Mystery of the Strange Bundle (17 page)

He paused. Every one felt very solemn, and Bets found that she was holding her breath.

“Very well. It is our duty to discover and watch any man or woman who is working against this country and its laws. There are many of them, some in high-up places, some in lowly ones. Our duty is to watch, to sift out what we hear, and to report whenever we find any one suspected of misdeeds against the country and its laws.”

“Spies?” whispered Bets.

“Not only spies - but any man or woman of evil intent,” said the tall man. “Mr. Eurycles was one who helped us in this. He was a clever ventriloquist who went everywhere with Bobby-Boy, his Talking Doll. He went to both high and low places, and gathered a great deal of information for us. Mr. Fellows was his assistant.”

“Oh!” cried Daisy. “Was he really? So that’s how he comes in!”

“One day one of Mr. Eurycles’ friends came to him with a list of names,” went on the Chief’s friend. “They were names that we wanted more than anything else! Names of people undermining every industry in our country - provoking strikes, sabotage, anything that would harm Britain - and there was also other information, very valuable indeed to us. Mr. Eurycles put the information into his usual hiding-place - in the clothes that Bobby-Boy wore.”

Everyone listened intently, especially Mr. Goon.

“That night Mr. Eurycles was kidnapped. The kidnappers took Bobby-Boy also, knowing that either on Mr. Eurycles or on his doll the list of names was hidden. But the ventriloquist managed to throw the doll out of the window of the car that kidnapped him.

“Following the car was one of our police-cars, as it happened - not because the police suspected that Mr. Eurycles was in the first car, but because they knew it to be a stolen car. When the doll was thrown out, the police in the car behind thought it was a small child and stopped their car, of course, to see.

“They lost the first car and returned to headquarters. Mr. Fellows had by then reported the kidnapping of his master, the ventriloquist, so the doll, Bobby-Boy, was handed to him. Apparently he knew that Mr. Eurycles had hidden something of value in the clothes, but he had no idea what. So he took the clothes into his keeping, hoping that his master would soon turn up.”

“Oh, I see! And then the kidnappers found out that the list wasn’t on Mr. Eurycles but somewhere in the doll’s clothes, and have been hunting for it ever since!” cried Daisy.

“And that’s why Fellows ran out with the clothes in the middle of the night, when some one broke into his house - and he sank them into the river, meaning to get them again sometime,” said Pip, seeing everything now. “And then the water-weed man, who was the burglar, saw Mr. Goon stuffing them down Fatty’s neck, and so the next place he broke into was Fatty’s. Goodness, we were in the middle of something terribly exciting, and we didn’t know it!”

“Why didn’t Mr. Fellows look for the valuable list himself and take it?” asked Bets. “Then he could have thrown the clothes away.”

“I imagine that he wasn’t able to find it - and anyway he didn’t know what to look for,” said the Chief. “But we shall be able to find it. We have had information as to where it is. If you’ll just produce the clothes, Frederick, we will show you where the invaluable list is hidden, a most dramatic ending to what you called ‘just a little Mystery’!”

There was a dead silence. All the excitement drained out of the children as they remembered the disastrous happening of the morning.

“What’s the matter?” said the Chief, surprised. “You have got the clothes here, haven’t you? What are you looking like that for?”

“It’s awful to have to tell you, sir - but they’re gone,” said Fatty, in a low voice. “We - we went out of the shed where we kept them, locked it behind us, and when we got back the shed was broken open - and all the clothes were gone.”

Bets burst into tears. “What shall we do? Oh, we didn’t know it was so important! Oh, Fatty, what shall we do?”

Good Old Buster!

The Chief Inspector whistled through his teeth and looked at his plain-clothes friend.

“This is a set-back!” he said. “A real shock. Our scarred-faced friend again, I suppose. He’s certainly determined this time!”

“That list is important to him - and to a lot of others who would like it destroyed,” said the tall man, grimly. “And, unfortunately, it is important to us too.” He turned to Fatty.

“All the clothes went - he took the lot?” he asked sharply.

“Yes - all except for the little hanky Bets found, which you’ve seen,” said Fatty. “But if you like we can go down to my shed and have another look in the box where we put them. But I’m pretty certain it’s empty, sir.”

They trailed down to the shed, Mr. Goon too, all of them feeling most depressed. To have such an exciting mystery - and then to have the right ending snatched away just as they were being so successful! It really was bad luck.

They looked into the box. It was, as Fatty said, well and truly empty. Then Bets suddenly remembered something and cried out loudly.

“The shoe that Buster took! Did we find it and hide that away too? Or did we forget it and leave it in whatever corner Buster put it?”

“We forgot it. I didn’t put it in,” said Fatty. “But would just one shoe be of any use to you, sir?”

“My word, yes - more than you’d think, if it was the right shoe!” said the Chief. “Here, Buster boy, find that shoe!”

And, as if Buster completely understood, he ran round the shed, hunting into this corner and that - and finally, after sniffing under an old sack, he disappeared beneath it, worried at something - and came out proudly with a doll’s red shoe in his mouth!

“It’s the shoe. He’s found it,” said Fatty, in delight. “Good old Buster. Clever dog, Buster.”

Buster wagged his tail proudly. The Chief took the shoe at once and he and his friend examined it closely.

“It may be the one. Can’t tell without examining it,” said the Chief. “Any one got a sharp pen-knife?”

Fatty had, of course. He always kept his pockets full of things that might conceivably come in useful some day.

The Chief took the knife and sat down on a box. He turned the shoe upside down, and, with all the Find-Outers breathing heavily down his neck, he began to try and prize away the heel.

“Strongly made,” said the Chief. “Ah - up it comes!”

The heel came away from the shoe, and the children saw a neat little hollowed-out compartment in the heel itself. In it was a thin sheet of paper tightly folded.

“It’s here,” cried the Chief, as excited as the five children. His fingers delicately eased the paper from its hiding-place. He handed it, folded, to the tall man, whose eyes were now gleaming.

He unfolded the paper very carefully, and ran his eyes down a list of names and notes. They were all written in most minute writing, impossible to make out at a distance. Mr. Goon, craning his neck to see if he could read anything, could only make out a blur.

“This is it,” said the tall man, a ring of triumph in his voice. “There’s a whole year’s work here - invaluable, Jenks! And to think how nearly we lost it - if it hadn’t been for that dog running off with the shoe as he did, and hiding it, we’d have lost it for good!”

“The thief must just have seen the bundle of clothes in the box, thought everything was there, and picked the whole lot up,” said Fatty. “And gone off with it in delight. What a shock when he finds only one shoe!”

“Perhaps he’ll come back and try and find it,” suggested Larry. “You could catch him then.”

“Oh, we know where to pick him up now,” said the Chief. “My word - look at this name on the list - and that - whew! This is going to make a stir!”

“It is. It’s going to make several dozen people extremely uncomfortable,” said the tall man, grimly. “What a haul! I can’t believe it - and all because of these kids. Marvellous, aren’t they!”

“Well - they’ve certainly done some good work in their time,” said the Chief, smiling. “Very good work. They call themselves the Five Find-Outers and Dog, you know. And the things they’ve found out - they could really have books and books written about them!”

“But Buster’s really the hero of this Mystery!” said Bets, picking up the little Scottie and hugging him. “Aren’t you, Buster? Did you know that shoe was important, Buster? Is that why you hid it? Fatty, I’d be quite ready to believe that Buster did guess, you know!”

“What are you going to do now?” asked Larry, turning to the Chief.

“Well, just a few bits of work,” said the Chief. “We must go and drop in on Fellows, to begin with, and set his mind at rest. And we must send somebody to gather in Mr. Scarred-Face - or the water-weed man, as you call him. He won’t be wanting water-weed for some time after this!”

“I do so hope you’ll get Mr. Eurycles back some day,” said Bets. “I hope nothing horrid’s happened to him.”

“I’ll let you know when he does appear again,” said the Chief. “I have a feeling that once we get after the people whose names are on this sheet of paper, our Mr. Eurycles will find himself unexpectedly free. Quite a lot of these people will flee the country soon!”

“Er - can’t we give these children a little reward for their enormous help?” said the tall man, getting up from his box and almost bumping his head against the roof.

“Oh, no thank you,” said Fatty at once. “That would spoil everything - we wouldn’t want to solve mysteries for a reward. We do it because it’s fun - and we like helping the Chief.”

“My dear fellow, there are so few people left in the world who will do things without expecting payment or reward, that I think we’ll let the Find-Outers go their own good way,” said the Chief to his friend, quite seriously. That made the five feel extremely proud.

“Right,” said the tall man. “Well, we must be going. Still, there are two things I’m going to do for these er - what do they call themselves - these Find-Outers and Dog. I am going to get my butcher to send his biggest and juiciest bone to this remarkably clever dog…”

“Wuff,” said Buster, wagging his tail most appreciatively.

“And when Mr. Eurcyles turns up again I shall ask him if he would be good enough to give Frederick here a few first-class lessons in ventriloquism,” said the tall man. “He’ll be delighted to do that.”

Fatty blushed with pleasure. “Oh, sir - thank you. I don’t want any reward, as you know - and I’ll pay for the lessons. Gosh, wouldn’t I like them! Thanks awfully.”

The Chief and his friend departed. The police car revved up and disappeared down the drive. Only Mr. Goon was left with the five children. They looked at one another.

Poor old Goon. He hadn’t had much of a look in this time. The Chief hadn’t even said a word of farewell to him. Even Buster had done better than Goon!

“Well,” said Fatty in a jovial tone, “what about tea? It must surely be ready by now. Anyway, I’m ready for it. Mr. Goon - will you join us?”

Mr. Goon was so astounded at this invitation that he could only gape. He was not a generous enemy, like Fatty, and never would be. He hardly understood this invitation, and his mouth opened and shut like a goldfish.

“Well, do answer, Mr. Goon,” said Fatty. “We’ll celebrate the occasion, and I’ll open the big tin of chocolate biscuits I got for Christmas. Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, Mr. Goon?”

“I will,” gasped Goon, almost as if he was getting married. “Thanks. I take it very kind of you after - er - after some of the things that have happened.”

“Well, don’t you go stuffing things down my neck again!” said Fatty, leading the way in.

Goon gave a sudden grin. “And don’t you go making up dogs, and pigs, and what-not,” he said.

Bets didn’t want Goon to stay to tea, but she said nothing. She liked Fatty’s generous gesture, and she knew that poor Mr. Goon hadn’t had a very good time in this mystery - but nothing was going to persuade her to sit next to him, or even to address a word to him. She would never, never forgive him for stuffing those things down Fatty’s neck, and almost squashing him to death!

It was a most hilarious tea. Every one was pleased that the little Mystery had turned out to be a Genuine, Large-Size one, and had ended so triumphantly for Buster.

Buster, of course, was amazed to find his old enemy suddenly belonging to the family circle. He gave a few fierce growls, and then as every one made so much fuss of him, and Daisy actually addressed him as Hero Dog, he joined in the general enjoyment.

Mr. Goon enjoyed himself too. Well, well - to think that Toad of a Boy could behave like this! After his fourth macaroon, and third piece of chocolate cake, Mr. Goon was ready to be Fatty’s best friend.

And then a loud grunting noise was heard under the table! “What’s that,” cried Bets, in alarm. Mr. Goon looked under the table, amazed. Only Buster was there.

The others looked at Fatty’s grinning face and laughed. And then, from just behind the astounded Mr. Goon came an all-too-familiar voice:

“I never did it. I never! Ooooh, I never did! Where’s my Auntie?”

Oh, Fatty! What are we to do with you? Tell us about your next Mystery, do!