Read Online Mystery of the Secret Room by Enid Blyton - Free Book Online

things, and once he sat on them, would stay with them till Fatty came back and called him off. Now he made no attempt to leave the pullover and follow the others; he sat there as good as gold, looking mournfully after them.
    “Poor Buster! He does want to come. I bet he knows you’ve played a trick on him, Fatty,” said Pip. “His ears are down and his tail hasn’t got a wag left in it.”
    “Well, anyway he’ll give us warning if any one comes,” said Fatty. “Not that I’m expecting any one. But you never know. Detectives have to be prepared for anything.”
    “It nice to be Find-Outers again,” said Bets happily. “Oh, Pip! - is this the tree you climbed?”
    It was. It was such an easy one to climb that even Bets, with Fatty’s help, could climb from branch to branch, and reach the place from which she could peer into the secret room.
    It was just as Pip and seen it the day before - fully furnished, comfortable looking, and very dusty. The children all took their turn at staring in. It had been exciting to hear of it, but it was even more thrilling really to see it. Whatever was the room used for?
    “Well, I’m going off to the house-agent’s,” said Fatty, shinning down the tree. “You take charge now, Larry, and snoop around the house. Look out for footprints, bits of torn paper, cigarette-ends - anything that might be clues.”
    “Ooh!” said Bets joyfully. “I do love looking for clues.”
    “You called them glues last year,” said Pip. “Do you remember?”
    Bets didn’t want to remember things like that, so she didn’t answer. They all climbed down the tree and began to look around the house.
    “Everywhere is empty,” said Larry. “I wish we could find a window left open or something. Then we could get inside.”
    But not a window was left open, not even a crack. Not only that, but it seemed as if every window had a double fastening.
    “Whoever lived here before must have been afraid of burglars,” said Daisy. “Short of smashing a window or breaking down a door, I don’t see how any one could possibly get into this house.”
    They looked for footprints, but found none. Neither was there a cigarette-end, or even a scrap of paper to be seen.
    “Not a single clue!” said Bets sorrowfully.
    “Look at all our footprints!” said Daisy, pointing to where they showed in the muddy ground. “Plenty of clues left by our feet to show we’ve been here! I think we ought to have been more careful.”
    “Well, we can’t do anything about it now,” said Pip. “Listen - is that Buster barking?”
    It was. He was barking madly, and the four children listened uneasily. Fatty had gone to the village. He wasn’t there, with his quick cleverness to take charge. Pip, Daisy, and Bets looked at Larry.
    “What shall we do?” said Bets. “I can hear some one coming down the drive!”
    “Hide!” said Larry. “Quick, scatter behind bushes!”
    They scattered, and Bets with a beating heart hid behind rather a small bush, hoping she would not be seen.
    To her horror it was the familiar dark-blue uniform worn by the village policeman that she saw coming round the corner of the house! He was wheeling his bicycle.
    It was a real piece of bad luck that he had passed that way this morning, for he rarely cycled down the lane that led to Milton House. But he had to go to an outlying farm to speak to a farmer about straying cows, and, as the usual field path was under water, Mr. Goon had taken a longer way round, which took him by Milton House.
    He was thinking of a nice hot dinner when he cycled slowly by. He hadn’t even seen Buster sitting patiently on Fatty’s pullover; but Buster not only saw him and heard him, but smelt him too - and it was not a smell that Buster liked.
    Mr. Goon was his enemy. In fact, Mr. Goon was the natural enemy of all little dogs, though big ones he tried to make friends with. Buster couldn’t help barking defiantly when he saw Mr. Goon sailing ponderously by on his bicycle. He made the policeman jump. Mr. Goon locked to see where the