CHAPTER 16

It made babies cry too, and there wasn't even a half sentence. ''What did she want to do to our Sid for?'' said Em, quite annoyed that someone was yelling at her. sid. "He was nice to those stinky kids, he drove their big buggy across the field for hours."

Pip and Larry were tired of all the talk about Sid and babies. Who cared? "Em – did you hear anything last night when Prince Bongawah was about to be kidnapped?" Larry asked. "Sid or Percé?

"No. We didn't hear anything," Em said firmly. "We all sleep like the Tops. Sid doesn't even wake up when there's a storm raging overhead. The whole camp could have be kidnapped and we wouldn't." I didn't know anything. Good sleepers are morons.

Well that was it. There didn't seem to be anything conceived for Em. How absurd it is to know someone who lives just beyond the prince's hedge and get absolutely nothing out of it!

"You saw the prince, didn't you?" Larry said. "Yeah. I told you," Em said. "He was a funny kid with an arrogant face. He made faces."

'Made faces?' Larry said surprised. 'What do you mean?'

"Well, every time Sid or Perce or I peeked through the hedge, he would see us and pull our faces," Em said. "He May have been a prince, but he wasn't educated properly. Brown as a gypsy, of course, a real foreigner.

"Brownthanus?" Pip asked. "More or less the same," Ern said. "Why did you say he and Beth were like pea ash in a pot?" Pip asked, suddenly remembering Em's extraordinary comment. "Ah, it looks like brother and sister should look alike," he muttered, kicking a stone vigorously. 'Coo, I wonder what happened to the state umbrella of him! You should have seen it, Pip. Someone came to see him and one of them put on this huge umbrella - all blue and gold it was - and carried it on himself. He didn't seem half frowning. "

"Don't you like it then?" Pip asked. "Well, everyone was laughing and screaming and screaming," said Em. "It seemed a little weird, you know."

"Hi!" Suddenly Ciccio's voice came over the hedge. 'Why did you run away like that? Let me do the talking, Pip.'

"That's why I went," Pip said. "You like to talk, Ciccio, don't you?"

"Can we get over the hedge?" cried Daisy's voice. "Is there a place where we don't tear our clothes off?"

Amused, she kept some thorny branches aside so the girls could squeeze through the hedge. Fat guy followed him. "He's a nice cousin of yours, this Ronald," Fatty told Pip. "We had a good conversation."

"So you must have interviewed quite a few witnesses," Pip said slyly, remembering the books Dicke had studied a day or two before. "Have you received any interesting information about this case?"

"Well, no," said Dicker, who had actually spent all of his time talking to Ronald about some of his own exploits. "No. I haven't collected much."

"And you, Pip? Wetten asked. "Have you questioned Ern, Sidand Percé?

"Yes," Pip said. "But Larry and I didn't get much out of it. You slept all night and didn't hear a thing. You have no idea what happened to Prince Bongawah-wah-wah.

"Ar," Sid said, suddenly joining them. His jaw twitched frantically. Pip looked at him in disgust. "Go away," he said. "And don't come back until you can say something else." I'll start with "getting in" in a minute. ARRRRRRRR! "

He made such a loud noise that Sid gave him a troubled look and fled. Pip took the blue and gold button from his pocket and showed it to the others. "This is the only clue - if it can be called a clue - that we have found",

He said. "I found it in the prince's sleeping bag. It came from his blue and gold pajamas. '

"Well, what did you think it was?" Grasso asked. "Will this help us find out who took the prince, or when, or how – or where he went? Not really a clue, Pip.

"No," Pip said, putting the button back in place. "I thought not. But you keep telling us to examine everything and keep everything - just in case. I did this. By the way, he wasn't dressed - he disappeared in pajamas."

This made Fattystare. "Are you sure, Pip? Who do you have?" "The kids who slept in his tent," Pip said. "Well, it's funny," said Ciccio. "Because?" Daisy asked. "Wouldn't there be time, would there be, for him to get dressed?" Besides, wouldn't he bother the other guys if he did?

"Not if he snuck out in the dark while they slept," Fatty said. "He could take his clothes with him and get dressed quickly. Anyone walking around in pajamas would be spotted.

"But Fatty – I'm sure no one would have time to get dressed if they were kidnapped," Daisy said again. "They would just snatch the prince from his tent and disappear in his pajamas with him."

"Oh no, Daisy," Fatty said. "You're not very smart. Kidnappers would never crawl through a crowded field, falling ropes and tent pegs would find their way to a special tent, open the flap and drag a special boy into the darkness who would roar surely in the place. Eventually he was called Bongawah-wah-wah because he cried so much.

"Oh," said Marguerite. "Yes - that was very stupid of me. Of course the hijackers wouldn't do such a thing. What do you think they did?

"I think someone arranged for it to fly after the fire went out," Dicke said. 'Maybe they said they were taking her to that carnival in the next town - it's late at night! Something like that. You can't tell. And if he was kidnapped, the kidnappers would have it easy – he would be waiting for them at the door, fully dressed, thinking what kind of boy he was.

"I see - and they would catch it and that would be it," Pip said. "Oh, now I see why you're surprised he's in his pajamas," Daisy said. "If the abduction had been planned that way, he definitely wouldn't be in his pajamas!" "Okay," Fatty said with a smile. "Maybe he couldn't see her clothes in the dark," Em suggested in a helpful tone. "This isn't a mystery, it's a ridiculous type of puzzle," Bets said. "Nobody heard anything, nobody saw anything. Nobody knows anything. I'm starting to think it couldn't have happened! "