include () problems

Hi, When I run the line: include ("fnord.php"); with the file looking like: <?php define ("fnord_included", true); function fnord ($arg = true) { // 450 lines return $msg; } ?> it prints out the return of fnord() (i.e. $msg). I've checked, and there's no echo or print statemetns anywhere... Oh, yeah, FYI, the pattern goes like this: file: index.php <?php include ("standard.php"); /* rest of page */ ?> file: standard.php <?php /* a few defines */ include("fnord.php"); /* rest of stuff */ header ("Content-type: text/html; encoding=utf-8"); ?> and it prints it right up the top of index.php, causing an error with the "header" statement (although it says the error is in fnord.php - which contains NO header statemtns). ideas? Regards, mjec