Mystery of the Missing Man Read Online Free PDF

somehow - but where? I daren’t go in yet.”
    He decided to change them under a tree - but first he peered in at the hall window to see what was going on. His father and mother and Mr. Tolling were all there, and Mr. Goon was trying in vain to get a word in - but Eunice was in full spate, describing at great length all that had happened.
    “He was FIERCE, that tramp!” she cried. “As strong as ten men, Mr. Goon here said. Buster was very brave, he barked and bit - and the tramp kicked out at him like anything. Oh, if only Frederick had been there, this would never have happened. He would have turned that fellow out at once.”
    “Here!” said Mr. Goon, indignantly, breaking in at last. “What do you mean? If I couldn’t get him, nobody could. I tell you…”
    “A-a-a-a-ah!” suddenly screamed Eunice and pointed to the hall window, through which Fatty was peering, enjoying the whole scene. “There’s that tramp again. Quick, Mr. Goon!”
    Everyone raced out of the front door as Fatty neatly slipped in at the side door. He shot upstairs at top speed, and into his bedroom, with an excited Buster.
    “Not a word, Buster,” he said. “Not a bark, please. Just let me get changed!”
    He stripped off the old clothes at top speed, and stuffed them into a cupboard. He cleaned his face, and removed whiskers, moustache and beard. Then he washed his hands and sank down into a chair with a sigh.
    “Whew! What a joke, Buster! I wonder if they’re all still chasing that old tramp. Disgusting old fellow, wasn’t he? No wonder you barked at him!”
    He sat and waited for a while but nobody came back, so he decided to go downstairs, and out into the road, and wait there. Then he would walk briskly up as if he had been out for a stroll, and pretend to be most surprised to see the others.
    It all went off beautifully. Fatty strolled up with Buster just as a very disgruntled Goon came back with an equally disappointed Eunice, and a very annoyed trio of parents.
    “What nonsense!” Mr. Trotteville was saying. “I don’t believe there was any tramp there - just this girl’s imagination! And you believed her, Goon! On a Sunday afternoon, too!”
    Goon was red and angry, and Eunice was white-faced and furious, but had enough manners not to argue. They suddenly saw Fatty strolling along and shouted to him.
    “Frederick! Where have you been?”
    “You seen a nasty-looking tramp, Master Frederick?” asked Goon. “Whiskers and all? He was down in your shed - smoking his pipe too. Might have set the place alight!”
    “A tramp - with whiskers?” said Fatty, sounding extremely surprised. “Where is he? Quick, I’ll set Buster on him!”
    “That dog’s already been at him,” said Mr. Goon, exasperated. “Must have bit his trousers to pieces - barking and snarling. I wonder he’s got any ankles left!”
    “Well, Mr. Goon, I think we’ll not bother any more,” said Mr. Trotteville, firmly. “The man’s gone - and we can’t do anything about it. Come in, Eunice - you can’t do anything either.”
    “What a thing to happen - on a Sunday too!” said Mr. Tolling, looking rather white. “A good thing you happened to be about, Constable. Tramps hiding in garden sheds! Was anything stolen?”
    “What a thing to happen - on a Sunday too!” said Mr. Trotteville, beginning to look exasperated. “Anyway, he only keeps a lot of rubbish there.”
    Fatty said nothing to that. He was not at all anxious for his father to see what he really kept in bis shed! All kinds of disguises, sets of grease-paints for making up his face, dreadful false teeth to wear over his own, cheek-pads to alter the shape of his cheeks, false eyebrows, moustaches, beards - good gracious, Mr. Trotteville would certainly have been amazed to find so many peculiar things!
    “Master Frederick - perhaps we’d better go down to your shed and have a look round to see if that tramp took anything,” suggested Goon, who thought this might be a very good opportunity of seeing exactly what Fatty did keep in his shed. Goon