Bunter the Caravanner - Friardale

clutching hand of a 'copper'. But though he was invisible, the
bulge of the bedclothes revealed that someone was in the bunk.
The constable stared into the van, and then back at the
schoolboys in the road. His face was no longer genial.
It was sharp with suspicion.
'Who's in this van?' he rapped.
'Only one of our party,' answered Harry, hastily.
'Gone to bed in the middle of the morning?'
'Oh! Yes! No! You see—'
'I'm going to see!' said the policeman, grimly. He tramped into
the van. 'Now, then, show yourself, whoever you! Out of that!'
'Ow! I—I—I ain't here!' came a gasp from under the blankets.
'Wha's at?'
'I—I—I—oh, crikey!' spluttered Billy Bunter, as a vigorous hand
wrenched off the bedclothes. 'I—I say—yaroooh! Keep off, you
beast! Wow! I say, you fellows! Help!'
The constable stared at him blankly. The fact that some
invisible person was hidden under the blankets in the bunk had
undoubtedly roused his suspicions. Possibly he expected to see
Marcus Krinko, the missing scientist, when he dragged off the
blankets!
Whatever he expected, he did not expect to see a fat Owl
goggling at him in terror through a pair of big round
spectacles.
'What the holy poker—!' gasped the constable.
'Yaroooh! You keep off!' yelled Bunter. 'It wasn't me! I ain't a
poacher.'
'A—a—a pip—pip—poacher!' stuttered the constable.
'It wasn't me!' howled Bunter. 'I wasn't there at all, and I
only got lost in the wood, and I never hit him in the eye! I
ain't going to be run in when it wasn't me.'
'Ha, ha, ha!' came from the road.
'I say, you fellows, keep him off!' yelled Bunter. 'Tell him I
never hit him in the eye, and I only did it because he was going
to lock me in a shed—'
'Ha, ha, ha!'
'What the dickens—?'
'Jervis!' yelled Bunter. 'You tell him it wasn't me! Tell him I
was fast asleep in this van last night when I got lost in the
wood.'
'Ha, ha, ha!'
'You young donkey!' said the constable. He was not looking
suspicious now. He was grinning. 'Nobody's going to run you in!
There's nothing to be frightened about.'
'Oh!' gasped Bunter. 'Ain't you after me?'
'Ha, ha! No.'
To Billy Bunter's tremendous relief, the constable stepped down
from the van. He grinned as he waved to Jervis to lead the horse
onward. The caravan rolled on again. A fat face stared back at
the uniformed figure in the road, and then blinked at five
laughing faces.