And yet a cat had gone, and Luke swore he hadn't stolen her — so who in the wide world could have taken Dark Queen?
"Let's look all round the cat-house and see if the cat could have escaped by herself," said Larry suddenly.
"Good idea," said Fatty. So they walked all round the strongly-built wooden houses, which were set high on stout wooden legs, rather like modern hen-houses.
"There's absolutely nowhere that a cat could get out," said Pip. "Not a hole the size of a small mouse even! Dark Queen certainly couldn't have escaped. She was taken out by somebody. That's certain."
"I say — what's that?" Pip pointed to something that lay on the floor of the big cage in which all the cats lived. The children peered through the wire-netting at it.
There was a short silence. Then Fatty pursed up his lips, raised his eyebrows, and scratched his head.
"Blow!" he said. "I know what that is! It's one of those-cunning little whistles that Luke is always making for Bets."
It was. There it lay on the cage-floor, a most tiresome and shocking due. How could it have got there? Only one way — Luke must have been inside the cage and dropped the whistle. All the children felt suddenly puzzled and shocked.
"It wasn't Luke; it wasn't, it wasn't," said Bets, with tears in her voice. "We all know it wasn't."
"Yes. We all know it wasn't. And yet there in the cage is a whistle that only Luke could have dropped," said Fatty. "This is a very extraordinary mystery, I must say."