"He was digging over that bed," said Fatty thoughtfully. "He couldn't have been working any nearer to the cat-house than that! He would have seen anyone coming or going to the cats, wouldn't he? He couldn't have helped it. The children went and stood where Luke had been working. They could see every cat from where they stood. It would surely have been impossible to take a cat out, and lock the door, without being seen by Luke.
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."