The Inspector looked gravely round the little company. Tupping had gone pale, and he kept swallowing hard. All his insolence and conceit had gone. One by one the others looked at Tupping and knew who was the thief.
"Tupping, what have you to say about all this?" said the Inspector in a voice gone hard as iron.
"What, it's Tupping!" said Mr. Goon in a half-choked voice, and he glared at the gardener with hatred and scorn. "You! Sucking up to me: taking me into the cage with you; telling me a pack of lies and making me look foolish like this!"
"Well, Bets told you we had two clues, a smell and a stone with paint on," said Fatty. "And you only laughed."
"Tupping, where is the cat?" said the Inspector, still in the same hard voice. "You understand that there is no possibility of the charge made against you being false. There are other things, in your past, which fit in very well with this."
Tupping crumpled up completely. From a harsh, cruel, bad-tempered man he turned into a weeping coward, and it was not a pleasant sight.
"Bullies are always cowards," Fatty whispered to Larry.
Suddenly Tupping began to pour out a confession. Yes, he had stolen Dark Queen. He had owed money to someone, and he had thought of taking the cat. He'd tell who had got it and the police could get it back. He had tried to put the blame on Luke. He had painted the other cat's tail, and he had used turps to get off the paint quickly. He'd done it twice, because the first time the cat had escaped and come back. He was sorry now. He'd never do a thing like that again.
"You certainly won't, for some time at least," said Inspector Jenks grimly. "You will be in a safe place, out of harm's way, and I don't think anyone will be sorry. Goon, take him away."
Goon put a heavy hand on Tupping's shoulder and jerked him to his feet He looked with great scorn at his prisoner.