The Mystery of Banshee Towers (Discontinued-Nearly Finished)

Up The Passage - And A Surprising Find

The hole was quite a large one, with long grass and some kind of creeping plant growing across the entrance. Fatty, bent double, pushed his way into it, shining his torch in front of him. He could hear Buster and Bingo scrabbling some way ahead, giving little woofs, as if chatting with each other.

  The hole became much larger after a few yards, and Fatty was able to straighten himself a little, and make his way more comfortably. He soon saw that the passage he was in was now of rock, not of earth. It was very uneven, and at times the roof came down so low that he had to bend almost double.

  Behind him came Bets, then Larry, then Daisy, Ern and Pip being the last two. Larry and Pip held the other torches, which gave a very good light in the black darkness of the strange passage. Ahead were the two dogs, very pleased and excited to think that Fatty and the others were using the passage they had found some days before!

  'My word, isn't it steep?' shouted Fatty, and made the others jump - for his voice sounded very strange in the narrow passage - not at all like Fatty's usual voice! It was muffled and mysterious, and had a strange echo.'

  'Steep-tee-eep!' came the echo. The dogs didn't like it. They stopped, pricked their ears, and whined.

  'It's all right, Buster,' said Fatty. 'Only the echo. Carry on!'

  'Carry-on, arry-on--on---on!' said the echo, and the dogs barked angrily. That was worse still, of course!~ The rocky passage was immediately full of wild barks, and the dogs were very frightened indeed. Was this place full of hundreds of dogs? They made their way back to Fatty in alarm, and he patted them, and spoke quietly, trying to defeat the curious echo.

  'Now, now - it's all right. Good dogs! VERY good dogs! Go on now - show us the way.'

'Way,' said the echo, also quietly. 'Way-way-waaaaaay!'

  After they had all climbed a good while, very glad indeed of their torches, Fatty stopped for a rest. The last bit had been very steep indeed. He waited until the others had come up close, and then spoke.

  'We should be near Banshee Towers now,' he said. 'You remember that there is a trap door under the old cauldron? - well, that means that any noise we make now may echo up into the Armor Room. So be very quiet, please - just in case anyone is there.'

  Without a word, and making as little noise as possible, the six went climbing up. Fatty made the dogs keep close to him, so that he could prevent them barking.

  But before they came to the trap door, they came to something that surprised them very much! Fatty saw it first, of course, because he was leading. His torch showed him a big space just in front, and he stopped in surprise. The tunnel had widened out into a kind of underground room - a room with an uneven rocky floor, and equally uneven rocky walls. Fatty was able to stand completely upright. He shone his torch round the underground room is surprise.

  He gave a short whistle. 'Whew! What's all this? Quick, everyone, come and look!'

  They crowded into the strange rocky room. It was quite empty except for three things: a piece of peculiar-looking machinery - something that looked like a deflated balloon - and a chair!

  'What on earth is all this?' said pip, shining his torch on the machinery.

  'At a guess I should say it was the machinery that sets the dear old banshee wailing at the top of her voice!' said Fatty.

  'Are you sure?' said Bets. 'What's that balloon thing for? Shine your torch on it, Fatty.'

  'I should think that this balloon is inflated by a pump worked by that bit of machinery,' said Fatty. 'And then, when it deflates, it makes that screaming, wailing banshee noise.'