Then he glanced in at the window - and he almost fell out of the tree with shock!
The room inside was not empty. It was fully furnished!
Pip couldn’t understand it. If the house was empty, how could a room on the top storey be furnished? People didn’t move away and forget all about one room!
“Golly! - I wonder if this is the old empty house after all,” thought Pip. “Perhaps in the fog I’ve run in at a different gate. Maybe the house is lived in, and all the rooms are furnished. I wish old Clear-Orf would go, then I could have a look round.”
Clear-Orf was hunting everywhere. The garden was well hedged in, and no one could squeeze out of the sides. Then where had that queer fellow gone? It was a real puzzle to the policeman. It never once occurred to him to look up into any of the trees.
At last he gave it up. His prey had escaped him - but next time - ah, next time he saw any one with those awful teeth, he’d get them! There was something funny about two people having the same sticking-out teeth.
“I never did see teeth that stuck out so,” thought the defeated Mr. Goon, as he made his way round the side of the house and walked to the front gate. “That Frenchy fellow had them, and so had this one I’m after now. Wish I could have caught him. I’d have asked him a few straight questions, I would!”
Pip was very thankful to see him go. He waited till the policeman had disappeared round the house, and then he cautiously slid along a branch to the window, in order to get a better look inside.
There was no doubt about it at all. The room had plenty of furniture in it - a couch that was big enough for a bed, an arm-chair, two smaller chairs, a table, a book case with books in, a carpet on the floor. It was all most extraordinary.
“There’s an electric fire there too,” said Pip to himself. “But there’s no one there - and judging by the dust everywhere, there hasn’t been any one for some time. I wonder who the house belongs to.”