Barney Mysteries - 05 - The Ratatat Mystery by Enid Blyton

Author:Enid Blyton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Children's Fiction
Published: 1956-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A Few Interesting Things

“Well!” said Barney, hanging up the telephone receiver. “That’s that. We’re cut off from everyone at the moment. Couldn’t even get a doctor if we wanted one.”

“We could get to the village of Boffame somehow, if we had to,” said Roger.

“It would take us ages,” said Barney. “All through that thick snow! I bet we’d get lost, too. All the countryside looks alike when it’s covered with snow. We’d need skis to make any headway.”

“So we’ll have to solve the Mystery of Rat-a-Tat House by ourselves!” said Snubby cheerfully. “Oh, well, we’re jolly good at mysteries, I think. We’ve had four already - the Rockingdown Mystery, the Rilloby Fair Mystery…”

“The Rubadub Mystery,” said Diana, “and what was the other? Oh, yes, the Ring o’ Bells Mystery.”

“We’ll call this the Rat-a-Tat Mystery then, as Snubby said,” put in Barney. “How queer - they all begin with R.”

“Is there any more bacon and eggs?” asked Snubby, hopefully.

“Certainly not,” said Diana indignantly. “You’ve had twice as much as anyone else.”

“Oooh, I haven’t. Have I, Loony?” said Snubby, looking hurt. Loony thumped his tail on the ground and licked Snubby’s hand.

“Stop thumping,” ordered Diana. “I don’t want to hear any knocking or thumping or hammering for ages. Loony, stop it!”

“Does anyone feel like tobogganing to-day?” asked Roger. “My legs feel quite all right now.”

Barney would have liked to skate all day long, but when the others voted for tobogganing he nodded too.

“Right,” said Roger. “That’s settled then. But don’t let’s choose such a steep hill for our tobogganing this time - it really is such a drag up.”

So they chose another hill, and dragged their toboggans up joyfully, after they had done all they could to help a rather silent Mrs. Tickle. She wasn’t at all happy about Mr. No-One!

When they came to the top they had a fine view over the white countryside, and suddenly saw something they had not been able to see from the other hill they had tobogganed down.

“What’s that?” said Snubby, pointing to what looked like a small house, whose roof was white with snow. It stood very close to one bank of the lake, and, in fact, looked almost as if it were on the lake.

Everyone looked down at it. “It’s a boathouse, of course!” said Roger. “Built partly on land and partly over water. There’ll be boats in there, won’t there, Barney?”

“Yes,” said Barney, remembering that his father had told him that boats were stored for use on the lake in the summer. “I’d forgotten there was a boathouse. We might go and explore it when we’re tired of tobogganing.”

The snow was beautifully crisp for tobogganing again and the children really enjoyed themselves - especially when Snubby went down the hill alone with Loony, and the toboggan struck something, leapt in the air and flung both Snubby and Loony into the snow. Poor Loony fell in so deep that he was lost to sight!

“Loony, Loony, where are you?” yelled Snubby in a panic. “Come and help, you asses, don’t stand laughing your heads off there.

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