Free Mystery Of The Missing Necklace by Enid Blyton

to the bench. That was just exactly the way bent old people did sit down! Fatty never made a mistake in his acting.
    Fatty took out a pipe and began slowly to fill it. Then he coughed. It was a horrible, hollow cough, and bent him double. Larry grinned. The cough was new. He supposed Fatty must have heard the old man, and had practised the cough till it was quite perfect.
    The old man put his pipe away without smoking it. Evidently he was afraid of its making him cough too much I Larry turned to Mr. Goon.
    "There's that old man you made us go and see the other day, Mr. Goon. Funny about him, wasn't it? Did you ever find out what you wanted to know?"
    Mr. Goon again took no notice, but rustled the paper noisily. Larry winked at the shop-woman. "Must have got a cold," he said sympathetically. "Gone quite deaf!"
    "Now, you look 'ere!" said Mr. Goon, going red and rising quite suddenly, "if you don't..."
    But just then two men came along, stopped by the bench and sat down. At once Mr. Goon subsided, and began to watch the men with much concentration. So did Larry. Were they going to pass a message to Fatty?
    The men had papers. They opened them and began to discuss something. One of them lighted a pipe. They stayed there for quite a time, but neither Goon nor Larry could spot any message being given or received. The old fellow at the end of the bench still leaned over his stick, his head nodding occasionally.
    Then he sat upright, gave a loud sniff and wiped the back of his hand across his nose. Larry was amused to
    see the two men give him a disgusted look. They folded their newspapers, got up, and, still talking, walked off down the street.
    Mr. Goon leaned back and wrote down a few notes. Larry wondered if he thought they were the members of the gang. He was certain they weren't. For one thing he was sure that one of them was a friend of his father's.
    Larry began to be bored. He had finished his lemonade. He really didn't want another, and he felt that he couldn't possibly eat an ice at that moment. The shop-woman came up to him.
    "Anything else, sir?" she asked. Larry said no thank you.
    "Well, you go, then," said Mr. Goon's voice. "No need for you to hang about here if you've finished your everlasting lemonade, see?"
    This was awkward. Larry was supposed to watch the bench and Fatty until the others came back. He couldn't very well leave his post. But just at that moment the others did come back I They clattered in, chattering.
    Larry stood up at once. "Hallo, you others! I'm glad you've come for me. I suppose Pip wants to stay and have a lemonade as usual. Well, you girls and I will go and leave him guzzling!"
    For a wonder even Bets sensed that Larry wanted to leave only one of them behind. So the girls went off with Larry, and left Pip to seat himself at the window-table, with a glowering Mr. Goon nearby. Was he never going to get rid of these children!
    Larry took the girls off, and when they were safely round the corner, he told them how Mr. Goon had ordered him to go. "So I thought we'd better only just leave Pip behind," he said, "and then that still leaves
    two more of us to go in singly and drink lemonade or eat ices. I think Goon is getting suspicious of us !”
    "Larry! We had a most interesting time at the shop where the hooters are sold," said Bets. "Listen!"
    She told Larry all about it. She and Pip and Daisy had gone into the shop, which sold bicycles, tyres, pumps, bells, hooters, torches, toys, prams, and many other things. There was a cheeky-looking boy in charge.
    "Afternoon," he said, when they all trooped in. "And what may I do for you! Want a pram, perhaps?"
    Bets giggled. "No," she said. "We want a hooter. My bell isn't very good, and I thought a hooter would make quite a change."
    "Well, you're lucky," said the boy, going over to a shelf and getting down a rubber hooter. "We only had these in last week. First we've had for months!"
    The children tried it. It hooted very nicely indeed. Parp-parp!