Mystery of Banshee Towers by Enid Blyton

front of it for ages. I feel as if I could almost paint the same picture myself!”
    “All right, Ern, calm down,” said Fatty. “Now, Find-Outers, any ideas?”
    “You’re sure , Ern, that it’s the same picture, and is in exactly the same place?” asked Daisy. “Same cliffs, same waves, same sky, same frame, everything?”
    “Same everything,” said Ern, rather sulkily. “Goodness knows I looked at it long enough. It’s just the boat that is missing - the little tiny boat.”
    “Well, I simply don’t see any answer to this particular puzzle,” said Fatty. “It’s certainly a mystery - but rather a silly little mystery, with no rhyme or reason - just a sea-picture from which a very small red boat has gone. We must give it up.”
    “The smallest mystery we’ve ever had, and the only one impossible to solve - what a pity!” said Larry.
    “I think we all ought to pop up to Banshee Towers and have a look round to see if by any chance the picture with the boat has been hung somewhere else,” said Daisy. “After all, some of the pictures look very alike - they are all sea-pictures with waves and cliffs and skies and ships. I’d rather like to solve this particular little mystery - not leave it in the air. It’s a nice day - we could cycle up again.”
    “Yes. Let’s do that,” said Pip. “What do you say Ern?”
    “Good idea.” said Ern. “I’d like to find my little boat! Let’s go now!”
    And before long the six children were on their bicycles, once more on their way to Banshee Towers. A little Mystery like this was not going to beat the Find-Outers! They took the dogs too, in the boxes on Ern’s and Fatty’s back wheels. It was quite a little company, cycling along up the hill to Banshee Towers.
    They were there at last - but what a shock! There was a notice up that said “CLOSED FOR TEMPORARY REPAIRS”.
    “Blow! Look at that!” said Ern, in dismay. “Now we shan’t be able to find out about the boat.”
    It was indeed a blow. “Panting up that steep hill all for nothing!” groaned Pip. “Is the turnstile man anywhere about? He’s a surly fellow, but he might let us in if we told him we only want to be there for half a minute.”
    “I wonder what repairs they are doing?” said Fatty. “The place seemed in very good order to me.”
    “Look - it’s probably pipes they are replacing,” said Larry. pointing to a pile of pipes of all sizes. “Looks as if their water-system has gone wrong. These arc lead pipes - like we have in our houses at home. Probably the place is damp and you can’t have damp in a picture-gallery. Ruins the pictures at once!”
    “Yes. You’re probably right,” said Fatty, examining the pipes. “Well, Easter is over so they won’t have many visitors till Whitsun - good time now to do any repairs. Well, what shall we do? Shall we just look round to see if any one’s about? “
    They wandered around, but saw no one. “What a waste of a morning,” said Larry. “What can we do now?”
    “I tell you what we could do, which would be rather fun,” said Pip. “You remember how the dogs discovered some secret way up the hill, that led to the great fireplace in the Armour Room? They must have found an entrance somewhere on the hill - a cave or a hole of some sort - that had a passage leading to Banshee Towers! Can’t we look for that?”
    “Well, it would be fun,” said Larry, and the others nodded. “Anyone brought a torch?”
    Three of them had torches in their pockets. Good! “I don’t expect there’s much chance either of finding where the dogs made their way into the hill, or of getting up any passages ourselves,” said Fatty. “It was probably nothing more than a large rabbit-hole they found, leading into some underground warren. Anyway - let’s have a shot at finding it.”
    “The dogs will help,” said Ern, and away they went on their bicycles down the hill with Bingo and Buster racing behind. Halfway down Fatty leapt off his bike, and