Mystery14 - Mystery of the Strange Messages, The - Blyton, Enid.



Mr. Goon is Angry.

Mr. Goon, the village policeman, was in a very bad temper. He sat at his desk, and stared at three pieces of paper there, spread out before him. Beside them were three cheap envelopes.

On each sheet of paper separate words were pasted in uneven lines. "They're all words cut out of some newspaper," said Mr. Goon. "So's the writer's handwriting wouldn't give him away, I suppose! And what nonsense they make-look at this one now-'turn him out of the ivies!' What does that mean, I'd like to know. And this one-'ask. smith what his real name is.' Who's Smith?"

He stared at the last piece of paper. "call yourself

A POLICEMAN? BETTER GO AND SEE SMITH."

"Gah!" said Mr. Goon. "Better put them all into the waste-paper basket!" He took one of the envelopes and looked at it. It was a very cheap one, square in shape, and on each one was pasted two words only.

Mr. goon.

Each word was pasted separately, as if cut from a newspaper. Goon's surname had no capital letter, and he nodded his head at that.

"Must be a fellow with no education that put my name with a small letter," he said. "What's he mean-all this business about some place called The Ivies, and a fellow called Smith? Must be mad! Rude too-'Call myself a policeman!' I'll tell him a few things when I see him."

He gave a sudden shout. "Mrs. Hicks! Come here a minute, will you?"

Mrs. Hicks, the woman who came in to clean for Mr. Goon, shouted back, "Let me wipe me hands and I'll be there!"

Mr. Goon frowned. Mrs. Hicks treated him as if he were an ordinary man, not a policeman, whose frown ought to send her scuttling, and whose voice ought to bring her in at top speed. After a minute or two she arrived, panting as if she had run for miles.

"Just in the middle of washing-up," she began. "And I think I'd better tell you, Mr. Goon, you want a couple of new cups, and a..."

"I've no time to talk about crockery," said Mr. Goon, snappily. "Now see here..."

"And me tea-cloth is just about in rags," went on Mrs. Hicks. "How I'm supposed to wash up with ..."

"mrs. hicks! I called you in on an official matter," said the policeman, sternly.

"All right, all right," said Mrs. Hicks, in a huff. "What's up? If you want my advice on that fellow who goes round stealing the vegetables off our allotments, well, I can give a good guess. I..."

"Be quiet, woman," said Mr. Goon, fiercely, wishing he could clap her into a cell for an hour or two. "I merely want to ask you a few questions."

"What about? I've done nothing wrong," said Mrs. Hicks, a little alarmed at Goon's angry face.

"Look-see these three letters you brought in to me?" said Goon, pushing the envelopes over towards Mrs. Hicks. "Well, where exactly did you find them? You said one was in the coal-shed, on the shovel."

"That's right." said Mrs. Hicks, "set right in the middle of the shovel it was. And all it said on the envelope was 'Mr. goon,' and I brought it straight into you today."

"And where did you say the others were?" asked Mr. Goon, in his most official manner.

"Well, one come in through the letter-box some time," said Mrs. Hicks, "and you weren't in so I put it on your desk. And the second one was on the dustbin lid, sir-stuck there with a bit of sticky paper. Couldn't help but see it when I went to empty the dustpan. And what I say is, it's pretty queer to have notes all..."

"Yes, yes," said Mr. Goon. "Have you seen anyone sneaking about round the back? Somebody must have climbed over the fence to put the notes in the coal-shed and on the dustbin."

"I haven't seen no one," said Mrs. Hicks, "and what's more if I had, I'd have taken my broom and given him a whack on the head. What's in the notes, sir-anything important?"

"No," said Mr. Goon. "It's probably all just a silly joke-you don't know of any place here called The Ivies, do you?"

"The Ivies?" said Mrs. Hicks, considering. "No, I don't. Sure you don't mean The Poplars,' sir? Now, a nice gentleman lives there, sir, I do for him each Friday when I don't come to you, and he's ever so nice to me, he..."

"I said the Ivies, not the Poplars," said Mr. Goon. "All right. You can go, Mrs. Hicks. But keep an eye on the back garden, will you? I'd like to get a description of whoever it is leaving these notes about the place."

"I will that, sir," said Mrs. Hicks. "And what about me getting you a couple more cups, sir-one broke in my hand, and ..."