Mystery of the Hidden House Read Free

warned Mrs. Trotteville, as they came to her gate. “There’s to be no silly feud with that boy. He might be very nice.”
    Everyone looked doubtful. They were as certain as they could be that any nephew of Mr. Goon’s must be as awful as the policeman himself. Buster barked loudly, and Bets felt sure he must be agreeing with them in his doggy language.
    “Mother, you haven’t said if the others can come round this evening,” said Fatty, as they went in at the gate.
    “No. Not this evening,” said Mrs. Trotteville, much to everyone’s disappointment. “You can meet them tomorrow. Good-bye, children. Give my love to your mothers.”
    Fatty and Buster disappeared up the path with Mrs. Trotteville. The others outside the gate looked gloomily at one another and then walked slowly down the road.
    “She might have let us have just a little chat with Fatty.” said Larry.
    “We made an awful noise last time we went to Fatty’s,” said Bets, remembering. “We thought Mrs. Trotteville was out, do you remember - and we played a dreadful game Fatty made up, called Elephant-Hunting…”
    “And Mrs. Trotteville was in all the time and we never heard her yelling at us to stop because we were making such a row,” said Pip. “That was a good game. We must remember that.”
    “I say, do you think that the boy was Mr. Goon’s nephew?” said Daisy. “If he tells Mr. Goon all we did we’ll get a few more black marks from him!”
    “He’ll know who we are,” said Bets, dolefully. “That boy’s got the notebook I made - and there’s Fatty’s name on it. And, of dear, inside I’ve printed in my best printing, headings to some of the pages. I’ve printed ‘CLUES,’ ‘SUSPECTS,’ and things like that. So Mr. Goon will know we’re looking out for another mystery.”
    “Well, silly, what does that matter?” demanded Pip. “Let him think what he likes!”
    “She’s always so scared of Old Clear-Orf,” said Daisy. “I’m not! We’re much cleverer than he is. We’ve solved mysteries that he hasn’t even been able to begin solving.”
    “I hope Mr. Goon won’t come and complain to our parents about our behaviour to that boy,” said Pip. “Honestly, we must have seemed a bit dotty to him. Goon will probably think we did it all on purpose - made a set at the boy just because he was his nephew.”
    Pip’s fear of being complained about was very real. He had strict parents who had very strong ideas about good and bad behaviour. Larry and Daisy’s parents were not so strict and Fatty’s rarely bothered about him so long as he was polite and good mannered.
    But Pip had had some angry tickings-off from his father and two or three canings, and he and Bets were always afraid of Mr. Goon coming to complain. So, when they arrived home that afternoon to tea, they were horrified to hear from their maid, Lorna, that a Mr. Goon had been ringing up their mother ten minutes before.
    “I hope as how you haven’t got into mischief,” said Lorna, who liked the children. “He says he’s coming to see your Ma tonight. She’s out to tea now, I thought I’d just warn you in case you’ve gone and got yourselves into trouble.”
    “Thank you awfully, Lorna,” said Pip and went to have a gloomy tea in the playroom alone with Bets, who also looked extremely down in the dumps. How could they have thought that boy was Fatty? Now that she came to think of it Bets could quite clearly see that the boy was coarse and lumpish - not even Fatty could look like that!
    The two children decided to warn Larry and Daisy, so they rang them up.
    “Gosh!” said Larry. “Fancy listening to tales from that clod of a nephew about us! I don’t expect my mother will pay much attention to Mr. Goon - but yours will! Horrid old man. Cheer up. We’ll meet tomorrow and discuss it all.”
    Pip and Bets waited for their mother to come in. Thank goodness their father was not with her. They went down to greet her.
    “Mother,” said Pip, “We - er - we want to tell you something. Er - you see…”
    “Now, what mischief have