The Mystery of Banshee Towers (Discontinued-Nearly Finished)

A horrid shock!

Fatty and Ern arrived at Fatty's home safely, much to Buster's relief. Part of the road had been so bumpy that poor Buster had found himself wishing he had sharp cat-claws to hold on with, instead of his own blunt ones! He had decided that he didn't want to go bicycling with Fatty ever again. Bicycling and dogs didn't really go very well together!

  He and Bin go jumped gladly out of the boxes tied on to the back mudguards, and Buster went to see if anyone had put something good into his enamel bowl. Ah - kind old Cookie! She had filled his bowl with some nice fresh meat. Bingo rushed up too - and, hungry as he was, Buster remembered his manners, and allowed Bingo to share.

  'Good, Buster. I'm please with you,' said Fatty. 'We'll buy you a good dollop of meat for Bingo, and I'm sure he'll share his with you too. Now you two dogs stay out here.'

  He opened the door of his shed. No one was there! 'Where are the others?' he said, looking round. 'Gosh - I hope they're all right. What's happened to them? We certainly didn't pass them on the way!'

  'Perhaps one of them had a puncture,' said Ern - and as it happened, he was quite right! Larry's front tyre suddenly went flat, and he and the others had stopped at a little opening in a nearby wood, while Larry mended the puncture.

  Ern and Fatty had actually cycled past them, and haven't even seen them, or heard their shouts!

  'You simply whizzed by,' complained Larry, when at last he and the others arrived at Fatty's workroom. 'We yelled and shouted, but you were gone - psssssst! - like that! Sixty miles an hour, and the two dogs bumping up and down like apples in a basket!'

  'Fatty, are you all right? What happened when we left you?' said Bets. 'I was so afraid those men might hurt you!'

  'Oh, we were all right,' said Fatty, hurriedly pulling his coat sleeves down as far as they would go, to hide the painful red lines round his wrists. 'We found out a whole lot of interesting things, Bets. We must have a meeting at once!'

  But before they could really settle down to it, someone came knocking at the shed door, opened it and looked in. 'Frederick, are you there? There's someone on the telephone for you.'

  'Oh, Mummy, can't you say I'm busy or something!' said Fatty, exasperated. 'We're JUST starting a most important meeting. Really important. 

  'All right, dear. I'll go back and tell Chief Inspector Jenks what you say,' said his mother, and shut the door.

  But Fatty leapt up with a yell. 'MUMMY! Wait! You didn't say it was Inspector Jenks! Mummy, I'm coming straightaway!'

  Ern looked round at the others, as Fatty shot out of the door at top speed, Buster at his heels. 'I bet the Inspector's heard of our discoveries at Banshee Towers,' he said, pleased. 'I expect he wants to ask Fatty a whole lot of questions. Funny how old Fatty always seems to get it on things first, isn't it? My word, you wait till Fatty tells you what we discovered this morning!'

  Fatty ran all the way up the garden to his house, his mind going over likely reasons for the Chief Inspector's call.

  Probably he's heard about the Banshee Towers' goings-on - the wailing banshee, for instance - Well, I can certainly give him some up-to-date information, thought Fatty, feeling pleased.

  He ran to the telephone and picked up the receiver. 'Chief Inspector Jenks? Frederick Trotteville here, sir. Sorry to keep you waiting.'

  'Frederick, I'll come to the point at once,' said the Chief. 'I'm sorry to say I've had a serious complaint about you. I expect you have a perfectly good explanation, and I sincerely hope you have.'