Read Online Mystery of the Hidden House by Enid Blyton - Free Book Online Page A

ditch. “I got an awful shock when I found it was Goon. He’s strong, you know. He almost caught me. What a row I’d have got in if he’d seen it was me!”
    “Let’s put a clue here,” said Larry. “A torn-off button with a bit of cloth attached. Very good clue!”
    “Where did you get it?” said Daisy. “You’ll get into trouble if you tore it off one of your coats.”
    “Idiot! I tore it off the old coat that’s hung in the garage for ages,” said Larry, and threw the brown button down, with its bit of brown cloth attached to it. “Clue number one.”
    “Here’s Clue number two,” said Pip, and put down a bit of paper, on which he had scribbled a telephone number. “Peterswood 0160.”
    “Whose number’s that?” asked Fatty at once.
    “Oh, nobody’s,” said Pip. “I just made it up.”
    “Your finger-prints will be on it,” said Fatty, who always thought of things like that.
    “No they won’t,” said Pip. “I tore it out of a new notebook, with gloves on my hands, and I’ve carried it in my gloved hand all the way. So there!”
    “You’re getting quite clever,” said Fatty, pleased. “Right. That’s Clue number two. Here’s Clue number three.”
    He threw down a cigar-stump that he had taken from his father’s ash-tray.
    “That’s a good clue,” said Larry. “Robber smokes Corona cigars. Mr. Goon will love that if he gets it from Ern.”
    “I’ve got a clue too,” said Bets. “A red shoe-lace, broken in half and dirtied!”
    “Yes. Very good, Bets,” said Fatty, approvingly. “I like the way you’ve dirtied it. Ern will be thrilled to pick that up.”
    They went on a little way farther, nearer the mill. Daisy still had her clue to dispose of. It was a very old and ragged handkerchief with “K” embroidered in one corner.
    “K,” said Fatty. “I can’t think of any one we know beginning with K. Whose was it?”
    “Don’t know,” said Daisy with a laugh. “I picked it up by the hedge that runs by Pip’s garden!”
    “I hope the wind won’t blow any of our clues away,” said Larry, anxiously.
    “I don’t expect so,” said Fatty. “It’s a calm day. Come on, let’s get back before we meet Ern coming up here.”
    They ran down the hill. At the bottom they met Mr. Goon labouring along on his bicycle, very angry because his snooze had been interrupted by a call about a stolen dog. When he saw the children at the bottom of Christmas Hill, he stopped in suspicion.
    “What you been doing up there?” he asked.
    “Having a lovely walk, Mr. Goon,” said Fatty, in the polite voice that always sent Mr. Goon into a frenzy. Buster, who had been left some way behind, with his nose in a rabbit-hole, now came rushing up in delight.
    “If you don’t want that dog of yours kicked, you keep him off,” said Mr. Goon in a dangerous voice. Fatty picked Buster up. Buster wriggled frantically.
    “If I hear of you getting mixed up in anything again I’ll report you,” said Mr. Goon, fixing them all with a protruding eye. “And if I was you - I’d keep away from Christmas Hill.”
    “Oh, Mr. Goon but why?” asked Fatty, in such an innocent voice that Mr. Goon began to go purple. That cheeky toad!
    “It’s such a nice hill to run down,” said Pip.
    “Now, don’t you start!” said Mr. Goon, slowly swelling up in rage. “And take my advice - don’t you go up Christmas Hill again!”
    “Can we come down it?” asked Larry, and the others went off into shouts of laughter to see Mr. Goon trying to work this out.
    “Any more sauce from you,” he began, “and…”
    At this moment Buster, who had been struggling for all he was worth in Fatty’s arms, leapt right out of them almost on top of Mr. Goon. The policeman hurriedly got on his bicycle. “You clear-orf!” he shouted to Buster and the children too. He kicked out at Buster and nearly fell off his bicycle. He rode up the lane at top speed, trying to shake him off, and almost collided with Ern, who was on his way to search for clues up Christmas Hill.
    “Out of my way!” yelled Mr. Goon, nearly running over Ern’s toes.