Mystery of the Pantomime Cat Read Free

comes by."
    He paused to think, and then nodded his head. "Yes—and as
soon as we hear Pippin coming we'll begin to whisper loudly so that he'll hear
us and challenge us. Then we'll make a run for it as if we were scared of him
and didn't want to be seen."
    "But where does all this lead to?" said Larry.
    "You wait a bit and see," said Fatty, enjoying himself.
"Now, we'll escape all right—and what will Pippin do? He'll go into the
garden, of course, and shine his torch round—and he'll find a torn-up
note!"
    "Oooh, yes," said Bets, thrilled. "What's in the
note?"
    "The note will contain the name of some place for a further
meeting," said Fatty. "We'll think of somewhere good. And when our
nice round ripe Pippin arrives at the next meeting-place he'll find some lovely
Clues!"
    "Which we'll have put there!" said Pip, grinning.
"Oh yes, Fatty—that's fine. We'll lead Pippin properly up the garden
path."
    "The clues will lead somewhere else," said Fatty,
beaming. "In fact it will be a nice wild-goose-chase for Pippin. He'll
love it. And won't Goon's face be a picture when he hears about it all—he'll
know it's us all right."
    "When can we do it? Oh, Fatty, let's begin it soon,"
begged Bets. "Can't you and Larry begin tonight?"
    "No. We have to find out what Pippin's beat is first,"
said Fatty. "And we've got to spot an empty house on his beat. We'd better
stalk him tonight, Larry, and find out where he goes. Goon always used to set
off about half-past seven. Can you manage to come to my house by that time?"
    "Yes, I think so," said Larry. "We have supper at
seven. I can gobble it down and be with you all right."
    So it was decided that Larry and Fatty should stalk P.C. Pippin
that night and see exactly what his beat was, so that the next night they could
prepare their little surprise for him. Bets was thrilled. She loved an
adventure like this—it hadn't got the frightened excitement of a real mystery,
it was under their control, and nothing horrid could come out of it except
perhaps a scolding from Goon.
    Larry was down at Fatty's house at
twenty-five past seven
that night. It was almost dark. They were
not disguised, as there was no time to dress Larry up. The two boys slipped out
of Fatty's house and made their way to the street in which Mr. Goon's house was.
P.C. Pippin had it now, of course.
    The boys could hear the telephone trilling in Pippin's front room,
and they could hear him answering it. Then the receiver was put down, and the
light in the room went out.
    "He's coming!" whispered Fatty. "Squash up more
into the bushes, Larry."
    P.C. Pippin walked down to his front gate. He had rubbers on the
soles of his boots and he did not make much noise. The boys could just see him
as he turned up the street, away from them.
    "Come on," whispered Fatty. "He's beginning his
beat. We'll see exactly where he goes."
    They followed cautiously behind P.C. Pippin. The policeman went
down the High Street, and was very conscientious indeed about trying doors and
looking to see if the windows of the shops were fastened. The boys got rather
bored with so much fumbling and examining. Each time P.C. Pippin stopped they
had to stop too and hide somewhere.
    After about an hour, P.C. Pippin moved off again, having decided
that no burglar could possibly enter any shop in the High Street that night,
anyway. He shut off his torch and turned into a side-street. The boys padded
after him.
    Pippin went down the street softly, and then went to examine a
lock-up garage there. "Why doesn't he get on with his beat?" groaned
Larry, softly. "All this-stopping and starting!"
    Pippin went on again. He appeared to have quite a systematic
method — going up one side of the road and down the other, and then into the
next road and. so on. If he did this every night, it would be easy to lie in
wait for him somewhere!
    "It's nine o'clock." said Fatty, in a low voice, as he
heard the church clock strike loudly. "And we're in
Willow Road
. There's an empty