Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage by Enid Blyton

but to Ern it was serious. He was helping Fatty. He might be able to gather a few clues for him. He might see something suspicious - he might even help to solve the Lorenzo mystery! Though Ern had to admit to himself that that wasn’t very likely!
    He peered down at the Larkins’ cottage whenever he could, watching for any sign of movement. He had supplied himself with a tin of bull’s-eye peppermints, enormous things that bulged out his cheek, but lasted for a very long time. He also had a comic that he read at intervals, and he really thoroughly enjoyed himself, sucking away at his bull’s-eye, hidden in the little treehouse he had built.
    ‘Old Man Larkin doesn’t do much!’ Ern thought. ‘Just goes out and picks some sprouts - and does some shopping - and lets the dog out and yells for it to come back. Poor little dog - it looks down in the dumps all right, and I’m not surprised!’
    Certainly Mr. Larkin didn’t appear to do very much work. As for Mrs. Larkin, she hardly appeared at all. Apparently she had a bad cold, and Ern could often hear her coughing. Once when she ventured out for a minute or two, to hang up some washing, Ern could hear her sniffing all the time. Sniff, sniff! Cough! Sniff, sniff!
    She groaned as she bent down to pick up her washing-basket. Ern watched her, thinking she was a very ugly woman with her extraordinary wig of hair, and her very white face and red nose.
    Poppet came out with her, her stiff little tail down. She kept well out of Mrs. Larkin’s reach. The woman spoke to her in a hoarse voice. ‘Don’t you dare run off, or I’ll lam you again, nuisance that you are!’
    Poppet slunk into the house, and Mrs. Larkin followed, sniffing. Ern scribbled down a few notes about her in his notebook. He had torn out the notes he had made when his aunt had chattered to him, because when he examined them afterwards, such words as ‘Donkeys’ years’, ‘legs’, ‘midnight bathing’ didn’t make any sense to him.
    But, sitting in peace up the tree, he could write quite sensibly. ‘She sniffs and coughs,’ he had written down. ‘She wears a wig. Her voice is hoarse and croaky. Poppet is afraid of her. She groans when she picks things up.’
    After two days had gone by, Ern decided that it would be a good idea to go and see Fatty and the others again, so off he went, notebook in pocket.
    He found all the Five, with Buster, down in Fatty’s shed, playing a game of cards. They were very pleased to see him.
    Buster welcomed him at the top of his bark. Ern felt pleased to see that the table he had made for Fatty was standing in the middle of the shed, with a plate of chocolate biscuits on its polished top. He stood and grinned.
    ‘Come in, Ern. Make yourself at home,’ said Fatty, gathering up the cards. ‘We’ve just finished our game. What’s your news?’
    ‘Well, I haven’t much,’ said Ern. ‘Except that I’ve got a house up in a tree that looks right down on the Larkins’ cottage, and into the grounds of Tally-Ho. I sit there and watch like anything.’
    ‘Is it really a house in a tree?’ said Bets, thrilled. ‘Oh, I would like to see it! Ern, you are clever!’
    Ern blushed. He drew out his notebook, and gave it to Fatty. ‘I’ve made a few notes,’ he said. ‘Not that they’re worth anything - but you never know!’
    Fatty glanced through them rapidly, and handed back the notebook. ‘Very good,’ he said. ‘You’re doing well, Ern. Yes, those might come in useful sometime - if only we could get going!’
    Ern was pleased. ‘You got anything interesting to tell me?’ he asked.
    ‘Nothing,’ said Fatty dismally. ‘It’s too maddening to have something like this under our noses, so to speak, and not to be able to get even a bite at it!’
    ‘The only thing that’s new was in the paper this morning,’ said Larry.
    ‘What?’ asked Ern, who hadn’t seen a paper.
    ‘Well, the Lorenzos were spotted somewhere up north,’ said Larry. ‘Near an airfield, in a small hotel. And what is more they had a crate with them this