Mystery of the Pantomime Cat by Enid Blyton Page B

found!"
    "Then whoever did the job was wily." said Fatty.
"Looks as if that rules out the Pantomime Cat!"
    Pippin was about to speak again, when he heard Buster barking.
They both looked out of the window. Goon was just dismounting from his bicycle,
looking as black as thunder. Buster parked himself in the middle of the
gateway, and barked deliriously, as if to say, "Yah! Can't come in I Woof,
woof! Can't come in! Yah!"
    "You'd better go," said Pippin, hurriedly. "I've a
bit more news for you but you must go now."
    As Buster now showed every sign of being about to attack Goon,
Fatty hurriedly left the house and ran up to the front gate. He picked Buster
up and put him in his bicycle basket.
    "What you doing here?" blustered Goon. "I've warned
Pippin against you, Mr. Nosey Parker. You won't get anything out of him! He's
not on this case. He doesn't know a thing—and he wouldn't tell you if he did.
Clear orf! I'm tired of that fat face of yours."
    "Don't be rude, Mr. Goon," said Fatty, with dignity. He
hated his face to be called fat.
    "Rude! I'm not rude—just truthful," said Mr. Goon,
wheeling his bicycle in at the gate. "I tell you, I don't want to see that
fat face of yours any more today! I'm a busy man, with important things to do.
I won't have you noseying around."
    He went in, pleased to think that Pippin had heard him treat that
fat boy in the way he ought to be treated. Aha! He, Mr. Goon, was well on the
way to solving a Very Difficult Case. Got it all Pat, he had—and for once in a
way Master Frederick Algernon Trotteville was going to have his nose put out of
joint. Him and his fat face!
    With these pleasant thoughts to keep him company, Mr. Goon went in
to fire off a few sharp remarks to Pippin. Fatty, anxious to have a few more
words with Pippin, rode up the road a Little way, and then leaned his bicycle
against a tree, putting himself the other side of the trunk so that he might
watch unseen for Goon to come out and ride off again. The policeman had left
his bicycle against the wall of his cottage, as if he meant to come out again
in a little while.
    Fatty stood and brooded over Goon's rude remarks about the fatness
of his face. Goon thought he had a fat face, did he? All right—he'd show him
one! Fatty slipped his hand into his pocket and brought out two nice new plump
cheek-pads. He slipped one into each cheek, between his teeth and the fleshy
part of the cheek. At once he took on a most swollen, blown-out look.
    Goon came out of his house in a few minutes and mounted his
bicycle. He rode slowly up the road. Fatty came out from behind his tree to
show himself to Goon.
    "You here again?" began Goon, wobbling in rage.
"You ..."
    And then he caught sight of Fatty's enormously blown-out cheeks.
He blinked and looked again. Fatty grinned, and his cheeks almost burst.
    Mr. Goon got off his bicycle, unable to believe his eyes, but
Fatty jumped on his and sailed away. He waited in a side-road, riding up and
down, till he thought Goon must have gone, and then cycled back to Pippin.
    "It's all right," said Pippin, from the window.
"He's gone to send a telegram off, and after that he's going to the
Theatre car-park to snoop round again, and then he's got to go to Loo Farm about
a dog. He won't be back for some time."
    Fatty had now taken out his cheek-pads and looked
    quite normal again.
    "I won't keep you more than a few minutes," he told
Pippin. "I know you're busy. What other news have you?"
    "Well, there way a sleeping-draught in that cup all
right," said Pippin. "A harmless one, but strong. Traces of it were
found in the cup. So that's proved all right."
    "Anything else?" enquired Fatty. "Has the money
been traced?"
    "No. And it won't be either," said Pippin. "It was
all in ten-shilling or pound notes, and silver."
    "Any idea yet who did the job?" asked Fatty.
    "Well, I've seen Goon's notes, and if you want a motive for
the robbery—some one with a spite against the manager—any of the company would
do for the