Cadpig was standing at the open door of No. 10. As a pup she had been unusually small and she was still on the small side for a full-grown Dalmatian. But, apart from that, she was an almost perfect specimen of the breed, with beautiful spots, wonderful dark eyes and a most fetching expression. Pongo and Missis had sometimes feared she might have become too grand for them, so they were touched to see how lovingly she greeted them, and all her family, giving a specially warm welcome to her devoted brother, Patch. She then spoke most graciously to all the other Dalmatians, remembering many names though it was around a year since she had left Hell Hall.
“Pretty manners,” thought Missis proudly. “No wonder she’s getting on so well.”
Behind Cadpig stood a number of dogs whom she introduced as “My Cabinet.” These were the dogs who lived with the members of the human Cabinet and were deputizing for them. “This is the Chancellor of the Exchequer,” said Cadpig presenting a black Labrador. “He’s longing to meet you, Father, because you’re so good at figures.”
“It’s Mr. Dearly, not me, who’s good at figures,” said Pongo. “I can’t do much more than put two and two together. They usually make four.”
“With us, they’ve only been making three,” said the Labrador. “But things may be better after the Chancellor’s had this long restful sleep.”
Cadpig was now presenting the Foreign Secretary, a plump, jovial Boxer. He reminded Missis of someone but she couldn’t think who it was.
“And this dear friend is the Minister of Transport,” said Cadpig, smiling at a prettily clipped brown Poodle. “It was she who got the traffic lights to work. Wasn’t that brilliant?”
“I just thought about them,” said the Poodle, “and, bless me, they happened!”
Other Cabinet Ministers were presented, also some dogs who lived with members of the Opposition. “That’s the party that didn’t win the last Election,” Cadpig explained to her mother. “But of course we’re all on the same side now.”
“Everyone should be on the same side always,” said Missis. “Think how much time it would save.”
“But I’ve heard there’s a catch in it,” said Cadpig. “You see, sometimes everyone gets on the wrong side.” She then said she wanted a little talk with her parents before the Cabinet Meeting which would shortly start. “So will the rest of you go out into the garden? The Minister of Transport will act as hostess for me, won’t you, Babs dear?”
The brown poodle said indeed she would and she and all the members of the Dog Cabinet escorted all the Dalmatians except Pongo and Missis, who tried not to look as important as they felt.
As the hall became emptier Missis gave a gasp. She was now able to see that, lying on the black-and-white marble floor, was a policeman. Of course he was asleep but, even so, Missis felt scared. She asked why he was there.
Cadpig said, “There’s always a policeman here, to guard the house, and two policemen outside. The outside ones have been moved by the Police Dogs but I thought this one might as well stay where he is.”
“I can’t feel that policemen should be allowed indoors,” said Missis. “Anyway, he makes the hall look untidy.”
Cadpig said she would get him moved later, if she could think of any place to put him. “This house is so full of sleepers—secretaries and the like. Now I want you to see the Prime Minister.”
She led the way to the lift, which obligingly opened its doors. Neither Pongo nor Missis had ever been in a lift and Pongo felt sure Missis would be nervous. He said quickly, “Couldn’t we use the stairs?”
“Oh, the lift’s perfectly safe,” said Cadpig. “I know which buttons to press. Though today I’m working it by my thoughts.”
“You mean, metaphysically,” said Missis.
Cadpig looked impressed. “How clever of you to understand that!”
“Your mother has always been very metaphysical,” said Pongo.
The lift took them upstairs; then opened its doors to let them out. Missis thanked it politely.
“This is the flat where we all live,” said Cadpig, “but there’s no one at home but the Prime Minister. His wife’s away. Quite a good sort of woman but fussy about dogs getting on beds. This way.”
She took them into a bedroom. A Police Dog, lying by the bed, stood up.
Cadpig said, “Here are my father and mother, come to help us, Sergeant.”
“And I’m sure they’ll be able to, madam,” said the Police Dog. “There isn’t a Police Dog in England who doesn’t know how Pongo and Missis rescued the stolen puppies.”
Cadpig was looking anxiously toward the bed. “Any change, Sergeant?”
“None at all, madam—except that he seems to me to be smiling slightly.”
“You’re right,” said Cadpig. “Oh, good! That must mean that he’s really relaxing.” She turned to Pongo and Missis. “How do you think he’s looking?”
“Very peaceful,” said Missis. “And younger than on television.”
“He’s an excellent color,” said Pongo.
“Not too flushed?” Cadpig asked anxiously.
“No, no. Just healthily rosy.”
“He’s lost quite a lot of his chubbiness,” said Cadpig. “That’s because he’s had so many worries. Well, this is one crisis he doesn’t have to face.”
Missis said, “I like him better than I expected to. I think that’s because he isn’t talking. He talks too much, on television.”
“I agree,” said Pongo. “He should just sit there with you on his knee, Cadpig, smiling kindly but saying nothing. Could you give him the hint?”
Cadpig shook her head sadly. “Clever though he is, he can’t understand a word I say.”
“That’s our trouble at Scotland Yard,” said the Police Dog. “We dogs learn so quickly, but none of us has ever managed to train a policeman.”
Cadpig gave the Prime Minister a gentle pat and invited her parents to pat him too, which they respectfully did. Then Cadpig said they must go down to the Cabinet Meeting. “Much as I hate to leave him.”
“I’ll guard him well, madam,” said the Police Dog, standing to attention.
On the way to the lift, Cadpig said, “I want you to take the chair at the Cabinet Meeting, Father.”
“No, no,” said Pongo. “I shouldn’t know what to say.”
“Well, I don’t either,” said Cadpig. “And I’m terribly worried—and I mustn’t, I mustn’t let anyone but you two know. I’ll tell you when we’re in the lift.”
The lift doors opened and they all got in. But when the lift had gone down only a little way, it stopped.
“Don’t worry,” said Cadpig. “I asked it to stop. This is the only place I can feel sure I shan’t be overheard. There are dogs all over the house this morning. Oh, dear!” She suddenly drooped, looking helpless and pitiful, and gave a little moan.
“Now stop being silly, dear,” said Missis briskly, “and tell us what’s wrong.”
Pongo said, “Has something happened that we don’t know about?”
“No, it hasn’t,” said Cadpig. “And that’s what’s wrong. Nothing’s happened and I can’t find out what’s going to happen. This morning everything was exciting—learning to swoosh, finding I could send my thoughts everywhere and tell dogs what to do. But now I wish I hadn’t told them. Thousands and thousands have come to London and I don’t know what to do with them.”
“Well, send them home again,” said Missis.
“But if I do that, they’ll lose faith in me. And then they won’t want to see me on television when things are normal again. And that will be bad for the Prime Minister as well as me.”
Pongo saw that his gifted daughter had bitten off more than she could chew—not a thing that often happens to a dog. He said firmly, “The dogs might as well be here as anywhere else, provided you avoid panic. You must let them know the situation’s under control.”
“How can the situation be under control when I don’t know what the situation is?”
“I’ll admit that’s a bit tricky,” said Pongo. “But about this Cabinet Meeting—”
“Please take the chair, Father!”
“Can’t you and your father both have chairs?” said Missis.
“Of course there will be chairs for everyone, Mother. Taking the chair means being in charge.”
“And that’s what you must be, Cadpig,” said Pongo. “You must represent the Prime Minister. But you may call on me to speak.”
“What will you say, Pongo?” asked Missis.
“Ah!” said Pongo, in a meaningful tone.
“I don’t think ‘Ah’ will be enough,” said Missis.
“I meant that it will come to me, when it needs to. And it will come to you, Cadpig.”
“No, it won’t,” said Cadpig miserably. “I’ve lost confidence.”
“Then you must get it back at once,” said Missis, who did not fancy being between floors in a lift with a Cadpig who had lost confidence. “And you can start by making this lift work.”
“Perhaps I can’t now,” said Cadpig.
“Well, I can,” said Pongo. “Today we can all open doors and make lifts work.” He directed a polite but powerful thought to the lift and it instantly moved downwards.
“Oh, Father, you’re splendid,” said Cadpig. “Though I think it would have moved for me.”
The lift stopped suddenly. Missis felt frightened. Then the lift moved downwards again.
“That was just me, testing myself,” said Cadpig. “Oh, thank you, Father. My confidence is coming back again.”
The lift reached the hall and opened its doors. Missis, having hurried out, remembered to thank them. She thought it wise to keep on their right side—though, as far as Missis was concerned, their best side was the outside.
Cadpig led the way to the back of the house and into a large room which she said was the Cabinet Room. Up till today Missis had thought that a cabinet was a piece of furniture in which ornaments were shut away from puppies. But she had by now gathered that—in Downing Street—a Cabinet was a group of dogs who would help Cadpig to govern England, and this was the room in which they met. She need not have worried about a shortage of chairs. There were more than she could count, placed around a very long table. Tall windows opened onto a terrace which had steps leading down to the garden, where the Dalmatian army was being entertained by Cabinet Ministers. From the terrace, to which Cadpig took them, Missis could see over a wall to Horse Guards’ Parade, which was packed with dogs.
Pongo said, “What a magnificent sight! It looks as if every breed of dog is represented.”
“Except Corgis,” said Cadpig. “They’re all sitting outside Buckingham Palace.”
The Boxer who had reminded Missis of someone came bounding up the steps of the terrace. He said, “Is it all right by you, Cadpig, if I make one of your brothers my Private Secretary? He’s a splendid fellow.”
“Good idea,” said Cadpig. “All Cabinet Ministers had better have Private Secretaries. I’ll have Patch for mine. Hi, Patch, where are you?”
Patch came eagerly up the steps—only to be bowled over by the Foreign Secretary, who was swooshing down.
“Sorry, old chap,” said the Boxer, helping Patch up.
“I haven’t quite got the hang of this swooshing. The Minister of Transport says swooshers rank as vehicles and keep to the left, but I don’t feel like a vehicle. Not hurt, are you? Good. Now where’s my new Secretary?”
“Of course he’ll have chosen Lucky,” said Missis, proudly thinking how intelligent Lucky was. “Oh, good gracious! Look!”
The Boxer had joined Roly Poly, who was happily wagging his tail.
Pongo said, “Cadpig, dear, I’m not sure your Foreign Secretary has made a wise choice.”
Cadpig laughed. “Oh, George is always putting his paw in his mouth. But he’s a dear and so is Roly Poly, so they’ll keep each other happy. And perhaps it’s safer for them to get into trouble together rather than separately.”
Missis said, “Bless me, I’ve just realized who the Foreign Secretary reminds me of. It’s Roly Poly—though you wouldn’t think a Boxer could look like a Dalmatian, would you?”
“It’s something in the expression of their nice round eyes,” said Cadpig. “I think the Minister of Transport had better have both Lucky and his wife as her Secretaries. She’ll need a lot of help, what with the traffic and her topknot. Just arrange for that, will you, Patch? And then come back to me.”
Patch, looking happy and capable, ran back to the garden and found Babs the Poodle, who gave her thanks to Cadpig.
“A pretty creature, isn’t she?” said Missis. “Though I do think that topknot’s a bit much.”
“She’s been known to have it tied up with a very fancy ribbon,” said Cadpig.
A powerfully-voiced clock began to chime the hour.
“That’s Big Ben,” said Pongo. “How close we are to it here.”
Missis carefully counted the strokes and was glad she only had to go as far as three, a nice, easy number.
Cadpig barked down to the garden. “Time for the Cabinet Meeting.”
Members of the Cabinet, who had been chatting to the Dalmatians, came up the steps to the terrace. Patch came back to Cadpig and Lucky and his wife, Gay, followed Babs the Poodle. Missis expected to see Roly Poly come with George, the Foreign Secretary, but there was no sign of either of them. Missis looked around the garden and saw that they were standing by a door in the wall. The door opened (no doubt it had been asked to) and out they both went.
Missis said to Cadpig, “I fancy the Foreign Secretary will be late.”
“Well, we can’t wait for him,” said Cadpig, taking her parents back into the Cabinet Room. “Now will every dog take a chair—but not the one with arms. That’s the Prime Minister’s and I shall represent him. Please sit on my right, Father. And Mother shall be on my left.”
But Missis said she did not want to sit at the table as she didn’t know anything about politics. “When they happen on television I close my eyes and somehow manage to go deaf—unless you’re appearing, Cadpig. Let me sit by the window here.”
She wanted to watch for Roly Poly. What was he up to? She didn’t agree with Cadpig that he and the Foreign Secretary might be safer together than on their own. Together, they might get into twice as much mischief.
“Well, sit where you like, Mother dear,” said Cadpig, climbing up into the Prime Minister’s chair. “Now attention, everyone!”
There was no doubt that Cadpig’s confidence had come back. Missis was glad about this and proud of the impressive way her daughter outlined the situation. But it seemed to Missis that all the dogs already knew what the situation was and wanted to know why it was and what was going to happen next. Of course Cadpig had nothing to say about this and soon she was calling on Pongo to speak. She introduced him as “My famous father.”
Missis remembered a speech Pongo had made to her on that cold night when he and she were setting out to rescue their puppies. It had helped her and she wished he would say something like it now.
Really, it was strange the way thoughts were dashing about today! It seemed that Pongo must know what was in her mind.
“Lady dogs and gentlemen dogs,” he began. “Long ago when my dear wife and I were setting out on a perilous journey, I told her that dogs who are very well treated sometimes lose their liking for adventure and grow old before their time. Now I feel sure that all the dogs at this table are well treated, and though I don’t say any of you are fat, you are quite well covered. But I won’t believe you are stodgy. I think you are all ready for anything. Am I right?”
All the dogs said “Yes, indeed” or “Hear, hear” and some of them banged the table with their paws.
Pongo then went on, “The question is, what are we ready for? But if we knew that, wouldn’t the adventure be more ordinary? Isn’t it more exciting not to know what lies ahead? Let us live excitingly from minute to minute and let us count our blessings. Think how much we have learnt since we woke up this morning. We can swoosh, open doors, bark by thought waves. And none of us is hungry, thirsty, too hot or too cold. Perhaps most important of all, we are completely friendly. Close to us here, on Horse Guards’ Parade, there are hundreds—no, thousands—of dogs crowded together. But I have not heard one dog-fight. Have there been any?”
A vast number of dogs barked “No!” and Missis realized that Pongo was sending his thoughts out far beyond the Cabinet Meeting. Perhaps he was sending them all over England—she thought he must be because, from now on, whenever there were cheers they came to her like a great rushing wind. She could not have said if she was hearing with her ears or with her mind. She just knew the cheers were happening. And she felt prouder and prouder of Pongo. He went on saying encouraging things and telling all dogs how well they were behaving (so clever of him, thought Missis—how pleased she always was when the Dearlys said “Good dog!”)
Finally he said, “My dear pet, Mr. Dearly, sometimes reads aloud to Mrs. Dearly, and my wife and I sit and listen. I remember once hearing of a famous Prime Minister who lived in this house who was always telling people to ‘Wait and See.’ That is what I say to you, oh dogs of England. Don’t worry about what’s going to happen. Wait and see!”
This provoked enormous enthusiasm. Missis happened to remember that Mr. Dearly had thought it a very annoying thing to say and many people hadn’t liked it. Well, perhaps much depended on how it was said. Pongo said it magnificently and Missis thought it sounded splendid. Like all the other dogs, near and far, she barked delightedly and thumped her tail.
Cadpig sprang up in her chair and said, “Dogs everywhere! My father has told us what to do. Wait and See! Wait and See!”
WAIT AND SEE! WAIT AND SEE! The rushing wind of thought grew louder and louder. Missis began to wonder if it was healthy for thought to be so noisy and she was relieved when Pongo barked, “But let us wait and see quietly,” and the cheering died down.
This came as a relief to Pongo too. He was thankful that he could now hear himself think. But he was also worried. How obedient the dogs were—and they were obedient to him! What a responsibility! Still, it could hardly be wrong to tell them to wait and see, as there was absolutely nothing else they could do.
At that moment the glass door to the terrace burst open and in came Roly Poly and George, soaking wet. They shook themselves violently, splashing all the dogs near them. One of these was Babs the Poodle, who protested loudly.
Cadpig spoke severely to the Boxer. “George, keep still! You should have got your shaking over out of doors. And you’ve missed the Cabinet Meeting. Where have you been?”
The Boxer said, “I was showing Roly Poly the lake in St. James’s Park and he happened to say he could swim and I said I couldn’t. He said all dogs can if they try and he’d show me how. So he did and now I can swim like anything.”
“You both ought to be dried,” said Missis. Oh dear, this was a job one needed humans for. Well, rolling on the carpet would help. She soon had George and Roly Poly rolling energetically. They got drier and drier and the carpet got wetter and wetter.
“That’s no way to behave at a Cabinet Meeting,” said Cadpig. “The Prime Minister never lets anyone roll. George, do get back to your office and see if any news has come in.” She explained to Pongo. “It’s the Foreign Secretary’s job to deal with foreign countries.”
“Did you get through to America?” Pongo asked.
“Not yet. But we got through to some dogs in Ireland who had managed to, and there seems no doubt that this mysterious sleeping is world-wide. We’ve talked to lots of European countries. George, do stop rolling.”
“Right you are, Cadpig,” said the Boxer. “Come on, Roly Poly, old man. We’ll go and have a chat with the Continong.”
But as George and Roly Poly galumphed to the door it was flung open by a Police Dog.
“Pongo and Missis!” he said dramatically. “You are urgently needed. A Sheepdog is calling you from the country. He says he has astounding news.”