Pasukan Mau Tahu - Misteri Rumah Setan

Warning: still a spoiler.

Why does the banshee wail in Banshee Towers, that spooky place high on the hill? Of course the Five Find-Outers are determined to solve the mystery and set off in search of clues. It is all very exciting, but as usual also very funny, and you will thoroughly enjoy this mystery story.

Well, I don't know about thoroughly, but I do enjoy the book, some 20 years after I first read it, when it left almost no impression on me. This is the last book in the Five Find-Outers series and which a lot seem to think not too highly of.

Bets is missing Fatty -- "We've had almost a week of the holidays without him already -- such a waste!" when his postcard comes. It says, "Back tomorrow by bus from Warling. Meet me at bus stop if you can." British policemen might not be the toughest, but its postal service is definitely excellent; imagine sending a postcard asking someone to pick you up "tomorrow" at "bus stop." Notice how it doesn't say which bus, either.

Apparently "tomorrow" means today. And Bets and Pip soon join Larry and Daisy, walking to the bus stop, having made a guess that Fatty would surely be on the first bus and in disguise. And so, they follow a fat kid who walks with a limp and carries a basket. Of course they call him Fatty. Of course he's not Fatty and of course he's angry for being called fat. The real Fatty appears, in no disguise whatsoever. He says he has to go home, but they'll have a meeting later in the afternoon. Some friend our Fatty is. Asking his friends to come all the way to meet him at "bus stop" without telling which bus and immediately splitting when they do meet.

The meeting takes place in Fatty's workroom, "at the bottom of his garden, well away from everyone, and almost out of range of any shout from the house!" Sounds a lot like my dream studio. With no mystery on hand, the kids decide to visit some places from the lists given to Pip and Larry by their respective fathers -- allegedly to get their children out of the house. Their first stop will be Banshee Towers, a sort of museum with sea paintings.

A banshee, we learn, is "a woman of the fairies" that "shrieks and wails when any misfortune or unhappines comes to the family in whose house it lives." Daisy is glad that her family does not own a banshee. So am I. Fatty guesses that Banshee Towers once had one, hence the name.

Ern -- Mr Goon's nephew, whom we know from the kids' previous adventures -- shows up just as they are making plans. His sisters are having measles, he says, so his mom has sent him to stay with his uncle. I remember Ern having two brothers. Apparently now he has sisters as well. So what happens to the brothers? Shouldn't they be evacuated from measles, too? Anyway, not only does Ern have sisters now, he has a dog as well! He's eager to show off Bingo -- his dog -- to the kids, so off they go to Mr Goon's house.

What follows next is a commotion that results in Bingo being missing -- runs away as fast as he can -- and Ern being in trouble with his uncle. It takes two chapters to sort things out, but eventually the kids find Bingo, Ern gets into even bigger trouble, and Mr Goon tells his nephew to go home. Fatty tells Ern he can stay at his place, but noone must know. Everyone is happy, Buster -- Fatty's dog -- immediately makes a friend in Bingo, and, things having settled nicely, the kids can now return to their plans. It's decided that they will visit Banshee Towers tomorrow.

So it is to Banshee Towers on Banshee Hills that they go on bicycles the next morning. They have to pay a shilling each to enter and Pip complains it's rather a lot for children. The turnstile man does not care and with a dour face tells them that dogs are not allowed. Ooohhh, what a mean man! I bet my daily allowance in 1986 -- that's Rp 100 -- this means the man is involved in some kind of illegal activities!

With Buster and Bingo nowhere in sight -- the kids don't seem overly concerned by this, I guess dogs those days held their own better than they do nowadays -- they go in and look at marvelous paintings depicting sea. Other people are present, copying the great paintings. One of them tells Fatty and co that they're students from a local art school -- and the kids think their work is not very good. But there's another fellow that paints very well, even better than the original artists! When the children stand behind him to look, he says, "Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?". Nah, just pulling your leg there. What he really says is, "Allez vous en!" and Bets informs us that it means "go away" in French. Appreciate it, Bets, you're better than M. Poirot in that department -- he would simply let us Babel Fish it, that egg-shaped head.

Ern refuses to allez away and instead stand rooted, staring at the big painting that the Frenchman is copying. This results in the man losing his patience and with the brush in his hand streaking Ern's face with paint! So, Kids, what have we learned today? Never upset a French nationality. Honestly, if someone told me to go away in French or Yiddish or tlhIngan Hol, I would just stay put and give him my best blank expression, too.

Ern and Bets show a lot of interest in the seascape paintings. The rest, not so much. Knowing Enid, this is surely part of the plot later on. Anyway, with black clouds and drizzles outside, Larry suggests they have their picnic inside the museum. Uh, I don't know about that, Larry. In this country, you'd get fined $500 -- $1000 if it's durians. He reasons that they won't make any mess at all and will take all the litter home with them. Wellll, I did this a lot of times in my younger days, rationalizing and justifying things to suit my needs, so I guess it's all right. There's no sign saying you can't picnic inside the museum, either, so well... Still, the kids pick a spot behind a large settee, where the turnstile man won't see them. The painters are already gone.

Then, in a Blytonian comical sequence, a man and three women come into the room and sit on the settee the kids are hiding behind. These people start to have their own lunch -- looks like it's no big deal after all to have picnics inside British museums -- and Fatty comes up with his brilliant idea to unleash his own banshee wail. Of course, this being Fatty's wail, it's "eerie, long-drawn, high-pitched, and really terrifying" and the poor visitors immediately jump up and run away! Oh, please! The children roll in laughter -- ROTFLMAO comes to mind. What happened to such expressions, BTW? Do people still use them at all these days?

Just then, another wail echoes round the big room! Oh no, it's the real banshee!

The kids quickly collect their lunch and walk out to the big hall, where now only the French artist remains. He tells the children that he's not afraid of the banshee. But, to his credit, he hints at knowing that the first 'banshee' is actually one of them. Naturally, Fatty does not like being laughed at. It's OK to laugh at others, though. Incidentally, before going off, the man informs them that the banshee only wails once a week. Strict Banshee Union's rules, I suppose.

It's in this big hall that the kids finally have their lunch. They wonder where the dogs have gone to. Just as they're saying this, they hear the unmistakable bark. Buster and Bingo have somehow showed up beneath a trap door in the room's big fireplace! The children shift the big cauldron covering the trap door and yank it open and the dogs run out barking their heads off. How on earth did the dogs get in there? Why, a Blytonian secret passage, of course!

The turnstile man shows up at this moment, ruining their chances to explore the passage. They barely manage to shut the trap door and put the cauldron back in its place. Upset to see the dogs, the man tells all of them to clear out. I say it's within his rights, as he has clearly said that dogs aren't allowed in the museum. There's no mention of the black clouds and rain and the kids bike their way home.

The Five Find-Outers and Dog and Ern and another dog discuss this queer -- there you go -- museum with its queer banshee and queer trap door. Fatty thinks Something's Going On Up There. Yes, in uppercase. He decides to come back tomorrow. But, as neatly arranged by our Enid, Larry and Daisy will be out the entire day tomorrow and Bets does not want to go back to Banshee Towers, so it'll be just Fatty and Ern, then.

A new day comes and the two kids and their dogs bike up the Banshee Hills again. Two shillings later, they're back in the museum, having learned from the turnstile man that the banshee wails only on Thursday, as it was on a Thursday that calamity came to the Lord of Banshee Towers. I don't think he could've been the Lord of Banshee Towers if the banshee only started wailing after the calamity, but let's just concentrate on our modern-day banshee.

Inside, they meet a tall, dark man who currently owns Banshee Towers. He's an Austrian and called Engler. While Fatty is talking to the man, Ern gazes at one of the large paintings that he likes best from yesterday's visit. And he notices something different about the picture -- a tiny boat is missing from it! Good job, Ern. Meanwhile the Austrian relates to Fatty that the pictures exhibited are borrowed from Count Ludwig's collection in Austria. The man soon gets into a deep conversation with the French painter, who is at work once again. This leaves Fatty and Ern to discuss the mystery of the missing tiny boat. They can't make out any of it yet. The boys leave the museum puzzled, but not before spotting the Austrian, the French, and the turnstile man talking together. You know, that could be the beginning of a joke: an Austrian, a French, and a turnstile man meet in a museum...

The next morning the children meet in Fatty's shed. Without telling what this is about, Fatty asks Bets to recall what she saw in the big painting the other day. She lists down the items in the painting, including a tiny red boat. Fatty and Ern then tell the others what happened yesterday. This leads to the decision to give Banshee Towers another visit and soon they're on their bikes again. This time, though, they're to be disappointed. A sign says that the museum is temporarily closed for repairs. There are some long pipes around and the children guess that's what's being worked on.

Since they have their flashlights with them now, the kids decide to instead look for the entrance to the secret passage that Buster and Bingo found on the hills. The dogs find it easily enough and they all squeeze in. The tunnel has them climb steeply up for a while and soon they find themselves in an underground room with a curious-looking piece of machinery. Ah, it's the device that produces the banshee's wail. So that's a mystery solved. Fatty of course has to try it out and sure enough the heart-rending wail echoes around the passage. Upon this discovery, Fatty readily declares the Austrian Engler a wicked man. I don't quite follow the logic, but these are kids we're talking about.

Somehow Fatty manages to push open the trap door and with it the iron cauldron covering the door and the children make their way into the museum's big hall. Ern and Bets immediately stand before their fav picture and confirm that indeed the tiny boat has gone missing. Before they can't do anything about it, the dogs bark and Fatty has the girls and their brothers get back into the secret passage. He and Ern then close the trap door and put the cauldron back on it, just before Mr Engler and the turnstile man walk in. They kick the dogs and threaten the boys with an antique sword. Engler says he'll make a police report of the kids breaking in. Then he says he won't and will instead have the boys tied up and locked in the room -- "without food and drink for two or three days," he says. Bad idea, Mr Austrian Man, didn't you read any Blytons?

He didn't, so Fatty and Ern find themselves locked in the room -- I assume it's the big hall, where the fireplace is -- with hands behind their backs, bound by curtain cords. Their feet are tied also. Still, Fatty manages to stand up and look outside through a window, just in time to see a van -- license plate number JBL 333 -- and a car -- POR 202 -- drive away. He assumes it's now safe to escape and uses a curious foreign knife hung on the wall. See, this is why you should never tie children up in a room where curious foreign weapons are hung. Within minutes he's free and so is Ern.

Next, they need to, in Fatty's words, "unlock the door from this side." This he does, by using a trick he's used before and I'm sure Blytons readers are familiar with -- slipping a piece of paper under the door, pushing the key to fall on the other side of the door and onto the paper, and drawing the paper inside. As Fate has it, there are plenty of museum catalogs in the room, the key is still in the keyhole -- beats me why the bad guys didn't take it with them -- and Fatty has his MacGyver knife with him. You know, maybe he didn't need that curious foreign knife after all.

Having made the escape easily enough, Fatty decides to snoop around Banshee Towers. He finds a room used by the French artist as his bedroom and another used by Mr Engler as his study. There, he finds neatly stacked letters and without a moment of hesitation begins to read them all. They are from several galleries in the USA. Fatty writes down all their names and addresses. Finally, the boys take their dogs, collect their bicycles from where they hid them in bushes, and freewheel like mad to their village.

Fatty and Ern actually arrive before the other four do. Larry has had a puncture. I'm not sure how this ties to the story as the pages 105 and 106 are missing from the book I'm reading. Next thing I know, Fatty is on the phone with Chief Inspector Jenks. The Chief has apparently received a complaint from one Mr Engler about the break-in and he's not very happy with Fatty. He says he'll come right over. Two pages later, he shows up at Fatty's workroom.

After exchanging greetings with the children and patting the dogs, the Chief gets down to business. He listens to their -- well, mostly Fatty's -- story. The deduction is that Engler has been borrowing pictures from galleries in Europe and having the Frenchman -- François Ortalo -- making copies of them. He would then 'return' the copies as the originals and sell the originals to certain galleries in America. Apparently, Ortalo doesn't realize he has accidentally omitted the tiny boat that has given him away.

Chief Inspector Jenks then informs the children that Engler and Ortalo are wanted by many countries for swindling -- reminds me of Indonesian movies in the 80s. Curiously, he also says that unless the police can figure out how the bad guys are smuggling the originals out of the museum, there will be no case against them. Huh? Don't they simply have to seize the copies from the museum and make the guys tell what they've done to the originals? But there's something worse; the bad guys seem to have eluded arrest by driving away with the policeman on watch not being quick enough to note the van's and the car's numbers.

This sets the stage for Fatty to tell his puzzled friends and the Chief that, no worries, he has it all figured out! The original paintings have been taken away from the museum in long lead pipes, the kind they use for plumbing. Aaand, he has the vehicles' numbers memorized! They're Jolly Bad Lot 333 and Pair Of Rogues 202. The Chief reiterates how he can't wait for Fatty to grow up and join the force.

The book closes with the Chief making Mr Goon welcome Ern back into his home. The village policeman has no choice but to comply. So he bikes to Fatty's to tell Ern how proud he is of his nephew and his nephew's dog. Then Fatty, hiding outside the shed, unleashes yet again his powerful wail, scaring the heck of Mr Goon. The policeman runs away -- to get help, he says -- and collides with Fatty's big-sized cook. He proceeds to sit still in Fatty's mother's mint bed. What an ending.

Final queer count: 15.

Now, having finished the book, I'm left with several questions. What does the banshee have to do with anything? Nothing, it seems. There's really no point in having a wailing banshee -- and particularly only on Thursday -- other than to lend the museum its atmosphere of mysteries and even then, there's really nothing to gain. If anything, it'll attract unwanted attention to Mr Engler and the place where he conducts his illegal doings. To take it further, there's no real reason for the Austrian to buy Banshee Towers. I don't think the money he makes from swindling covers the expenses of purchasing and maintaining a museum.

And why bother with the pipes at all? It's his museum, he can do whatever he wants with the pictures. Speaking of pictures, there's no way Ortalo would accidentally omit a detail, no matter how tiny it is. Enid would've been better off offering an explanation such as he didn't like the ship and intentionally omitted it, thinking noone would notice. Still stupid, yes, but making more sense. And what about that policeman on watch unable to take note of the license plate numbers? Come on, he'd been on watch for some time and he only tried to catch the numbers when the crooks fled?

Despite all its shortcomings, like I said, I still enjoy this book. I completely forgot that Ern was in this one. I thought it was Bets who first noticed something was up with a picture. That's the way it usually is in Find-Outers books: Bets notices some small thing and Fatty is the only one able to make sense of it, and thus solve the mystery -- the other three are just along for the ride. Nice touch of having Ern coming up with this one instead.

Next: Secret Seven Adventure.

BTW, it turns out Well Done Secret Seven is not one of the books after all. How is that possible? I was very, very sure I had a look and it was there! I even took a peek and read Emma (Ember) Lane, as well as that code that was a mailbox number. Either I was seriously hallucinating or this is The Mystery of Missing Secret Seven!

On the other hand, I found quite a few more of Famous Five, hidden among The Three Investigators.

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