Mystery of the Invisible Thief Read Online Free PDF Page B

Buster panting once again near the pedals.
    The others were waiting for him in Pip’s garden. It was very hot again, and they lay on their backs, with iced lemonade in a patch of shade.
    “Here’s old Fatty,” said Pip, hearing his bicycle bell ringing as Fatty came at sixty miles an hour up the drive. “How in the world can he ride at that pace when it’s so hot?”
    But Fatty was the bringer of news, and he didn’t think once about the heat as he came riding up the garden path to the others. He flung his bicycle down and beamed round at them all.
    “Goon’s coming back,” he said. “This afternoon! And he’ll take over the case of the Invisible Thief - so we shall have some fun.”
    Everyone sat up at once. “That’s good news,” said Larry, who always enjoyed their tussle of wits with Goon. “Did you see Tonks then? Had he anything to say?”
    Fatty sat down. “Not much,” he said. “He and the Inspector didn’t really find out any more than I did. I’ll tell you what I found out yesterday in a minute - unless Bets has already told you?”
    No, Bets hadn’t. She had thought that Fatty ought to tell everything - so he got out his notebook and went into all the details of the new case.
    He told them of the setting-up of the ladder - the large footprints in the bed below - the equally large glove-prints in the bedroom above - the throwing out of the stolen goods - the apparently completely invisible getaway.
    “Only two ways of escape - down the ladder or down the stairs,” said Fatty. “And Jinny the housekeeper was standing in the hall, where she could see both - and she swears nobody came down either stairs or ladder.”
    “Must have got out of another upstairs window then,” said Pip.
    “All either fastened and shut, or too far from the ground,” said Fatty. “There’s only one that might have been used - and that is a tiny window in a boxroom - there was a fat pipe running by it to the ground. Anyone could have slithered down that - if he was tiny enough to get out of the window! But - the window was shut and fastened when Jinny went round the upstairs part of the house.”
    “Hm - well, no thief could squeeze out of a window, hold on to a pipe, and then shut and fasten the window after him - from the inside!” said Pip. “It’s a bit of a puzzle, isn’t it? Jinny’s right - the man’s invisible!”
    “Well, if he is, he’ll certainly perform again,” said Larry. “I mean - an invisible thief has a great advantage, hasn’t he!”
    Fatty laughed. He showed them his notebook with the drawings of the footprints, the glove-prints - and the curious round-shaped print with the faint crisscross marks.
    “Can’t imagine what made that mark,” he said. “It was near the bush where the stolen goods were thrown. And look - can anyone make anything of this?”
    He showed them the curious addresses - if they were addresses - that he had copied into his notebook too.
    “Number 2, Frinton. Number 1, Rods,” he said. “Those words and numbers were found on two separate dirty scraps of paper near the bush. What on earth do they mean?”
    “Frinton,” said Bets, wrinkling her forehead in a frown. “Wait a minute. That rings a bell, somehow. Frinton, Frinton. Frinton! Where have I heard that lately?”
    “Oh - one of your friends sent you a postcard from Frinton-on-Sea, I expect, silly,” said Pip.
    “No. Wait a minute - I’m remembering!” said Bets. “It’s that place down by the river - not very far from here, actually - the place where they take visitors - Frinton Lea!”
    “Clever old Bets,” said Fatty, admiringly. “There may be something in that. If we find a large-sized fellow slouching about there, we’ll keep a watch on him.”
    “What about Number 1 Rods,” said Larry.
    Nobody could think up anything for that.
    “We’ll go round looking at the names of houses and finding out if anyone has that name,” said Fatty. “Rods. It’s a peculiar name, anyhow. Well, Find-Outers - the Mystery has begun!”
     

The Second Robbery
     
    Mr Goon arrived