Mystery #03 — The Mystery of the Secret Room tff-3

by Enid Blyton

  He went round the hedge, slipped in at a gap, and found himself by the summer-house. Inside were the rugs Fatty had taken to keep himself warm. But there was no Fatty there.

  He stepped cautiously into the garden, and one of the men, who was watching, saw him from a window. He had with him the sheet of notepaper on which Fatty had written the two letters.

  The man bent down, so that he could not be seen, opened the window a crack at the bottom, gave a loud whistle to attract Pip’s attention, and then let the paper float out of the window.

  Pip heard the whistle and looked up. To his enormous surprise he saw a sheet of paper floating out of one of the second-storey windows. Perhaps it was a message from Fatty.

  The boy ran to where the paper dropped and picked it up. He recognized Fatty’s neat hand-writing at once. He read the note through, and his heart began to beat fast.

  “Fatty’s on to something,” he thought. “He’s found some stolen jewels or something and he’s guarding them. He wants us all to be in it! I’ll run back to the others, and bring them back with me. What an adventure! Good old Fatty!”

  He scampered off, his face bright. The man watched him go and was satisfied. That young idiot would soon bring the other children down with him, and then they could all be locked up safely before they gave the game away!

  Fatty saw Pip too and began to have a few horrid doubts. Were the Find-Outers smart enough to guess there was a secret letter in between the lines of inked writing? Suppose they didn’t? He would have led them all into a trap!

  A Smell of Oranges

  Pip ran all the way home. He was tremendously excited. What had Fatty discovered? It must be something very wonderful for him to be guarding it like that!

  Bets was waiting for Fatty very anxiously. She was at the window of the playroom, and Buster was sitting on the window-sill beside her, his black nose pressed against the pane.

  Pip grinned widely and waved the letter at Bets. She guessed at once that he had good news, and her heart felt lighter. She tore downstairs to meet him, Buster at her heels.

  “Is Fatty all right? What has happened? Is that a letter from him?” she asked.

  Pip pushed her upstairs again. “Don’t yell questions at me like that!” he said crossly. “You’ll have all the household knowing about our mystery soon!”

  Just then the luncheon gong sounded, and Pip’s mother put her head in at the door. “Come along,” she said. “Don’t keep me waiting, Pip, because I have to go out immediately after lunch.”

  So there was no time to show poor Bets the letter, and she was so terribly curious about it that she fidgeted all through the meal, much to her mother’s annoyance.

  As soon as lunch was over, Pip and Bets flew upstairs, and Pip spread the note out on the table.

  “Look there!” he said. “Fatty’s found something marvellous - and he’s guarding it. He wants us all to go down and join him. So we’d better go up to Larry’s and get him and Daisy as soon as we can.”

  Bets read the note. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. This sounded too thrilling for words.

  “Fatty must have solved the mystery,” she said. “Isn’t he awfully clever?”

  “Let’s put on our things and go and fetch Larry and Daisy now,” said Pip. “Fatty will be expecting us as soon as possible. We’ll march up to the front door and knock loudly.”

  They put on their things and ran all the way to Larry’s house. They went in at the garden door and whistled for Larry, using the signal they always kept for themselves.

  “Here we are, up here,” said Daisy, popping her head out of a room upstairs. “Any news?”

  “Yes, heaps,” said Pip, leaping up the stairs two at a time. “We went to call on Fatty this morning, and the maid said he hadn’t been home all night!”

  “Goodness!” said Daisy.

  “So I went down to Milton House, without Bets or Buster,” said Pip. “And suddenly this letter floated out of a window! It’s from old Fatty.”

  He showed it to Larry and Daisy. They read it in great excitement.

  “I say! He’s certainly found out something!” said Larry. “He must have got in at the coal-hole and gone up to that secret room. I vote we all go down to Milton House now, this very minute.”

  “Bets was awfully silly all last night and this morning,” said Pip. “She kept on worrying and worrying because she felt sure Fatty was in trouble! She cried like anything when we found he wasn’t at home. She’s an awful baby.”

  “I’m not,” said Bets, going red. “I did feel awfully worried, but I couldn’t help it. Something sort of told me that Fatty was in danger - and, as a matter of fact, I still don’t feel quite right about him. I mean - I’ve still got that uncomfortable sort of feeling.”

  “Have you?” said Daisy. “How funny! But nothing can be wrong with Fatty now! You’ve read his note.”

  “I know,” said Bets, and she read it again. “I wonder why he signed himself ‘Freddie,’ ” she said suddenly. “He nearly always puts ‘Fatty’ now. I suppose he just didn’t think.”

  The little girl looked thoughtfully at the letter. Then she sniffed a little, turning this way and that.

  “What’s the matter? You look like Buster when he smells a nice smell and doesn’t quite know where it comes from!” said Larry.

  “Well - I did get a whiff of a smell that reminded me of something,” said Bets. “What was it now? Yes - I know - oranges! But there aren’t any in the room.”

  “Imagination,” said Pip. “You’re always imagining things.” He took the letter and began to fold it up, but as he did so, he too began to sniff.

  “How funny! I can smell oranges too now!” he said.

  Bets suddenly snatched the letter from him, her eyes bright. She held it to her nose.

  “This is what smells of oranges!” she said excitedly. “Smell it, all of you.”

  They smelt it. Yes, it smelt of oranges - and that could only mean one thing. Fatty had written another letter on the same sheet - in orange juice, for secret ink!

  Bets sat down suddenly because her knees began shaking.

  “I’ve got that feeling again,” she said earnestly. “You know - that something is wrong with Fatty. Let’s test the letter quickly for secret writing.”

  Daisy flew down to get a warm iron. It seemed ages to wait whilst it got hot enough. Then Pip deftly ran the warm iron over the letter.

  At once the secret message came up, faintly brown. The children read it with beating hearts:

  “DEAR FIND-OUTERS - Don’t take any notice of the visible letter. I’m a prisoner here. There’s some very dirty work going on; I don’t quite know what. Get hold of Inspector Jenks AT ONCE and tell him everything. He’ll know what to do. Don’t you come near the place, any of you. - Yours ever, ‘FATTY.’ ”

  There was a silence. The Find-Outers looked solemnly at one another. Suddenly their mystery seemed to be very deep and dark and dangerous. Fatty was a prisoner! Why had he written that other letter in ink?

  “The men who caught him must have made him write it!” said Larry, thinking hard. “They wanted us all to be caught - because we know about the secret room. But clever old Fatty managed to write a secret letter on the same paper.”

  “We nearly didn’t find out about the secret one,” said Daisy. “My goodness! - we were just going down to Milton House - to knock at the door - and it would have opened, and we’d have gone in - and we would have been prisoners too.”

  “I think we were all very feeble not to think of testing for a secret message,” said Pip. “We ought to have done that as a matter of course.”

  “Bets and her sniffing saved us,” said Larry. “If she hadn’t smelt the orange juice, we would all have been in the soup! Good old Bets! She’s really a fine Find-Outer. She found out about the secret message.”

  Bets glowed with pleasure at this praise. “My uncomfortable feeling about Fatty was right, wasn’t it?” she said. “Oh dear! - I hope he isn’t t
oo unhappy. Pip, shall we telephone the Inspector at once? I feel as if I want to tell him everything as soon as possible.”

  “I’ll telephone now,” said Larry. He went down the stairs with the others, and took up the telephone receiver. He asked for Inspector Jenks’ number. He lived in the next big town.

  But alas, the Inspector was out and would not be back for an hour. What was to be done?

  “It’s no good going down to Milton House,” said Larry. “Not a bit. If those men have caught Fatty, they would somehow catch us, and then we couldn’t be any help to him at all. We’ll have to wait patiently.”

  “It - it would be silly to tell Clear-Orf, wouldn’t it?” said Bets. She disliked Mr. Goon extremely, but she felt that it was very urgent to get help to Fatty.

  “What! Make old Clear-Orf a present of our mystery!” said Pip, in disgust. “You’re mad, Bets. Anyway, he’s in bed with a cold. Our charwoman, who goes to turn out for him, told me that this morning. He won’t be snooping down to Milton House for a bit.”

  But Pip was wrong. It was true that Mr. Goon had kept in bed for one day, but the next morning he was up and about, still sniffing and sneezing, but quite determined to go down to Milton House as soon as he could.

  In fact, even as Pip was telling Bets that Mr. Goon would not be going down to Milton House for a bit, he was on his way there! He had to walk, because the snow was still lying thickly. He set off over the hill, and came to Chestnut Lane.

  He noticed the car-wheels going down the lane, and wondered if they went as far as Milton House. He felt pleased when he saw that they stopped outside.

  “Ho! Somebody coming to this old empty house in a fine big car!” said Mr. Goon to himself. “A bit funny, that. Yes - there’s something going on here - and those kids have got wind of it. Well, if they think they’re going to have another mystery all to themselves, they’re mistaken!”

  Mr. Goon became all business-like. He hitched up his belt. He put his helmet more firmly on his round head. He walked very cautiously indeed to the gate of Milton House, trying to keep out of sight of the windows.

  He saw the many footprints leading to and from the front door. He scratched his head, thinking hard. It looked as if people might be there. Were they the rightful owners of the place? What were they doing? And why did the children keep messing about there? Could it be that the thieves of the Sparling Jewels were there, hiding their booty?

  Mr. Goon longed to get into that empty house. He longed to explore it. He wanted, however, to explore it without being seen. He felt sure the children had done so.

  It was beginning to get dark, for it was a very gloomy, lowering winter’s afternoon, with more snow to come. Mr. Goon went cautiously round the house, and, to his enormous surprise, suddenly saw a black hole in the ground near the kitchen.

  Almost at once he saw it was a coal-hole with the iron lid off. He stared at it in surprise. Had somebody got down there? Yes - one of those tiresome children, probably - and maybe they were even now exploring that house to find if any stolen goods were hidden there.

  Mr. Goon’s face went slightly purple. He couldn’t bear to think that those children might get more praise from Inspector Jenks for finding stolen goods hidden in his, Goon’s, district. He determined to get into the house himself, find any of the children there, and scare the life out of them. My word, wouldn’t he shout at them!

  Very quietly and cautiously Mr. Goon lowered himself down into the coal-hole. He almost stuck, for he was plump. But he managed to wriggle through and landed on the coal.

  “Now!” thought Mr. Goon triumphantly, as soon as he had got his breath, “now to go up and explore the house and catch those interfering little nuisances! Won’t I scare them! Won’t I shake the life out of them! Ha, I’ll learn them to go snooping round, doing the things that policemen ought to do! I’ll learn’em!”

  Escape - and a Shock for Mr. Goon

  Meantime, what had happened to Fatty?

  The men had taken the letter from him and had gone out of the room, locking it again. Fatty guessed they were going to wait for one of the Find-Outers to come. He, too, went to the window and watched.

  Nobody came that morning, as we know, until just before dinner-time. Then Pip arrived, and Fatty saw him pick up the letter, which had apparently been flung out of one of the lower windows.

  Fatty watched Pip, but did not dare to whistle to him. The only hope for Pip would be for him to get away back to the others, and for them to read the secret note - if only, only they guessed there was a secret message for them!

  In a little while the two men came back. “Well,” said the thin-lipped man, “I expect we shall soon have your friends down here - and you will be pleased to have company! You can have your dinner in a room not quite so comfortable as this, my boy - and as soon as your friends come, we will throw them all into the room with you!”

  Fatty was made to go out of the comfortable secret room, and taken to a room on the floor below. It was quite empty, and very cold.

  “Here are some sandwiches for you,” said the red-faced man, and he handed some to Fatty. “And here is a glass of water. We shall lock you in and bring your friends here as soon as we catch them. And here, I am afraid, you will have to stay for a day or two, till our important business is finished. Then maybe we will telephone to the police or your parents and tell them where to find their poor missing children! After this experience maybe you will not interfere in what doesn’t concern you!”

  He gave Fatty another box on the ear, and then the two men went out. Fatty heard the key turning in the lock.

  “Well,” he thought, “it’s jolly cold and uncomfortable in here - but on the other hand I believe I might be able to get out of this locked room! There’s no carpet on the floor here, and a jolly good space under the door. I’ll wait till everything is quite quiet and then I’ll try my little trick.”

  He went to the window. There was certainly no way out there, for it was a sheer drop to the ground. No tree grew conveniently near by!

  Fatty squatted down in a dusty corner and ate his sandwiches hungrily. He considered that the men had been very mean to him over food. They had plenty up there in that secret room, but all they had given him that day were two or three measly ham sandwiches! Fatty, who was used to tucking in at least four times a day, felt very annoyed.

  He finished his meal, drank the water, and then went to the door. He listened hard. He could hear no sound at all.

  He wondered if it would be a good idea to try and escape then and there. Perhaps the men were having a nap upstairs in the secret room. He knew there were three of them, though he had not seen the one called Jarvis, who was probably some kind of servant. Maybe Jarvis had been left to watch for the children.

  Just as he was thinking he would push bis newspaper under the door, ready to receive the key when it dropped the other side, he heard footsteps. He drew back, and sat down in a corner of the room. But no one came in. Fatty looked at his watch. The afternoon was getting on now. Perhaps it would be best to wait till it began to get dark. Nobody would spot a newspaper sticking out from under the door in the darkness, but any one passing by now would certainly be suspicious.

  So the boy set himself to wait in patience. He felt dirty and cold, hungry and tired. He thought this adventure was not at all pleasant at the moment - but then adventures often had unpleasant moments, and certainly he had brought this unpleasantness on himself!

  Just as it began to get dark, Fatty looked out of the window. He felt certain he could see somebody skulking in the hedge. Who was it? He did hope it wasn’t one of the Find-Outers! He couldn’t make out Clear-Orf’s uniform, or he would have recognized the policeman, who had just arrived.

  Fatty decided that he had better escape immediately in case the skulking figure he had seen was one of the Find-Outers! Then he could warn whoever it was - Pip or Larry, maybe - and they could escape together and tell Inspector Jenks everything.

  He listened at the do
or. There was nothing to be heard. He unfolded his newspaper and pushed it carefully under the door until only a corner was left inside the room. Then he began to try and push the key out of the lock. It fell quite suddenly, making a little thud on the newspaper.

  Fatty’s heart beat fast. Escape was very near now! He began to pull the newspaper sheet back into the room again. This was the anxious part - would the key slip under the door on the paper or not?

  It did! Fatty saw it coming and picked it up thankfully. He slipped it into the lock on his side of the door.

  He turned the key, and the lock slid back. He opened the door quietly and looked out on to the landing. No one was there. He locked the door again and left the key in the lock. Then, if any of the men came by, they would see the key there and imagine he was still in the locked room.

  He wondered how to get out of the house. He was afraid of going out of the front door, because he would not dare to slam it - and if he left it open, some one might notice.

  He thought he had better go down into the coal-cellar again and slip out of the hole. It was so dark that no one would see him.

  So Fatty cautiously made his way downstairs and crept through the kitchen to the door that led down into the coal-cellar. He felt for the key. He thought it would be a very good idea to lock the door after him once he was in the cellar, then no one could come down after him if he found it impossible to get up through the hole into the garden.

  He took out the key. He went through the cellar door and stood on the topmost step. He shut the door behind him, slid the key into the lock, and turned it. Then he took a deep breath. He was safe for the time being!

  He stepped down into the cellar, and then he stopped in horror. Some one - some one was coming down the coalhole! He could hear them grunting and groaning. Who was it? Certainly not any of the Find-Outers!

  Fatty’s heart began to beat painfully again. He heard the newcomer jump down on the coal. Fatty felt sure it was one of his captors, though why he should enter the house that way Fatty couldn’t imagine.