"Perhaps old Clear-Orf is questioning him," said Fatty. This seemed very likely. Tie children wished they could find out.
Fatty had a good idea. "Look here, Pip," he said, "you could find out what's happening if you liked."
"How?" asked Pip.
"Well, your mother has just been to tea next door, hasn't she," said Fatty. "You could hop over the wall, and go and see what's happening; and if anyone sees you and wants to know what you are doing there, you could say your mother has just been to tea, and has she by any chance dropped her hanky in the garden?"
"But she hasn't," said Pip. "Didn't you see her take it out of her bag when she was talking to us? It had a most lovely smell."
"Of course I did, idiot," said Fatty impatiently. "It's only just an excuse. You don't need to say she did drop her hanky, because we know she didn't — but you could easily say, Had she?' couldn't you?"
"It's a good idea of Fatty's," said Larry. "It's about the only way any of us could get into the garden without being sent out at once by Clear-Orf or Tupping. Go on, Pip. Jump down and see whether you can find out what's happening. Hurry up. It's realty a great bit of luck that your mother has just been there to tea."
Pip was anxious to go — and yet very much afraid of meeting Tupping or Clear-Orf. He jumped down, waved to the others, and set off through the bushes.
There was no sign of Luke at all. Pip passed by the cat-house, but there was no one there either. He peeped into the cage where Dark Queen should have been with the others. The cats looked at him and mewed. Pip went on down the path, round by the greenhouses, and then stood hidden in the bushes. He could hear voices nearby.
He peeped through the bushes. There was a little group of people on the lawn. Pip knew most of them.