The children watched breathlessly. The cat sent the pebble rolling away and went after it. Then she came back to the whistle and looked hard at it, as if she expected it to move.
Then out went her paw again and she gave the whistle a push. It rolled over and over and the cat was delighted. She picked the whistle up cleverly in her two front paws, juggled with it a little, then let it drop. She struck it with her paw, and it flew through the air, landing quite near to the wire netting.
"Oh, good, good, good!" said Fatty joyfully. He took a small roll of wire from his pocket. It was wonderful the things that Fatty kept in his pockets. He undid a length of the wire, twisted two pieces together, and made a small loop at one end. Then he pushed the wire through one of the holes in the netting.
Everyone watched eagerly. The wire reached the whistle. Fatty jiggled it about patiently, trying to fit the loop at the end over the whistle. The cat that had played with the whistle watched with great interest. Then suddenly it put out a playful paw and patted the wire, sending the loop neatly over the whistle!
"Oh, thanks, puss!" said Fatty gleefully, and drew the whistle carefully to the wire-netting. He jerked it up, and the whistle flew through one of the holes and landed at Bets' feet She picked it up.
"Got it!" said Fatty. "Let's have a look at it. Yes, it's one of Luke's all right. What a good thing we got it out. Now that clue won't be found by old Clear-Orf! Luke won't get into further trouble because of that!"
"You really are clever, Fatty," said Bets, in the greatest admiration.
"Good work, Fatty," said Pip.
Fatty at once swelled up with pride and importance. "Oh, that's nothing," he began. "I've often had better ideas than this. Why, once..."
"Shut up!" said Larry, Daisy, and Pip together. Fatty shut up. He stuffed the whistle into his pocket.