Free Mystery of the Strange Bundle by Enid Blyton Page A

listening out for them. There - listen - one’s hooting now. Can you hear it?”
    A long and beautiful quavering hoot came to Larry’s ears. He sat up at once.
    “Erb - did you hear any owls last night?”
    Erb looked across at Larry and nodded. “Yes, I did. They like moonlight nights, you know. One owl came so near my window that I thought he must be calling for me to come and catch mice with him. I even saw him fly past the window, though I couldn’t catch the sound of his quiet wings.”
    “What time did you hear him?” asked Larry. “Did you notice?”
    “Why, did you hear him too?” said Erb, surprised. “Let’s see now - I heard owls before I went to sleep - about ten that was. Then they woke me again about half-past twelve - that was the time one came to my window. I got out of bed and watched for a while then.”
    “Where does your bedroom face - towards our house?” asked Larry.
    “No - it faces on to the next-door house,” said Erb. “The one that was burgled last night. When I looked out about half-past twelve there was still a light on downstairs in the sitting-room. Mr. Fellows must have been sitting working there like he often does. Sometimes he doesn’t draw his curtains, and I see him sitting at a table. But last night the curtains were drawn. He’d got his wireless on, I think. I’m sure I heard sounds coming from it.”
    “I suppose you didn’t hear any owls after that, did you?” asked Larry hopefully. “There must have been a lot about, enjoying looking for mice in the moonlight.”
    “Oh, there were,” said Erb. “Something woke me later on, but I don’t think it was owls. I don’t really know what it was. I switched on my light and saw it was a quarter-past three. I went to the window and listened for owls again, and I could hear some brown owls somewhere, and some little owls too, twitting like anything.”
    “Had the light gone out in the sitting-room next door?” asked Larry.
    “Oh yes,” said Erb. “But the funny thing was that I thought I saw some kind of a light down in the kitchen - the room that faces our kitchen. Not the usual electric light - a torch perhaps, or a candle.”
    This was all very interesting. Larry wondered if the light in the kitchen had been the torch of the man who had got in through the broken casement.
    “Can’t you really remember what the sound was, that woke you?” he asked. “Would it be breaking glass, for instance?”
    “Well, it might have been,” said Erb, wrinkling his forehead. “Are you thinking about the burglary next door? Well, I dare say that might have been glass breaking I heard, and it might have been the light of a torch I saw in the kitchen, I couldn’t swear to it - I didn’t take that much notice.”
    He bent his head down to the book again and became completely absorbed in it. Larry got up. He didn’t think he could get anything more out of Erb. Erb obviously took much more interest in birds than he did in burglaries. He didn’t seem at all interested in the happenings next door!
    “Goodbye, Erb,” said Larry, and went back home. Erb and his owls! Larry hoped he would enjoy the bird-book - he deserved the loan of it in return for all the information Larry had got out of him!
    He telephoned Fatty and told him the whole conversation clearly and concisely. Fatty approved.
    “You are all getting jolly good at reporting things,” he said. “Thanks for such interesting details. I think there’s no doubt but that the burglar fellow broke the window at about a quarter-past three - and very soon after that Mr. Fellows rushed out of the house probably with the precious goods, whatever they were, that the other chap had come for.”
    “Well, I suppose you’ll now decide that your respected Uncle Horatious wandered abroad sleep-walking at round about a quarter-past three,” said Larry, “and half the night-watchmen in Peterswood will hear all about him - bedroom slippers and all!”
    “Quite right,” said Fatty. “How bright you are, Larry! Anyway, thanks for all you’ve done.