Mystery of Banshee Towers by Enid Blyton Read Free Book Online Page B

about with it.
    “I don’t see why we shouldn’t have our picnic in here , do you?” said Larry, looking out of one of the great windows. “That enormous black cloud is now pouring down sheets of rain. We can’t picnic out-of-doors. We needn’t make any mess at all, and we’ll take all our litter home with us.”
    “I bet that bad-tempered fellow out at the turnstile won’t let us stay,” said Fatty.
    “What’s it to do with him ?” said Larry. “We’ve paid, haven’t we? Anyway, I’m jolly hungry. Gosh, was that thunder?”
    It was! The children felt all the more determined to stay in Banshee Towers for shelter, and have their lunch there. Ern was longing to - not because of the lunch, but because of the pictures. He simply could not take his eyes off them!
    The six sat down in a corner of one of the great rooms, behind a kind of large settee. Now if that turnstile man looked in, he wouldn’t see them and turn them out!
    “Wonder where the dogs are?” said Fatty, suddenly. “They ought to have been here long ago.”
    “Gone rabbiting halfway up the hill, I expect,” said Ern. “Or else that turnstile man wouldn’t let them in! They’ll be all right. They’ll either turn up - or go home!”
    “Some of those artists are leaving,” said Larry. “I can hear them packing up and shouting goodbye. Hallo, who are these? Peep through the arms of the settee, Fatty - visitors, do you think? “
    Yes - they certainly looked like sightseers. There were three women and a man, and they ambled aimlessly round, looking at the pictures and the old armour.
    “Not worth a shilling, to come in and see all this junk - and I never did like sea-pictures,” said one woman. “All those picture waves that never break, but just rear up and keep still! Gives me the willies!”
    To the children’s dismay, the visitors sat down on the settee behind which they were hiding, and began to rustle paper, unpacking their lunch. “All them silly tales too, about banshees wailing!” said the man. “We’ve wasted our shillings. It would be worth a shilling to hear a banshee wail - but there, I never did believe in things like that.”
    It was at this moment that Fatty suddenly felt impelled to be a banshee. The idea came to him in a flash, and he couldn’t stop himself. He opened his mouth and let out a marvellous wail, eerie, long-drawn, high-pitched and really terrifying!
    “Eeee-ooooo-ohhhhh-eeee-oh-oooOOOOOOO!”
    The man and the three women leapt up from the settee as if they had rockets under them. One of the women screamed, and then they all four fled at top speed to the door and out into the great hall to the entrance where the turnstiles stood.
    Not only the visitors jumped almost out of their skin. Larry, Daisy, Pip, Bets and Ern jumped too, and clutched in fright at one another, when the eerie wail echoed round them. Larry realized almost at once that it was Fatty, and he gave him a very hard punch.
    “Fathead! What did you do that for? I almost died of fright! Look at poor Bets - she’s trembling!”
    Fatty, overcome with laughter and shame at one and the same time, couldn’t say a word. Gradually the others joined him in laughter, and the six of them rolled about, trying not to laugh too loudly.
    “Oh, their faces!” groaned Fatty. “Oh, what made me do it? I’m awfully sorry but it just sort of came over me. Oh, how they skedaddled! And your faces too! Oh, I must laugh again, and I’ve such a stitch in my side!”
    “I bet any artists left skedaddled too!” said Pip, wiping his eyes. “You’re a horror, Fatty. The things you think of! Honestly, if it had been a real banshee wailing, it couldn’t have done it better. I do think…”
    But what he thought the others never knew, because a most extraordinary noise gradually began to echo all around - high-pitched, wailing, unhappy! It went on and on, and Bets and Daisy clutched at the boys in real terror.
    “Fatty - that’s not you this time, is it,