Billy Bunter the Hiker

No one was more surprised than the fat Owl of the Remove when he failed to get an invitation from anyone for the hols; nobody was more surprised than the Famous Five when, suddenly, Vernon-Smith did ask William George Bunter to meet up with him in the lazy summer months.

But there was method in the Bounder's madness, for silence is goldenful, as Hurree Jamset Ram Singh observed, and as the fat talkative Owl had seen the Bounder pea-shooting Quelch, his silence had of necessity to be purchased.

Not until Bunter had left the starvation-haunted walls of Greyfriars for the rapidly diminished larder of Bunter Villa, did he discover that Vernon-Smith was joining the Famous Five for a hiking trip, and that it was this part of the hols which he intended to share with the fat Owl.

But, with the charms of Bunter Villa beginning to pall, and a suspicious light dawning in the family cook's eye, Bunter joins the hike through the Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire lanes haunted by Dusty, a tramp with an eye for the Bounder's well-stocked wallet and Cardew of St. Jim's, a lad with a peculiar sense of humour. In the far, far distance, a tired, perspiring, rolling Bunter brings up the rear.