Free Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage by Enid Blyton

door and the maid answered promptly.
    ‘Is Master Frederick in?’ asked Goon, in his most pompous voice. Before the maid could answer Mrs. Trotteville came into the hall.
    ‘What do you want, Mr. Goon?’ she inquired. ‘Was it you who knocked so loudly?’
    ‘Er - well, yes, I suppose it was,’ said Goon, forgetting to be pompous. He was rather afraid of Mrs. Trotteville. ‘I came about a foreigner.’
    ‘A foreigner?’ said Mrs. Trotteville. ‘But there is no foreigner here. What makes you think there is?’
    ‘Well, he came in at your gate,’ said Goon. ‘Man in a turban.’
    ‘Oh - dear me, I remember seeing a man in a turban going past the windows this afternoon,’ said Mrs. Trotteville. ‘I’ll call Frederick. He may have seen him too.’
    ‘Frederick!’ she called up the stairs. ‘Are you in?’
    ‘Yes, Mother,’ said Fatty, appearing suddenly at the top of the stairs, dressed in his ordinary clothes, and looking very clean and tidy. ‘I was just reading. Do you want me?’
    ‘Mr. Goon has come about some foreigner he thinks is here,’ said Mrs. Trotteville. ‘He says he came in at our gate a little while ago.’
    ‘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!

QUITE A LOT OF TALK
    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