Billy Bunter's First Case by Frank Richards.

Published October 1953 by Cassell & Co (Reprinted 1957)

Illustrated by R. J. MacDonald.

And so to 1953, and a story set wholly in Greyfriars.

This one features Coker & Price of the fifth. Stephen Price is probably, along with Angel & Loder, one of the worst fellows at Greyfriars.

In this story, Price has been gambling not wisely, but to well. He owes Joe Banks £10. Obviously he has no hopes of being able to raise this sum, and he is in a funk as to what Mr Banks will do next.

Bunter, meanwhile, has been scanning the letter rack in the forlorn hope that his celebrated postal order might have arrived.

It hasn’t!

But, almost as interesting is a letter for Horace Coker. Bunter, who knows everything about other fellow’s business, recognizes Aunt Judy’s handwriting. With the less than kindly motive of doing Coker a good turn, Bunter takes the letter to deliver to Coker. Instead of a small loan, Coker is not at all grateful to Bunter and smacks his head instead.

The letter contains 2 five-pound notes, which are shoved casually into a pocket: Coker being far more interested in his aunt’s letter.

Later, those notes are stolen from Coker’s jacket when it is left unattended in his study.

The study is not unattended for long however, as Bunter is prowling for tuck. Luckily, in Coker’s cupboard is a pot of jam. Less luckily, Bunter is copped in the study by Mr. Prout.

Coker misses his fivers, and the matter gets to the ears of authority. Bunter is called into the Head’s presence. He thinks the lofty Headmaster wants to speak to him on the subject of jam. Dr Locke can hardly bring himself to utter such a mundane word.

Price attempts to palm the fivers off on Mr Banks, but the bookie is not having any. As has happened before, his threats are merely bluster, & he is not going to risk handling stolen cash.

A relieved Stephen Price is now as anxious to return the loot, as he had been to steal it.

Although exonerated by the Head, Bunter is still suspected by most Greyfriars men as a thief. He determines to turn detective, & hunt down the missing fivers.

Lacking the brains to do this, it is fortunate that luck is on his side.

Apart from the fright he has had, & the knowledge that he has descended to the level of a criminal, Price is not punished for any of this. Maybe Hamilton believed that his own terror & was sufficient. Although suspected, there was no real evidence against him, yet, as with all Greyfriars men, he did the right thing in the end.

On the whole, a good Greyfriars story, but not one of the best.