Billy Bunter's Bodyguard

Over a mile lay between Greyfriars and the theatre at Courtfield, and a mile to William George Bunter is a mile too far where walking is concerned. True, he had wangled a free theatre ticket from Smithy, but the main attraction of the outing lay in the promised "spread" in the bun-shop afterwards. His ambulation rolled to an exhausted halt, and the matinee at the Theatre Royal gave way to the temptation of a quiet rest. But he soon moved with an unprecedented speed, which carried him, not to Courtfield, but into the comparative safety of the wood, and – unbelievably, for Bunter – up a tree. Someone was after him, or so he thought. But what he saw from his hideout convinced him even more that it was advisable to stay there for a long time, bun-shop or no bun-shop.

This was only the first of a whole series of quite remarkable events which, to the Owl of the Remove, were disconcerting and even alarming, though his plea for a bodyguard was received with no more sympathy and no less derision from the other Removites than was any other of the many familiar Bunter fantasies – until the fattest figure in Greyfriars School disappeared. Even an unscrupulous tuck-raider merits help when truly in trouble, so 'Sherlock' Smithy and the Famous Five concentrated their power to find him, and their efforts lead to some startling discoveries.