Mystery of the Disappearing Cat Read Online Free PDF Page A

entangled in her lace collar that it took quite twenty minutes for her trembling hands to disentangle them.
    “A most unpleasant fellow!” she kept murmuring to herself. “Dear, dear! I hope I haven’t got poor Luke into trouble. He’s such a pleasant fellow — and only a boy too. I do hope he won’t get into trouble.”
    Luke was in trouble. Tupping strode up to him and glowered, his stone-coloured eyes almost hidden under his shaggy brows.
    “Who was that girl in here yesterday?” he demanded. “One of them kids next door, was it? What was she doing here?”
    “Nothing she shouldn’t do, Mr. Tupping,” said Luke. “She’s a good little thing.”
    “I said ‘What was she doing here?’ ” shouted Mr. Tupping. “Taking the peaches, I suppose — or picking the plums!”
    “She’s the little girl from next door,” said Luke hotly. “She wouldn’t take nothing like that. I just gave her some strawberry runners for her garden, that’s all. They’d have been burnt on the rubbish-heap, anyway!”
    Mr. Tupping looked as if he was going to have a fit. To think that Luke should give anyone anything out of his garden! He really thought it was his garden, and not Lady Candling’s. He didn’t stop to think that Lady Candling would willingly give a little girl a few strawberry runners, for she was fond of children.
    Tupping gave Luke a box on the ears, and went straight to the wall. Luke did not dare to follow him. He felt certain that all the children were out, because he had heard their voices and their bicycle bells some time back on the road. He stooped over his work, his ears red. He felt angry with Miss Trimble. Why had she given Bets away?
    The children had gone out on their bicycles — all but Bets. The ride they were going was too far for her, so the little girl had been left behind with Buster, much to her annoyance. It was such a nuisance being four or five years younger than the others. They kept on leaving her out!
    “Buster, come and sit by me and I’ll read you a story about rabbits,” said Bets. At the word “Rabbits” Buster fan to Bets. He thought she was going to take him for a walk. But instead she sat down under a tree and took a book from under her arm. She opened it and began to read.
    “Once there was a big, fat rabbit called Woffly. He…”
    But Buster was bored. He got up and ran to the bottom of the drive waiting for the others to come back. Bets sat there alone. She suddenly heard a noise and looked up — and, oh dear me, there, climbing over the wall, looking as fierce as could be, was that horrid Mr. Tupping!
     
    Tupping, Buster, And Mr. Goon.
     
    Bets was horrified, She couldn’t even get up and run away, She looked round for Buster, but he wasn’t there. She stared in fright at Mr. Tupping, who came towards her with a red and angry face.
    “You the little girl who came into my garden yesterday?” he said.
    Bets nodded. She couldn’t say a word.
    “Did you take my strawberry runners?” asked Mr. Tupping, even more fiercely.
    Still Bets couldn’t say a word. She nodded again, her face very white. Surely, surely, it hadn’t been wrong to have those strawberry runners! She had planted them carefully in her little garden, and had watered them well. They were hers now. They would only have been thrown away and burnt.
    Mr. Tupping put out his hand and jerked the frightened little girl to her feet “You show me where you put them,” he said.
    “Let me go,” said Bets, finding her tongue at last. “I’ll tell Mummy about you!”
    “You tell her if you like,” said Mr. Tupping. “And I’ll tell Mr. Goon the policeman, see? I’ll tell him you took my strawberry runners, and he’ll put you and Luke into prison!”
    “They don’t put little girls into prison,” sobbed Bets. But her heart went cold at the thought of Luke going to prison.
    “Where’s them strawberry runners?” demanded Mr. Tupping. Bets led him to her garden. As soon as Mr. Tupping saw the