Mystery of the Hidden House by Enid Blyton Page A

gift!” said Fatty, airily. “I remember once last term we had to write an essay - and I wrote a very long one in my form-master’s own handwriting. My word - you should have seen his face when I gave it in!”
    “And I suppose, as usual, you got top marks for it?” said Pip, who only believed half of the extraordinary stories that Fatty told. As a matter of fact most of them were perfectly true. The rest were almost true but rather exaggerated. Fatty certainly had a remarkable career at school, and had caused more laughter, more annoyance and more admiration than any other boy there.
    “I say, Fatty - poor old Ern may have to wait weeks to look for his loot,” said Daisy.
    “No, he won’t,” said Fatty. “Haven’t you noticed that there’s a robbery reported nearly every day in the paper? It’s about the commonest crime there is. There’ll be one tomorrow, or the next day, don’t you worry!”
    Fatty got out his own notebook, in which he kept particulars of whatever mystery the Find-Outers were trying to solve. He glanced down his notes.
    “This is a very difficult case,” he said to the others. “There doesn’t seem much we can do to find out anything. I’ve hardly got anywhere. I’ve found out that that building in the wood is called Harry’s Folly, but nobody seems to know why. And the name of the man who is supposed to own it is Henry White - a very nice, common, insignificant name. I can’t find out where he lives - all I’ve heard is that he lives abroad - which doesn’t help us much!”
    “We know that one of the men who was near the place was called Holland,” suggested Bets.
    “Yes,” said Fatty, giving Bets a pat on the shoulder. “That’s a good point. I was just coming to that. As the men were walking, it looks as if they lived in or near Peterswood - though according to Ern, they said good night to one another near him and went different ways. So it’s likely that one might have been the caretaker, and the other was Holland. In which case Holland was walking home.”
    Every one sat and thought. “Where’s your telephone directory, Pip?” said Fatty. “Let’s see if there are any Hollands in it.”
    Pip fetched it. They all crowded round Fatty as he looked up the H’s. “Here we are,” he said. “Holland. A. J. Holland. Henry Holland. W. Holland & Co., Garage proprietors, Marlow. Three Hollands.”
    “Have to look them all up, I suppose,” said Larry. “Lists of Suspects! Three Hollands and one caretaker, called Peters!”
    “Correct,” said Fatty. He looked thoughtfully at the directory. “We’d better begin a bit of detecting again,” he said.
    “Well, we’re in on this,” said Larry at once. “We still don’t know if it’s a mystery, so there’s no harm in asking about the Hollands.”
    “I believe my mother knows some people called Holland,” said Pip, suddenly “I’ll find out. Where do they all live, by the way?”
    “Two in Peterswood, and the garage fellow at Marlow,” said Fatty. “Well, Pip, you be responsible for finding out about one lot of Hollands. Larry and Daisy find out about the other - and I’ll bike over to Marlow and smell out the Hollands there.”
    They all felt very cheerful now that there was something definite to do. “I think I’ll go in disguise,” said Fatty, who always welcomed a chance to put on one of his disguises. “I’ll go as Ern! I bet I could make myself up to be exactly like him, now I know him so well.”
    “Why - you were quite annoyed with us for thinking Ern was you when we met him at the station,” said Daisy.
    “I know. Still, I think I can put on a disguise that would deceive even old Goon, if he wasn’t too near!” chuckled Fatty. “Well, Find-Outers, we’ll do a spot of work tomorrow. Come on, Buster. Stop chewing the rug and come and have your dinner!”
     

Some Good Detecting
     
    Quite a lot of things happened the next day. For one thing there was the report of a big robbery in the daily papers. Ern could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the headlines! Fatty was right.