In an attempt to escape Mr Goon, Pip runs into the grounds of an empty house and climbs a tree. He is very surprised to see a fully furnished room at the top of an otherwise empty and apparently abandoned house. The Find Outers get to work to discov...
Pip ran all the way home. He was tremendously excited. What had Fattydiscovered? It must be something very wonderful for him to be guarding it likethat!Bets was waiting for Fatty very anxiously. She was at the window of theplayroom, and Buster was sitting on the window-sill beside her, his black nosepressed against the pane.Pip grinned widely and waved the letter at Bets. She guessed at once thathe had good news, and her heart felt lighter. She tore downstairs to meet him,Buster at her heels."Is Fatty all right? What has happened? Is that a letter from him?" sheasked.Pip pushed her upstairs again. "Don't yell questions at me like that!" hesaid crossly. "You'll have all the household knowing about our mystery soon!"Just then the luncheon gong sounded, and Pip's mother put her head in atthe door. "Come along," she said. "Don't keep me waiting, Pip, because I haveto go out immediately after lunch."So there was no time to show poor Bets the letter, and she was so terriblycurious about it that she fidgeted all through the meal, much to her mother'sannoyance.As soon as lunch was over, Pip and Bets flew upstairs, and Pip spread thenote out on the table."Look there!" he said. "Fatty's found something marvellous—and he'sguarding it. He wants us all to go down and join him. So we'd better go up toLarry's and get him and Daisy as soon as we can."Bets read the note. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. This sounded toothrilling for words."Fatty must have solved the mystery," she said. "Isn't he awfully clever?""Let's put on our things and go and fetch Larry and Daisy now," said Pip."Fatty will be expecting us as soon as possible. We'll march up to the frontdoor and knock loudly."They put on their things and ran all the way to Larry's house. They went inat the garden door and whistled for Larry, using the signal they always kept forthemselves."Here we are, up here," said Daisy, popping her head out of a roomupstairs. "Any news?""Yes, heaps," said Pip, leaping up the stairs two at a time. "We went to callon Fatty this morning, and the maid said he hadn't been home all night!""Goodness!" said Daisy."So I went down to Milton House, without Bets or Buster," said Pip. "Andsuddenly this letter floated out of a window! It's from old Fatty."He showed it to Larry and Daisy. They read it in great excitement."I say! He's certainly found out something!" said Larry. "He must have gotin at the coal-hole and gone up to that secret room. I vote we all go down toMilton House now, this very minute.""Bets was awfully silly all last night and this morning," said Pip. "She kepton worrying and worrying because she felt sure Fatty was in trouble! She criedlike anything when we found he wasn't at home. She's an awful baby.""I'm not," said Bets, going red. "I did feel awfully worried, but I couldn'thelp it. Something sort of told me that Fatty was in danger—and, as a matter offact, I still don't feel quite right about him. I mean—I've still got thatuncomfortable sort of feeling.""Have you?" said Daisy. "How funny! But nothing can be wrong withFatty now! You've read his note.""I know," said Bets, and she read it again. "I wonder why he signedhimself 'Freddie,' " she said suddenly. "He nearly always puts 'Fatty' now. Isuppose he just didn't think."The little girl looked thoughtfully at the letter. Then she sniffed a little,turning this way and that."What's the matter? You look like Buster when he smells a nice smell anddoesn't quite know where it comes from!" said Larry."Well—I did get a whiff of a smell that reminded me of something," saidBets. "What was it now? Yes—I know—oranges! But there aren't any in theroom.""Imagination," said Pip. "You're always imagining things." He took theletter and began to fold it up, but as he did so, he too began to sniff."How funny! I can smell oranges too now!" he said.Bets suddenly snatched the letter from him, her eyes bright. She held it toher nose."This is what smells of oranges!" she said excitedly. "Smell it, all of you."They smelt it. Yes, it smelt of oranges—and that could only mean onething. Fatty had written another letter on the same sheet—in orange juice, forsecret ink!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Bets sat down suddenly because her knees began shaking."I've got that feeling again," she said earnestly. "You know—thatsomething is wrong with Fatty. Let's test the letter quickly for secret writing."Daisy flew down to get a warm iron. It seemed ages to wait whilst it gothot enough. Then Pip deftly ran the warm iron over the letter.At once the secret message came up, faintly brown. The children read itwith beating hearts:"DEAR FIND-OUTERS—Don't take any notice of the visible letter.I'm a prisoner here. There's some very dirty work going on; I don'tquite know what. Get hold of Inspector Jenks AT ONCE and tell himeverything. He'll know what to do. Don't you come near the place,any of you.—Yours ever,'FATTY.' "There was a silence. The Find-Outers looked solemnly at one another.Suddenly their mystery seemed to be very deep and dark and dangerous. Fattywas a prisoner! Why had he written that other letter in ink?"The men who caught him must have made him write it!" said Larry,thinking hard. "They wanted us all to be caught—because we know about thesecret room. But clever old Fatty managed to write a secret letter on the samepaper.""We nearly didn't find out about the secret one," said Daisy. "Mygoodness!—we were just going down to Milton House—to knock at the door—and it would have opened, and we'd have gone in—and we would have beenprisoners too.""I think we were all very feeble not to think of testing for a secretmessage," said Pip. "We ought to have done that as a matter of course.""Bets and her sniffing saved us," said Larry. "If she hadn't smelt theorange juice, we would all have been in the soup! Good old Bets! She's reallya fine Find-Outer. She found out about the secret message."Bets glowed with pleasure at this praise. "My uncomfortable feeling aboutFatty was right, wasn't it?" she said. "Oh dear!—I hope he isn't too unhappy.Pip, shall we telephone the Inspector at once? I feel as if I want to tell himeverything as soon as possible.""I'll telephone now," said Larry. He went down the stairs with the others,and took up the telephone receiver. He asked for Inspector Jenks' number. Helived in the next big town.But alas, the Inspector was out and would not be back for an hour. Whatwas to be done?"It's no good going down to Milton House," said Larry. "Not a bit. If thosemen have caught Fatty, they would somehow catch us, and then we couldn't beany help to him at all. We'll have to wait patiently.""It—it would be silly to tell Clear-Orf, wouldn't it?" said Bets. Shedisliked Mr. Goon extremely, but she felt that it was very urgent to get help toFatty."What! Make old Clear-Orf a present of our mystery!" said Pip, in disgust."You're mad, Bets. Anyway, he's in bed with a cold. Our charwoman, whogoes to turn out for him, told me that this morning. He won't be snoopingdown to Milton House for a bit."But Pip was wrong. It was true that Mr. Goon had kept in bed for one day,but the next morning he was up and about, still sniffing and sneezing, but quitedetermined to go down to Milton House as soon as he could.In fact, even as Pip was telling Bets that Mr. Goon would not be goingdown to Milton House for a bit, he was on his way there! He had to walk,because the snow was still lying thickly. He set off over the hill, and came toChestnut Lane.He noticed the car-wheels going down the lane, and wondered if they wentas far as Milton House. He felt pleased when he saw that they stopped outside."Ho! Somebody coming to this old empty house in a fine big car!" said Mr.Goon to himself. "A bit funny, that. Yes—there's something going on here—and those kids have got wind of it. Well, if they think they're going to haveanother mystery all to themselves, they're mistaken!"Mr. Goon became all business-like. He hitched up his belt. He put hishelmet more firmly on his round head. He walked very cautiously indeed tothe gate of Milton House, trying to keep out of sight of the windows.He saw the many footprints leading to and from the front door. Hescratched his head, thinking hard. It looked as if people might be there. Werethey the rightful owners of the place? What were they doing? And why did thechildren keep messing about there? Could it be that the thieves of the SparlingJewels were there, hiding their booty?Mr. Goon longed to get into that empty house. He longed to explore it. Hewanted, however, to explore it without being seen. He felt sure the childrenhad done so.It was beginning to get dark, for it was a very gloomy, lowering winter'safternoon, with more snow to come. Mr. Goon went cautiously round thehouse, and, to his enormous surprise, suddenly saw a black hole in the groundnear the kitchen.Almost at once he saw it was a coal-hole with the iron lid off. He stared atit in surprise. Had somebody got down there? Yes—one of those tiresomechildren, probably—and maybe they were even now exploring that house tofind if any stolen goods were hidden there.Mr. Goon's face went slightly purple. He couldn't bear to think that thosechildren might get more praise from Inspector Jenks for finding stolen goodshidden in his, Goon's, district. He determined to get into the house himself,find any of the children there, and scare the life out of them. My word,wouldn't he shout at them!Very quietly and cautiously Mr. Goon lowered himself down into the coalhole. He almost stuck, for he was plump. But he managed to wriggle throughand landed on the coal."Now!" thought Mr. Goon triumphantly, as soon as he had got his breath,"now to go up and explore the house and catch those interfering littlenuisances! Won't I scare them! Won't I shake the life out of them! Ha, I'lllearn them to go snooping round, doing the things that policemen ought to do!I'll learn 'em!"
