Читать книгу The Mystery of the Invisible Thief - Enid blyton - Страница 5

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The others looked at Fatty in admiration. Somehow he always got what he wanted. Things always went right for him. He badly wanted to examine that burgled house, and he had been left behind by the Inspector—and lo and behold, he could now go there, taking charge of Hilary, and nobody could say a thing against it!

“I can’t go just yet,” sniffed Hilary. “I’ve got to ride once more. You won’t leave, will you? You will take me right home? You see, my parents are away, and there’s only Jinny there—she’s our housekeeper.”

Better and better! With no parents even to deal with, Fatty felt sure he could snoop as much as he wanted to. Larry and Pip looked at him rather jealously.

“We’ll take Hilary home too,” said Larry.

“Better not,” said Fatty. “Too many cooks etcetera, etcetera.”

Hilary looked at him, wondering what he meant. The others knew all right. Hilary’s tears began to fall again. “It’s my riding prizes I’m thinking of,” she explained, between sobs. “My cups, you know. I’ve won so many. The burglar might have taken them.”

This talk about prizes seemed rather surprising to the others, who had no opinion at all of either Hilary or Bonny as regards horsemanship. Fatty patted her on the shoulder and gave her his enormous handkerchief again.

“I’ll come up to your room with you and see if your things are safe,” said Fatty, feeling very pleased to think of the first-hand examination he could make. “Now don’t cry any more, Hilary.”

Bets looked on a little jealously. That silly little Hilary! Why did Fatty make such a fuss of her? Surely he would be ashamed of her, Bets, if she fussed like that?

“I’ll come too, Fatty,” she said. Fatty was about to say no, when he thought that probably it would be a good idea to let Bets come—Hilary could show her this, that and the other—and he could slip away unseen and snoop round by himself.

“Right, Bets,” he said. “You can come—you’ll be company for Hilary.” Bets was pleased. Now that silly little Hilary wouldn’t have Fatty all to herself—she would see to that!

An enormously loud voice began calling over the field. “Class 22, please take your places, Class 22.”

“That’s my class,” said Hilary, scrambling to her feet. She pulled her cap straight and rubbed her eyes again. She brushed the crumbs off her jacket. Bonny neighed. He wanted to be off, now that he could see various horses moving about again. He had eaten as much tea as the others! He seemed to be an expert at nosing into baskets.

Hilary went off with Bonny, a podgy little figure with a tear-stained face. Fatty looked round triumphantly, winking at the others.

“I shall be in at the start, after all,” he said. “Sorry you can’t come, Pip, Larry and Daisy—but we can’t all descend on the house. They’d smell a rat. Bets might be useful though, she can take up Hilary’s attention whilst I’m looking round.”

Bets nodded. She felt proud to be in at the start with Fatty. “Shall we go after Hilary’s ridden in this show?” she asked. Fatty considered. Yes—Tonks and the Inspector should surely be gone by then.

So, after Class 22 had competed in jumping, and Hilary had most surprisingly won the little silver cup offered, Fatty, Bets and the rest moved off, accompanied by a suddenly cheerful Hilary.

She rode Bonny, who, now that he had won something, seemed a little more sensible. The others walked beside her, till they came to the lane where Larry and Daisy had to leave them. Then a little later Pip left them to go down the lane to his home. Fatty and Bets went on up the hill with Hilary. Buster kept sedately at Fatty’s heels. He kept an eye on Bonny’s legs and thought privately to himself that horses had been supplied with far too many hooves.

They came to Norton House. The Inspector’s car was still outside. Blow! Fortunately Hilary didn’t want to go in the front way. She wanted to take Bonny to the stables, which were round at the back.

Bonny was led into his stable. “Don’t you rub him down or anything before you leave him?” asked Fatty. “I’d be pleased to do it for you, Hilary. You’ve had a tiring afternoon.”

Hilary thought that Fatty was the very nicest boy she had ever met in her life. Fancy thinking of things like that! She wouldn’t have been so much impressed if she had known how desperately Fatty was trying to stay down in the stables till the Inspector had gone!

Fatty groomed the pony so thoroughly that even Hilary was amazed. Bets watched with Buster, rather bored. “See if they’ve gone,” whispered Fatty to her, jerking his head towards the front garden. Bets disappeared. She soon came back. She nodded. Fatty straightened up, relieved. Now he could stop working on that fat, restless pony!

“Now we’ll go to the house and find out exactly what happened,” said Fatty to Hilary. “I expect your housekeeper is there. She’ll tell us everything. Then you must show Bets all the prizes you have won. She’ll love to see them. Won’t you, Bets?”

“Yes,” said Bets, doubtfully.

“You must see them too, Fatty,” said Hilary. He nodded—also doubtfully.

“Come along,” said Hilary and they walked up a long garden path to the house. It was a nice house, square-built, with plenty of windows. Trees surrounded it, and it could not be seen from the road.

They went in at the back door. A woman there gave a little scream of fright. “Oh, lawks! Oh, it’s you, Miss Hilary. I’m in such a state of nerves, I declare I’d scream if I saw my own reflection in a mirror!”

Fatty looked at her. She was a plump little woman, with bright eyes and a good-tempered, sensible mouth. He liked her. She sank down into a chair and fanned herself.

“I’ve heard about the robbery,” said Hilary. “Jinny, this is a boy who’s brought me home and this is a girl called Bets. They are friends of my godfather, Inspector Jenks.”

“Oh, are they?” said Jinny, and Fatty saw that they had gone up in her estimation at once. “Ah, he’s a fine man, that Inspector Jenks. So patient and kind. Went over everything, he did, time and time again. And the questions he asked me! Well there now, you’d never think anyone could pour them out like that!”

“It must have been a great shock for you, Jinny,” said Fatty, in his most courteous and sympathetic voice. He had a wonderful voice for that sort of thing. Bets looked at him in admiration. “I was sorry for poor little Miss Hilary too. I felt I really must see her home.”

“That was real gentlemanly of you,” said Jinny, thinking that Fatty was just about the nicest boy she had ever met. “She’s nervous, is Miss Hilary. And I’ll be nervous too, after this!”

“Oh, you don’t need to be,” said Fatty. “Burglars hardly ever come to the same place twice. Do tell us all about it—if it won’t tire you too much.”

Jinny would not have been tired if she had told her story a hundred times. She began at once.

“Well, I was sitting here, half-asleep-like, with my knitting on my knee—about four o’clock it must have been. And I was thinking to myself, ‘I must really get up and put the kettle on to boil,’ when I heard a noise.”

“Oooh,” said Hilary faintly.

“What sort of noise?” asked Fatty, wishing he could take out his note-book and put all this down. Still, if he forgot anything, Bets would remember it.

“A sort of thudding noise,” said Jinny. “Out there in the garden somewhere. Like as if somebody had thrown something out of the window and it had landed plonk in the garden.”

“Go on,” said Fatty, and Bets and Hilary listened, all eyes.

“Then I heard a cough upstairs somewhere,” said Jinny. “A man’s deep cough that was stifled quickly as if he didn’t want to be heard. That made me sit up, I can tell you! ‘A man!’ I ses to myself. ‘Upstairs and all! Can’t be the master come back—anyway that’s not his cough.’ So up I gets, and I yells up the stairs: ‘If there’s anybody up there that shouldn’t be, I’m getting the police!’ ”

She paused and looked at the others, gratified to see their intense interest.

“Very very brave of you,” said Fatty. “What happened next?”

“Well—I suddenly sees a ladder outside,” said Jinny, enjoying herself thoroughly. “The gardener’s ladder, it looked like—run up against the wall leading to the Mistress’s bedroom. And I thinks to myself, ‘Aha! Mister Robber, whoever you are, I’ll see you coming down that ladder! I’ll take good notice of you too! If you’ve got a bunion on your toe I’ll notice it, and if you’ve got a squint in your eye I’ll know you again!’ I know how important it is to notice what you can, you see.”

“Quite right,” said Fatty approvingly. “And what was the robber like?”

“I don’t know,” said Jinny, and she suddenly looked bewildered. “He never came down that ladder after all!”

There was a pause. “Well—how did he leave the house then?” asked Fatty. “Did you hear him?”

“Never a sound,” said Jinny. “I was standing in the hall, so I know he didn’t come down the stairs—and there’s only one set of stairs in this house. And there I stood, shivering and shaking I don’t mind telling you—till I sees the telephone staring me in the face. And I grabs it and phones the police!”

“Go on,” said Fatty. “What happened to the burglar? Was he still upstairs?”

“Well, just as I finished telephoning, who should come along but the baker and I yells to him, ‘Here you, come here and go upstairs with me. There’s a burglar in the house.’ And the baker—he’s a very very brave man for all he’s so small—he came in and we went into every single room, and not a person was there. Not one!”

“He must have got out of another window,” said Fatty at last.

“He couldn’t!” said Jinny triumphantly. “They were all either shut and fastened, or there’s a steep drop to the ground, enough to kill anyone taking a jump. I tell you, he had to come down the stairs or get down the ladder—and he didn’t do either! There’s a puzzle for you!”

“Well, he must still be there then,” said Fatty and Hilary gave a scream.

“He’s not,” said Jinny. “The Inspector, he looked into every hole and corner, even in the chest in your Ma’s room, Miss Hilary. I tell you what I think—he made himself invisible! Oh, laugh if you like—but how else could he have got away without me seeing him?”