Read The Case of the Missing Cats for Free Online Page B

said Holly, pointing to the crate floating in the middle of the river. ‘Listen.’
    Dirk listened and, sure enough, he could hear the desperate miaows drifting across the water.
    â€˜You’ve got to rescue them,’ said Holly.
    â€˜Hey, kiddo. It’s one thing me letting you tag along for a bit. But nobody orders the dragon around.’
    â€˜All right,’ said Holly. ‘Please can you rescue them?’
    â€˜That’s better. Now let me see.’ Dirk grabbed the rope and pulled. It didn’t budge. He tried again, straining as he did. Nothing. ‘It must have caught on something.’
    â€˜Can’t you fly out and get it?’ said Holly’.
    â€˜I think we’re taking enough risks as it is without flying into open water in daylight.’
    â€˜Can’t you swim out, then?’
    â€˜I think you may have confused me with a Sea Dragon. Easy mistake. Sea dragons have grey backs, shorter wings and they tend to be a little slimmer,although I like to think I keep myself in pretty good shape. But no, I’m more of your red-backed, green-bellied, urban-based Mountain Dragon. Not a big swimmer.’
    â€˜But what’s going to happen to them? Willow might be in there and you promised you’d get her back.’
    â€˜Oh, all right.’ Dirk gave in. ‘I’ll swim out and get the stupid moggies.’
    â€˜Thank you, Dirk.’
    Dirk dropped on to all fours and cautiously approached the water’s edge. It looked cold. It looked dirty. In fact, it looked about as inviting as a barrel of blue-skinned salamander sick, which, if you’ve never experienced such a thing, is not very inviting at all.
    â€˜Hurry up,’ urged Holly before hastily adding, ‘please.’
    Dirk dipped his paw into the water. ‘It’s cold,’ he said.
    â€˜Oh, come on,’ said Holly, and she pushed against his large rear, catching him off guard and knocking him into the water with an enormous splash.
    â€˜Oh th . . . th . . . thanks,’ shivered Dirk. ‘I was just hoping someone would push me into a freezing-cold, filthy river.’
    â€˜No problem,’ replied Holly, trying not to find it too amusing.
    Dirk paddled through the cold and murky water towards the crate, thinking that he had been foolish to let the human tag along. She was already too involved. When he got back to shore he would take her home. No more Mr Nice Dragon. Dirk worked alone.
    He reached the crate and circled it but was unable to see what it was caught on. The whole thing was very strange, dragons stealing cats, putting them in crates to be picked up by a pair of human crooks, who pushed them out on to the river. He had never heard of anything like it.
    He closed his nostrils, ears and mouth and ducked his head under. Despite what he had said to Holly, Dirk, like all dragons, was capable of surviving for long periods of time underwater. Sea Dragons, like the one he had seen on the warehouse, often went centuries without surfacing, their backs softening with time to aid swimming.
    The water was muddied and dark and the shadow cast by the raft made it even darker beneath it. Dirk couldn’t see a thing. He groped around until he found something solid. It was long and smooth andappeared to be wrapped round the base of the raft. He tugged at it, but it wouldn’t budge. He tried moving his hands down, but it seemed to go on for ever. If only he could see what he was doing. After several more unsuccessful attempts to free the raft, he lost patience. He opened his jaws and bit down. But instead of it snapping, as he had expected, he felt his teeth sink into it. It was soft like flesh, and something dark and rancid leaked from it, blackening the water. Instinctively Dirk let go. He reached to grab it again, but it had gone. Whatever it was it had let go.
    Quickly he resurfaced, and paddled as fast as he could towards the shore, pushing the raft in front of