"Blyton, Enid - The Five Find-Outers 15 - The Mystery of Banshee Towers 1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

"Nice to have you here, little Bets," said Fatty, in the "special" voice he sometimes kept for the little girl. "Be careful the old tiger doesn't nip you!"

"Woof," said Buster at once, and showed his teeth.

"He says _he'd_ nip the tiger if he did a thing like that!" said Bets, and cuddled Buster round the neck.

"Got anything to eat, Fatty?" asked Larry. "I had quite a good dinner, but somehow I always feel hungry when we meet down here."

"There are some chocolate biscuits in the cupboard," said Fatty, who invariably seemed to be provided with a vast variety of good food, wherever he was. "By the way, please look firmly the other way if Buster tries to beg any food from you. He is on a diet - slimming, you know. He over-ate himself while he was away. Too many cats about!"

"But surely he hasn't begun to eat _cats_!" said Daisy, shocked.

"No, ass! But with plenty of cat-dishes around always ready to be licked clean, he did far too well," said Fatty. "Buster, stand up. Show your tubby figure - oh what a middle you've landed yourself with - disgraceful!"

Buster certainly had a tummy. His tail dropped when Fatty scolded him, and he went sadly into a corner and curled himself up, eyeing the chocolate biscuits sadly. Bets felt very sorry for him. "I'll just let him _lick_ my chocolatey fingers, Fatty," she said. "That's all, I promise. I just can't bear to see him looking so left-cut. Here you are, Buster - lick my fingers."

Buster was pleased. He licked Bets' fingers and then sat down as close to her as he possibly could. He loved kind-hearted little Bets. She put her arm round him again.

"Fatty - is this meeting about anything special?" she said. "I'd be just as pleased if there wasn't any Mystery to solve at the moment, I mean - I do like mysteries, but I do like a bit of peace, too."

"Well, really, Bets - don't you _want_ to belong to the Find-Outers?" said Daisy, quite amazed. "What's the good of being a Find-Outer if you don't want to find out anything?"

"Yes, I see all that," said Bets. "But what I mean is - do we _have_ to snoop round and look for problems and mysteries to solve - can't we just not bother for once?"

"You mean - just play about and enjoy ourselves?" said Daisy. "Well - it does sound rather nice for a change. You know, Fatty, solving mysteries _can_ be quite hard work."

"Well, I'm rather inclined to agree with you," said Fatty, lazily. "You know. I've just been staying with two cousins - both first-class footballers - first-class boxers - first-class cross-country runners - and first-class bores, to tell you the truth! My word, the excuses I had to think of to get out of kicking a football from morning to night - running for miles in shorts uphill and down - and putting on boxing-gloves and having sparring bouts. Thank goodness _that_ didn't last long - qthe sparring. I mean."

"Why - were you knocked out?" asked Larry.

"Knocked out! Don't be fatheaded," said Fatty. "The tiring part about the boxing was that _I_ kept on doing the knocking-out - I tell you, it got boring!"

"You're boasting, Fatty," said Larry. "Ha - you'll never get rid of _that_ habit! That's one thing you do better than any of us - boast! You're superlative at that!"

"Don't be rude, Larry!" said Daisy, shocked. "Why, Fatty might knock _you_ out, if you talk like that!"

"No, I shan't." said Fatty. "Larry's quite right. I do boast just a bit. On the other hand, I do actually do what I boast about. I really _did_ knock out my two cousins. I'll show you the blow I used. You swing out like this with your left, and then - ooh, sorry. Buster! What on earth made you get in the way? Did I hurt you?"

"Funny - you didn't even knock _him_ out," said Larry irritatingly. Bets cuddled poor Buster, who had received a blow on his fat tummy that had quite winded him. He stared at Fatty unhappily, really puzzled.

"Listen," said Pip. "Let's go exploring a bit these hols. My father made a list of interesting spots we could go to see. He said we shouldn't just mess about doing nothing, he said..."

"He _said_ that - but what he really meant was that he didn't want you under his feet all the time," said Larry. "My father's like that too - I mean, he's an absolute sport, and I'm frightfully proud of him - and he is of me - but I do notice that after about ten days of the hols he always gets this idea of us going off for the day - not just one day, but every day. And _mine_ made out a list too - here it is. I'll read it out."

He took a neatly written list from the pocket of his flannels and read from it. "Old Water-Caves at Chillerbing. Museum of Age-Old Fossils at Tybolds. Norman Tower at Yellow-Moss..."

"Gosh - those are down on _my_ list too!" said Pip, scrabbling in his pocket for it. "Yes - all those are down - and two or three more. Roman Remains at Jackling Museum. Sea-pictures at Banshee Towers, at the top of Banshee Hill. Old Musical Instruments at..."

"I don't want to see _any_ of them!" said Bets, suddenly looking very woebegone. "I wouldn't so much mind the sea-pictures - I like sea-pictures - but I _don't_ like those ugly fossily things, or those..."