Mystery of the Vanished Prince by Enid Blyton Read Free Book Online Page B

case! He says I’m to tell you to Keep Off! He’s met the Princess too, he says, and you’ve got to tell him where she lives so that he can interview her.”
    Fatty groaned. “I knew this would happen! Why did I do such a fool thing! It was just because you turned up when you did, Ern. Well - I suppose I’d better ring up the Chief Inspector and tell him everything. All I hope is that he’ll laugh.”
    “Better go and do it now,” said Pip, nervously. “We don’t want old Goon round complaining about us again. If you get the Inspector on your side, we’ll be all right.”
    “Right,” said Fatty, getting up. “I’ll go now. So long! If I’m not back in five minutes you’ll know the Inspector has gobbled me up!”
    He went off down the garden path to the house. The others looked rather solemnly at one another. What in the world would the Inspector say when he heard there was no Princess?
    And worse still - whatever would Goon say? He must have told the Inspector all about her. He wouldn’t like it one little bit when he knew it was all a joke!
     

Two Unpleasant Talks
     
    The Chief Inspector was not at all pleased with Fatty’s tale. At first he couldn’t make head or tail of it, and his voice became quite sharp.
    “First Goon telephones a cock-and-bull story of some Princess who says she’s Prince Bongawah’s sister, and now you ring me and say there’s no such person, it was only Bets dressed up,” said Inspector Jenks. “This won’t do, Frederick. A joke’s a joke, but it seems to me you’ve gone rather far this time. You’ve made Goon waste time on a lot of nonsense, when he might have been doing a bit of more useful investigation.”
    “I quite see that, sir,” said poor Fatty. “But actually it was all an accident - we’d no idea when we dressed up and called Bets the Princess Bongawee that Prince Bongawah was going to disappear. It was a most unfortunate coincidence. I mean - we couldn’t possibly have guessed that was going to happen.”
    “Quite,” said the Chief Inspector. “You have a very curious knack of turning up in the middle of things, Frederick, haven’t you? Accidental or otherwise. You’ll certainly make Goon gnash his teeth over this! By the way - how on earth did that nephew of his - Ern or some such name - come to be mixed up in this idiotic Princess affair?”
    “He just happened to barge in on us when we were dressing up,” explained Fatty. “You know he and his twin brothers are camping in the field next to where the little Prince was camping, don’t you? It’s a pity he’s such a mutt or he might have noticed something.”
    There was a pause. “Yes,” came the Chief Inspector’s voice, at last. “I’d let Goon question them, but I don’t think he’d get much out of Ern, somehow. You’d better see if you can find out something, Frederick - though you don’t deserve to come in on this, you know, after your asinine behaviour.”
    “No, sir,” said Fatty, humbly, his face one huge grin at the thought of “coming in on this”! That meant a little detective work again. Aha! So these hols were going to have something exciting, after all!
    “All right,” said Inspector Jenks. “Make your peace with Goon if you can, and tell him to telephone me afterwards. He will not be pleased with you, Frederick. Neither am I. You’d better try and rub off this black mark quickly!”
    Without saying good-bye the Chief Inspector rang off, and Fatty heard the receiver click back into place. He put back his own, and stood by the wall, thinking hard. He felt thrilled, but rather uncomfortable. Quite by accident he had got mixed up with the Prince Bongawah simply because Bets had dressed up as a Princess and Ern had seen her! How could he have known the Prince was going to disappear, and that old Goon would immediately spread the news about his mythical sister? Just like Goon! Always on to the wrong thing!
    It was going to be most unpleasant breaking the news to Goon that the Princess of Bongawah was just a joke. She didn’t really