He immediately went
home, called up Pip and Larry and informed them to gather at Pip's
the next morning. The next morning, Fatty cycled up to Pip's house.
Bets peeped out of the playroom window. "Fatty! Come up.
Everyone is here!" she said. Fatty parked his bicycle and went
up to the playroom. "Fatty" shouted Bets and ran towards
him. He lifted her and swung her in the air.
"I may not be
able to do that for much longer, little Bets, you're getting heavy"
he said as he sat down and massaged his back. " Where were you
yesterday? You never came! Did you miss the train and catch the next
one?" Daisy asked. "Of course, I came"
"You mean... you came in disguise?Were you the man who asked me for the time?" Bets asked. "Ah! Clever Bets. You should have thought of that yesterday. Didn't even notice Buster coming after me." Fatty said. Buster barked at the sound of his name who had not made a single noise since their arrival.
"What's up? You look excited. Have you got a mystery in hand?" asked Larry."I think so. Has anyone seen the newspaper?Bets,please fetch it.Then, maybe we will have to go somewhere" he said. Bets left the room looking excited. She returned in a minute with the newspaper in her hand and a wide grin on her face. She lay it down for all to see. Fatty looked through the pages, on one page was an article titled 'ROBBERY AT BROWN HILL MANSION'. All their faces brightened up.
"So we' ve got a mystery to solve in these holidays too! Hurray!"shouted Larry. "Hey, wait. I know that place. Our great aunt Matilda lives there" Pip exclaimed ."Great!" shouted Fatty."You go there with Bets after lunch and get into conversation while we sneak around and look for footprints. She might even tell you something that she might not have told the police.When you're done, come to Olivers, we'll wait there. So long" he said and he left. Later that day, the five met at Fatty's and cycled off to Brown Hill Mansion.
"Do your best, Pip" Fatty said when they had reached the entrance. Pip gave him a reassurring smile and went in. Bets followed him. The others went into the garden and near the kitchen entrance, they found faint footprints about size 8 or 9 with rubber soles. It had no patterns, it was plain. "It's quite rare, isn't it? No patterns." Fatty said as he made a copy of it. "What's that?!" Daisy exclaimed, pointing at the ground right below the window sill, not far from the footprints. There was a faint mark of something circular with a thick line from one side. "I don't know but we'll copy that too." He copied it and they left for Olivers. Pip and Bets arrived soon after the others. "What did she tell you?Tell us, quick" said Daisy.
"She was in a miserable state when we saw her. She said that she had been out for an hour or so and returned by 9 in the night. Everything was perfectly normal until she went up to her bedroom. All the chests and drawers had been pulled out and turned upside down. She discovered that her jewels were missing and she called the police. Clear-orf turned up. He couldn't find anything, footprints or things like that as it had been snowing. The lock on the front door had not been forced , no windows had been broken and they had all been latched fron the inside like how it had beeen before the robbery." Pip finished narrating.
"Good work, Pip" Larry said. "Did you find out anything?" Bets asked. Fatty told them about everything and when he came to the part where they had found the curious mark, Bets gasped. "What could it be?" "Wish I knew that, Bets, then we might have probably solved the case by now. Okay, hot cocoa anyone?" Fatty asked. They all agreed. When they had finished, Fatty paid as usual. "Down at my shed after breakfast, tomorrow" he said and they parted.