taking in the fact that his use of the light switch had failed to turn on the light, when he felt an arm closing around his neck, and a sharp blade softly pricking his skin around the nape.

"Do I really have to tell you to drop that dangerous little toy of yours?" said the Sneaky Spy, in a calm but persuasive voice.

The man and his weapon were separated from each other.

It was Gunfellow's choice that they should part.

Percy then silently withdrew his knife, silently slipped it into his pocket and used his now free hand to deliver a blow to the back of Gunfellow's neck, which would amply encourage the fellow to catch up on some lost sleep.

"Which is exactly what he needs, after all of the interruptions that his beddy-byes have suffered so far tonight," thought the Sneaky Spy, as he dragged the man's slumbering body into the kitchen, collecting the gun with his free hand.

The man was allowed ten minutes compensation of sleep, and was then awoken by the Sneaky Spy, who had left the man lying in the middle of the floor.

Gunfellow stared up at the man who sat in a chair a few metres away, throwing biscuits at his face.

"Okay I'm awake. You can stop wasting all my bikkies, now."

"And you can stop wasting all my time, and tell me what it is that you were hiding from us before."

"Nothing at all. You should tell me why you keep breaking into this place. Don't you think that twice in one night is going a little too far? Where's your lady friend anyway?"

"A number of questions, my friend, of which I am only going to partly answer one. I am here now, because I want to know what you're hiding from me."

"What makes you think that I would be hiding anything at all?"

"You must be up to something very naughty indeed, Gunfellow - Can I call you Gunfellow? The name reflects my earliest memories of your presence in this house tonight. Oh yes, a very naughty thing it must have been, if you were so keen to keep the police away from your house, that you let two suspected burglars get away Scott free. We're not burglars actually, as it turns out, but do tell me what it is that you're hiding, or I am going to have to use the items in your own house to do all sorts of things to you - things that are usually far more effective and far more terrifying than the methods of persuasion that you see in the movies."

"Look! For the last time, I'm not hiding anything! This is the craziest thing that's ever happened. A burglar - or whatever you think you are - questions me at gunpoint in my own house!"

"You're quite sure it's your house?"

"Well yes, I do live here, that is. When the police hear what you have been doing tonight, they will-"

"I really don't think that you'll feel like calling them, even if I give you the chance. We have been through that one already. Now are you going to tell me what I want to know?"

It was probably the most unpleasant experience of Gunfellow's life. No man enjoys having to strip down to his underpants and stand under freezing cold shower water, with a gun pointed straight at his chest. Percy had already worked out the only possibly plausible solution to the mystery of Alicia's murder, and the second scrutiny of the filing cabinet had confirmed his suspicions. There was even a perfect motive for the killing, if Percy had guessed correctly. The only thing that was required now was a confession from the man with the wet underpants and the chilled flesh.

"Turn the shower off! I'll tell you!"
"Turn it off yourself, and I won't need to risk losing the gun."

Gunfellow's hand frantically turned the tap around and around, until the water ceased to flow.

"Don't think I cannot keep both eyes on you even in this room. The undertakers would hardly enjoy having to load you into a coffin in your underpants."

"I won't try a thing. Can I run the hot water while I'm telling my story?"
"Certainly. You're the first person I have ever met who has actually cared for a second shower in the course of only a few minutes. Don't put your clothes back on, though. We might have to do this again."
The man known to Percy as Gunfellow began to tell to the Sneaky Spy a tale of his dishonest misdeeds.

"Well I suppose you must already know about the loot I've stolen, and that's what you came here to steal from me. I can cut you in on a share, if you like, but you're probably interested in how I got it. It was simple, really. I'm a pretty good safecracker. Show me an unopened safe, and I'll soon be showing you what's in it."

"Yes, and I have a good ear for tumblers myself. I can hear a cockroach stepping lightly across the softest black forest cake, but go on with your story."

"Well you must have come here looking for the loot. It's not here. I couldn't leave it lying around. I stashed that elsewhere, but I wasn't going to chance the police coming around here and matching my build with the description that one of the neighbours put in the daily editions of the Kuringai Chronicle."

"Then you were seen making your escape."

"I suppose so."

"So what did you manage to steal?"

"There were jewels, and plenty of cash too, all in fifty dollar notes."

"How much?"

"I'd say plenty near a hundred thousand. They must have needed it for a forthcoming transaction to be made in cash. So do we talk business?"

"I think we do. I'll take the lot. You can show me where it is."

"You can't do that. I'll blow the whistle on you, if I don't get an even half."

"You don't know who I am, and remember you're an ideally adequate fit for the description of the thief, primarily because you are the thief."

The ensuing comments made by Gunfellow were hardly as important as they were predictable.

"Never mind the flattery," said the Sneaky Spy, "Just put your clothes on and let's be off. You'll have to make this trip wearing wet underpants, because I don't know your bedroom well enough to risk what might happen while I left you alone to change."

"Then come in there with me. I've got to take these ones off."
There are some fates that are even too much for a Sneaky Spy to face, and so it was a man wearing wet underwear beneath a two piece suit, who drove the Sneaky Spy down to Tryon Road Park, Lindfield.

"So you've hidden it all in a cave out in the Lindfield Rocks bush?"
"That I have. I still wish you would let me keep just enough to better myself."

"You won't be keeping any of it, and incidentally, I don't see how a bundle of bawbles, beads and bills could in any way better a fellow such as yourself. You might as well know that I think that the loot would be better spent on my lady."

Percy did not want to tell the man that he planned to return it all to its rightful owner, because a Sneaky Spy who presented himself as another criminal would probably pose a considerably milder threat to Gunfellow, were Gunfellow to have anything to do with the killing.

Percy followed Gunfellow  into the bushes, with the gun still trained on him. He would tell Gunfellow of his main interest soon enough. However, having discovered that the man had definitely committed another crime which was totally unrelated to the murder of Alicia Valtos, Percy decided to recover the stolen items while the going was so good. He would state his true intentions later, with a blunt accusation, and study the man's reaction to it. For the moment, his task was to recover the loot.

The Sneaky Spy waited outside the cave, while Gunfellow wandered in to collect his ill-gotten gain. The cave had only one obvious entrance. Percy used the red pen to illuminate part of the way. It had been easy enough for Gunfellow to locate the cave by the light of the moon. It took Gunfellow ten minutes to come back into the illuminated front of the cave.

"Sorry I took so long. I had trouble finding it in the dark."

"Which was a safer problem than that of my following you into a cave that only you would remember, even with a torch. Just put it on the ground in front of you, and step back a few paces."

Gunfellow obeyed, and Percy kept an eye and a gun on the man, until he had picked up the sackload of goods.

"Now Gunfellow, all you need to do is drive me back to your house," he said, "so that I can take back the guns that you confiscated earlier."