Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage (8 page)

‘I think Goon must be seeing things,’ said Fatty, in a concerned voice. ‘Do you feel quite well, Mr. Goon? What was this fellow like?’

‘He wore a turban,’ said Goon, beginning to feel annoyed.

‘Well, I really haven’t seen anyone walking about just wearing a turban,’ said Fatty. ‘I think I’d have remembered if I had.’

‘Don’t be stupid, Frederick,’ said his mother. ‘I saw somebody wearing a turban this afternoon, but as far as I could see his other clothes were ordinary ones. Who can this fellow be, Frederick?’

‘A new paper-boy perhaps,’ suggested Fatty. ‘Or some friend of the maids? Or just somebody taking a short cut through our garden? People do, you know.’

‘Well - this man is obviously not here, Goon,’ said Mrs. Trotteville. ‘I don’t imagine you want to search the house!’

Goon would dearly have liked to, but Mrs. Trotteville looked so forbidding that he said a hasty good night and went off to the front gate. Fatty ushered him politely all the way and watched him stride away in the twilight.

He was just going in when a low whistle reached his ears. He swung round. Ern’s voice came urgently from a bush nearby. ‘Fatty! I’ve some news for you!’

‘Ern! What in the world are you doing there?’ said Fatty, startled. Out came Ern, very cautiously.

‘There was a strange man snooping about in Tally-Ho grounds this afternoon,’ he began. ‘And I followed him to your house. He wore a turban.’

Fatty groaned. ‘Fathead, Ern! That was ME! I disguised myself as a foreigner and went up and had a snoop round and a few words with our Friend, Mr. Larkin! How on earth did Goon come into this?’

Ern explained sadly, feeling that he had not been at all clever. He had even taken Goon to Fatty’s house! Golly, Fatty might have been caught in his disguise! What an upset that would have been. Poor Ern was really very miserable.

‘Cheer up, Ern,’ said Fatty, patting him on the shoulder. ‘It just shows two things - one, that my disguise was really jolly good - and two, that you’re certainly quick off the mark!’

Ern felt more cheerful. Good old Fatty - he always took things the right way, thought Ern. He determined to be even more on the lookout than ever. Next time he would track a real suspect - not just Fatty!

Fatty went up into his bedroom again, rather depressed after his interesting afternoon. This wasn’t a real mystery - it was just a stupid, idiotic newspaper case!

Fatty was tremendously surprised to see the papers the next morning. Somehow they had got hold of the fact that a foreigner of some kind had been seen wandering about the grounds of Tally-Ho House.

‘Mystery of the Lorenzos and Stolen Picture Flares up Again,’ said one headline. ‘An Old Friend found in the Grounds.’

‘Indian chased by Brave Constable,’ said another paper.

‘Stolen Picture Probably hidden in Tally-Ho House,’ said a third. ‘Foreigner Found Breaking in.’

Fatty stared at these headlines in the utmost dismay. Goodness - what in the world had Goon been saying? Some reporter must have got hold of him last night and had asked if there were any news about the Lorenzos - and Goon hadn’t been able to stop himself from enlarging on his encounter with the disguised Fatty.

Fatty’s heart sank down into his boots. Why, Goon hadn’t set even a finger on him! He had only followed Ern, who had been following him. Suppose Superintendent Jenks got to hear of this?

Fatty went round to see the others as soon as he could. They hadn’t known, of course, that he was going to disguise himself as an Indian, and had been most astonished to see the papers. Larry and Daisy had gone to call for Pip and Bets, on their way down to Fatty’s, and they were very pleased to see him.

‘Seen the papers?’ said Pip, as soon as Fatty came in at the playroom door, with Buster at his heels. Fatty nodded. The others stared at him in surprise.

‘What’s up? What are you looking like that for!’ asked Larry. ‘We were jolly pleased about it - it looks as if something might happen here after all!’

Fatty sat down and groaned in such a desperate manner that Bets ran to him at once. ‘What is it?’ Are you ill, Fatty?’

‘I feel ill,’ said Fatty. ‘I was the Indian - didn’t you guess? I thought I’d disguise myself as a foreign student, and just go for a little snoop - and of course first I bumped into old Larkin and gave him a shock - and then Ern discovers me and tells old Goon, who happens to be interviewing Mr. Larkin - and then Ern is told to shadow me so that Goon can see where I go.’

The others listened in horror. ‘Fatty! And now you’re in all the papers!’

‘Yes - but mercifully nobody knows I was the Indian - except Ern. I told him. Wish I hadn’t now. He’ll never be able to keep his mouth shut. And oh - I’ve just thought of something else. Oh, my word!’

‘What? What is it?’ said Bets, quite overcome with all this. All kinds of dreadful ideas filled her mind.

‘Old Larkin met me - and I asked him where my old friends the Lorenzos had gone,’ said poor Fatty. ‘And when he asked me for my name I told him an idiotic one - and he wrote it down! If Goon gets it out of him, and realizes the Indian was a spoof - in other words, me - there’ll be an awful lot of fat in the fire!’

‘What name did you give’ asked Larry.

‘Mr. Hoho-Ha of Bong Castle, India,’ said Fatty with another groan.

There was a moment’s silence - and then a squeal of laughter from Daisy. ‘Oh, Fatty! Oh Mr. Hoho-Ha! Do you mean to say old Larkin really wrote that down?’

‘Rather,’ said Fatty, still unable to raise even a smile. ‘It’s no laughing matter, Daisy. If Ern splits on me, I’m in the soup - jolly hot soup too. We’re sure to get the reporters down here then, interviewing me as the Boy who Deceived the Police. Frightful! Why did I do it?’

‘Ern won’t give you away,’ said Bets.

‘I think he would,’ said Pip. ‘He’s not very brave and he’s so scared of Goon that he’d say anything to get away from him.’

There came a knock at the door. Everyone turned their heads, expecting they hardly knew what. Goon perhaps - except that he wouldn’t knock. He’d walk straight in!

The door opened. It was Ern! Ern, looking very flushed and rather fearful.

‘Ern! We were just talking about you,’ said Bets. ‘Have you split on Fatty? You haven’t told Goon that Fatty was the Indian, have you?’

‘Coo, no,’ said Ern, much to everyone’s relief. ‘Uncle’s been at me like anything this morning - but I never said a word about Fatty. What do you take me for?’

‘I knew you wouldn’t, Ern,’ said Bets.

‘I just came to tell you something,’ said Ern. ‘My uncle’s gone all funny-like this morning. Don’t know what to make of him.’

‘Exactly what do you mean?’ asked Fatty, interested.

‘Well - he came up to my Aunt Woosh’s place this morning, though goodness knows how he found out I was staying there,’ said Ern. ‘And he took me into the wood-shed and shut the door. I was that scared I could hardly stand! I thought he was going to take a stick to me.’

‘Poor Ern!’ said Daisy.

‘Well, he didn’t,’ said Ern. ‘He was as sweet as sugar. Kept patting me on the shoulder, and telling me I wasn’t such a bad kid after all - and then he said he wanted to keep me out of any unpleasantness, so he wanted me to promise I’d not say a word about how I discovered the Indian yesterday, nor a word about me shadowing him…’

Fatty laughed suddenly. ‘Gosh! He’s so proud of this Indian business that he wants everyone to think he discovered him, tackled him and shadowed him! He doesn’t want you to figure in this show at all, Ern.’

‘Oh - so that’s it, is it?’ said Ern. ‘Well, my Aunt Woosh got a paper this morning, and when I saw all about you in it, Fatty - well, about the foreigner, I mean - I got the shock of my life. I was all of a tremble when my Uncle Goon came in - and I was worse when I saw him. I’m all of a tremble now, even when I think of it.’

‘Have a sweet?’ said Pip. ‘It’s good for trembles.’

Ern took one. ‘Phew!’ he said. ‘I wasn’t half glad when my uncle let me go. I promised I wouldn’t say a word to anyone - and I was never so glad to promise anything in my life! Never!’

Fatty heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Good old Ern,’ he caid, with much feeling. ‘You’ve taken a load off my mind. If Goon goes about saying he discovered the Indian, and tackled him, and then shadowed him, I’m all right. Though he shouldn’t really say anything, if he’s on a case.’

‘Suppose one of the reporters from the papers finds out from Larkin that the Indian gave him the name of Mr. Hoho-Ha of Bong Castle,’ said Pip. ‘Won’t he smell a rat?’

‘No. I don’t think so,’ said Fatty, considering the matter. ‘He’ll probably think the Indian was just spoofing the old fellow. I hope Superintendent Jenks doesn’t hear that, though - he’ll know it’s the sort of idiotic name I’d think up myself.’

‘You are a one!’ said Ern, round-eyed. ‘How you dare! Coo, Fatty, I never knew it was you! You don’t even walk like yourself when you’re in disguise. You ought to be on the stage!’

‘Good gracious, no!’ said Fatty. ‘Be on the stage when I could be a detective? Not on your life!’

‘We’d better lie low for a day or two, hadn’t we?’ said Daisy. ‘Not go anywhere near Tally-Ho House. Once this new excitement has died down, things will be all right - but Fatty oughtn’t to risk anything at the moment.’

‘You’re right, Daisy,’ said Fatty. ‘But personally I’m beginning to think that the next thing we’ll hear is that the Lorenzos have managed to get out of the country - with the picture - and that will be that.’

‘Oh, I hope not!’ said Pip. ‘This is a most annoying mystery - there’s nothing to get hold of - no clues, no suspects -’

‘Except the Indian,’ said Larry, with a grin.

‘Well - let’s drop the whole thing for a couple of days,’ said Fatty. ‘Then we’ll see if anything further has happened. We’ll know by the papers.’

‘Shan’t I keep watch from my treehouse?’ said Ern, disappointed.

‘Oh yes - no harm in that,’ said Fatty. ‘Do those twin cousins of yours still enjoy themselves up there?’

‘Oooh yes - they’ve got all their dolls up there now,’ said Ern, sounding rather disgusted. ‘There’s nowhere to sit except on dolls - and one squeaks like anything if you tread on it. Gave me a real fright, I can tell you!’

They all laughed. ‘Well, you let the twins sit up there as much as they like, and report to you if they see anything,’ said Fatty. ‘I wish I’d known I could be so easily seen from that tree when I wandered in yesterday. I forgot all about it! Those cousins of yours must have been keeping a pretty sharp lookout.’

‘They’re not bad,’ said Ern. ‘I’ve got them properly under my thumb now. They think I’m the cat’s whiskers and the dog’s tail and the kangaroo’s jump, and…’

‘Oh, Ern!’ said Bets, and joined in the laughter. Ern beamed. He did so love the Five to laugh at any of his jokes.

‘Ern, have you written any more poems?’ asked Bets. Ern was very fond of writing what he called ‘pomes’ but as he rarely got beyond the first three or four lines, they were not very successful.

Ern pulled out a notebook, looking pleased. ‘Fancy you remembering my pomes,’ he said. ‘Well, I began one last week. It might be a good one - but I got stuck again.’

‘What is it?’ said Fatty, grinning. ‘Let me help you.’

Ern read out his ‘pome’, putting on a very solemn voice.

‘A pore old woman had a dog,

And it was always barkin,

Its name was…’

‘Well, that’s as far as I’ve got,’ said Ern. ‘There’s all sorts of ideas swarming round in my head, but they just sort of won’t come out.’

My dear Ern, it’s a fine poem,’ said Fatty earnestly. ‘Don’t you really know how it goes on? Listen!’

Fatty stood in the middle of the room and recited in a voice exactly like Ern’s.

‘A pore old woman had a dog,

And it was always barkin,

Its name was Poppet, and of course

The woman’s name was Larkin.

She sniffed and coughed the whole day long,

And said the wind was nippin,

And when the dog got in her way

She handed out a whippin.

Her husband shuffled in an out,

He wasn’t very supple,

They weren’t at all what you might call

A really pleasant couple!’

Fatty stopped to take breath. Ern had listened in the greatest awe. The others laughed in delight. Fatty could go on like this for ages, without stopping. It was one af the many extraordinary things he could do.

‘Coo!’ said Ern. ‘How do you do it, Fatty? Why, that’s just what I wanted to say in my pome but I got stuck. You’re a wonder, Fatty!’

‘Oh, that was just a lot of nonsense,’ said Fatty, feeling much better.

‘It wasn’t. It was simply marvellous,’ said Ern. ‘I must write it all down - but it’s really your pome now, not mine, Fatty.’

‘No, it’s yours,’ said Fatty generously. ‘I don’t want it. I’d never have thought of it if you hadn’t told me the first three lines. You can have it for your very own, Ern.’

Ern was delighted - and, for the next twenty minutes he didn’t join in any of the fun. He was most laboriously writing out his new ‘pome’.

There was nothing more in the papers about the ‘strange foreigner’. In fact, as far as Fatty could see, there was no mention of the Lorenzo case at all. He was rather relieved.

For two days the Five led perfectly normal lives, with Ern and Buster following them around. The Lorenzo mystery wasn’t even mentioned, except that Ern volunteered the information that the twins were getting rather tired of the treehouse.

‘You see, it’s been windy, and their things keep falling out of the tree when the wind shakes it,’ explained Ern. ‘And they got annoyed because I wouldn’t let them blow bubbles over the Larkins’ cottage.’

‘Blow bubbles over the cottage?’ said Fatty, in surprise. ‘But why should they want to? The bubbles would burst at once, anyhow.’

‘Not the kind they’ve got,’ said Ern. ‘They aren’t ordinary soap-bubbles - you make the mixture, and blow the bubbles - and they come out very big and strong - they can bump into things without breaking, so they go on flying about for ages.’

‘I see,’ said Fatty, having a sudden vision of Mr. and Mrs. Larkin being surrounded by big, bouncing bubbles every time they put their noses out of doors. ‘Well - it does sound a most tempting thing to do, I must say - but you’d better restrain the twins at present, anyway. The treehouse spy-hole would certainly be discovered if they start anything like that.’