Billy Bunter's Banknote by Frank Richards.

First Published October 1948 (Reprinted 1949, 1953 and 1959) by Skilton & Co

Illustrated by R. J. MacDonald.

In this early Skilton published story we meet one of those new members of staff that invariably turn out to be bad-uns. Mr Twiss. This is the headmaster’s new secretary. Mr Twiss is a small, spectacled man, who normally would not be noticed by Greyfriars men. Regulars readers of The Magnet will know that Dr Locke is not the best judge of character when employing new staff.

How many K’s in ‘succeeded,’ Toddy?” Bunter is writing home asking his father for a remittance. As usual, the fat owl is stony.
There are some nice little touches in this story. Bunter has an impot – he has to write out the date 1688 a hundred times. He thinks up an ingenious scheme, whereby, by tying four pens together, he need only write it out 25 times. At first Mr Quelch is puzzled at seeing the impot written out in “blocks” of four.
His hand strayed to a cane. But he withdrew it. His crusty face relaxed into a grim smile…”Forty years ago,” said Mr. Quelch, “I was a schoolboy.” …….”and when I was in a junior form I was acquainted with a trick of fastening pens together”…”by which device, more than one line could be written at a time”… “This trick,” said Mr. Quelch, “could sometimes be played on an inattentive or absent-minded master”…I did not approve of it, even as a schoolboy, Bunter. I approve of it still less as a school-master”…And I recommend you, to use only one pen. You may go.

Breaking bounds one night, Smithy is knocked out in the dark at the door of Dr. Locke’s study. Next day a sum of money – including a bundle of tenners – is discovered missing from a drawer in the Head’s desk.

Amazingly, Bunter is soon in possession of a ten-pound note. He hawks it up & down the Remove, but no one is prepared to change it for him. He claims it is a remittance from home, but he is strangely reluctant to ask Mrs. Mimble to change it.

Is Billy Bunter the midnight thief? There is a mystery here, and you need to read more to discover exactly where Bunter obtained his banknote.

A superior Bunter story, well worth reading.