Luke was busy, and very happy too. Sometimes Lady Candling gave him a kind word, and the children were always ready to talk to him, or go out with him when he was off-duty.
Things went on very peacefully and happily. The days slipped by.
"It seems quite a time ago now since we thought we had another mystery to solve," said Fatty one day. "We were silly to think it was a mystery, I suppose — just a cat that disappeared, and we didn't know how. There was probably quite a simple explanation of it really."
"All the same, I wish we could solve a mystery these hols," said Bets. "It's not much good being a Find-Outer if you don't find out something. I wish something else would happen."
"Things never do, when you wish them to," said Fatty wisely.
But for once he was wrong. Something did happen, something that made the Five Find-Outers sit up and take notice at once. Dark Queen disappeared all over again!
The Second Disappearance
It was Luke who told the children. He came over the wall about half-past five in the afternoon, looking so white and scared that the children thought he must have had a beating from Tupping or something.
"What's the matter?" said Daisy.
"Dark Queen's gone again," said Luke. "Yes; and gone under my very nose too, just like the last time!"