"Oh," said Bets in dismay, "poor Luke! Do you think Lady Candling gave him notice then, and said he wasn't to come any more?"
"How shall we find out?" said Larry.
"We could ask Tupping," said Daisy doubtfully. The others looked at her scornfully.
"As if we'd go and ask Tupping anything!" said Larry. They all stood and thought for a moment.
"I know," said Pip. "Lady Candling said I could take Bets in to see her. So I will, this afternoon. And I could ask Lady Candling herself about Luke, couldn't I?"
"Good idea, Pip," said Fatty. "I was just thinking the same thing myself. And also you could take the chance of finding out where Lady Candling was between four and five o'clock perhaps. I mean, find out whether she had any chance of slipping off down to the cats herself, to steal her own Dark Queen away."
"Well, I'm sure she didn't," said Pip at once. "You've only got to look at her to know she couldn't even think of doing such a thing! Anyway, I thought we had decided that it wasn't worth while questioning our Suspects, seeing that Luke was by the cat-house all the time during that hour and would have seen anyone there."
"Well, I suppose it isn't really," said Fatty. "I don't see that it's any way possible for the thief to have stolen the cat right under old Luke's nose. He said that he hadn't left the spot for even half a minute."
"There's our dinner-bell again," said Bets. "Come on, Pip, we shall get into an awful row. Come back afterwards, ~with others, and we'll tell you how Pip and I get on this afternoon."
At half-past three Pip and Bets thought they would go and see Lady Candling.