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to me that the Five Find-Outers can really get to work again. I propose….”
    “Look here,” said Larry, “you’re forgetting something, Fatty. I’m head of the Find-Outers, not you.”
    “All right,” said Fatty, looking sulky. “Go ahead then. Only I’ve got far more brains than you have. I was top of my form last term, and….”
    “Shut up, Fatty,” said everyone together, except Bets. Fatty looked as if he was going to get up and go; but he was too excited and interested to be sulky for long, and soon the five children were eagerly discussing their plans.
    “Now, let’s think everything out clearly,” said Daisy.
    “Dark Queen was with the others until four o’clock, because it was then that Miss Tremble and Pip’s mother saw her. She wasn’t there when Clear-Orf and Tupping went to see them at five. So, in that hour, somebody must have gone to the cage, unlocked it, taken out the cat, locked the cage again, and gone off with Dark Queen, and either given her to someone else or hidden her away.”
    “Right,” said Larry. “Very clearly put, Daisy.”
    “The next thing is: Who could have stolen the cat? Whom can we suspect?” said Pip.
    “Well, I suppose Miss Tremble might have slipped down and taken Dark Queen out,” said Fatty. “Not very likely, of course, because Miss Tremble, poor thing, is the kind of person who would have a fit if she even posted a letter without a stamp. She’d dream about it all night long! Still, we have to consider everyone who had a chance of stealing Dark Queen.”
    Larry pulled out a notebook. “I’ll write the names down, he said. “Miss Tremble is one. What about Lady Candling?”
    “She wouldn’t steal her own cat, silly,” said Daisy.
    “She might,” said Larry. “It might be insured against theft, you know. She would get a lot of money. You’ve got to think of all these things.” He wrote down Lady Candling’s name.
    “Tupping?” said Bets.
    Larry shook his head very regretfully. “No, Bets. I’d love to put his name down; but if he was with old Clear-Orf all the afternoon it’s just no good suspecting him. What about Miss Harmer? Could she possibly have come back quietly and secretly from her day out and taken the cat? She knew how valuable Dark Queen was.”
    This was quite a new idea. Everyone thought of the plump, smiling Miss Harmer. She didn’t seem at all the sort of person who would steal a valuable cat from her employer. Still — her name went down on the list of Suspects.
    “We’ll have to try and find out where Miss Harmer was between four and five o’clock today,” said Pip.
    “Who else is there?” said Daisy. “We’ve got Miss Tremble, Lady Candling, and Miss Harmer down. What about the cook and house-parlourmaid next door? They would have had a chance of going down to the cat-house and taking Dark Queen, wouldn’t they?”
    “I’ve never seen the cook or parlourmaid,” said Pip. “None of us have. We’ll have to find out about them too. Goodness, we’ve got quite a lot of suspected people after all! We’ll have a lot of work to do!”
    “The one person who is horrid enough to have done it is Tupping — and he’s just the very one we can’t even suspect,” said Bets sadly. “Well, there aren’t any more Suspects, are there?”
    “We’ll have to put old Luke down,” said Larry. “I know we don’t suspect him — but Tupping has accused him of the crime, so we’d better put him down. We can cross him out as soon as we like.”
    So Luke’s name went down too. Poor old Luke! He always seemed to be in trouble.
    “Let’s go and whistle to him,” said Larry. “He hasn’t gone home yet, or he’d have whistled to us and told us everything.”
    So they went to the wall and whistled the special notes that they and Luke used for signalling to one another. But although they whistled and whistled, nobody came. Whatever could Luke be doing?
     
    Luke gets into Trouble.
     
    The five children sat on top of the