“Follow me!” cried Cadpig, dashing out of the room and to the lift, which instantly flung open its doors and took them up so fast that Missis hadn’t time to feel nervous.
They got out at the top floor and Cadpig led them to a room where the window was wide open. Standing with their feet on the window sill were two Fox Terriers listening intently.
Cadpig joined them at the window and barked down to the crowd of dogs in Downing Street. “Absolute quiet, please. Important news is coming through.”
Instantly there was silence.
One of the Fox Terriers said to Cadpig, “This is a Very Important Sheepdog, madam. He’s a General.”
“Tell him Pongo and Missis are here,” said Cadpig.
The Fox Terriers barked piercingly; then, as before, listened intently. After only a few seconds one of them said, “There he is!”
Cadpig beckoned Pongo and Missis to the window. They put their paws on the sill and leaned out as far as they could. At once they heard the General’s rumbling bark. They answered him.
“Pongo and Missis?” said the General. “Yes, I recognize your voices. Amazing, this new invention. I got through to London at once. Well, now, prepare for a shock. The cats are awake.”
“All cats?” said Pongo. There were millions of cats in England, weren’t there? And many of them unfriendly to dogs. He foresaw clashes.
“No, no, not all cats. Just Mrs. Willow and your white Persian. They’re both with me. And so is someone else who’s awake. Young Tommy.”
“Tommy?” gasped Pongo. “Then the emergency’s over. All the humans will be waking.”
“Oh, no, they won’t,” said the General. “All the other humans at the farm are still fast asleep and so are your humans at Hell Hall. I’ve just been up there, and Prince and I did our very best to wake them—actually shook them; well, it was in a good cause. They didn’t stir and neither did the white cat’s husband. She was upset about that until I explained to her.”
“Please explain to me, too,” said Pongo.
“It came to me in a flash. Well, actually, it came to Mrs. Willow first but I wasn’t far behind. Do you remember, soon after you settled in Hell Hall, we made Mrs. Willow and the white cat honorary dogs? And Tommy—he and I could still talk each other’s languages then, a kind of Dog-Human—asked if he could be one, too. So he and Mrs. Willow and the white cat are, well, sort of half-dogs.”
“Let me have a word with the white cat,” said Missis, who was longing for news from Hell Hall.
“Can’t be done,” said the Sheepdog. “As they’re only half-dogs they can’t do everything we do. They can’t talk by thought waves and they can’t swoosh. But they’re fully awake and I’m thankful to say that they don’t need food or drink. And it’s a great comfort to have them, especially as Tommy’s partly got back his knack of being able to talk to me. And he’s full of bright ideas and so are the cats. And we simply must join you in London.”
Pongo said “But how—if Tommy and the cats can’t swoosh? The cats might ride on your back but Tommy couldn’t.”
“We’ve worked out a plan. Tommy will drive the Tractor. He’s never quite driven it but he’s sat with his father and been allowed to put his hand on the steering wheel. And he knows how to turn the engine on. Anyway, we’ve been practising and it seems that if my Jack Russell and I perch near him, with both the cats, and we all think hard about the Tractor moving forward, well, it does.”
“How fast?” asked Pongo.
“Very, very slowly. In fact, it would take quite a week to reach London. But Mrs. Willow has worked out a scheme. Wonderful brain she has—for a cat. I won’t give you the details now, as you’ll soon be seeing for yourself. But I’ll tell you, that Tractor’s never moved so fast in its life. We’re starting at once.”
“Well, good luck to you,” said Pongo, wondering what on earth the tabby cat’s scheme could be. “We’ll be waiting for you in Downing Street.”
“The white cat insists that we go first to that house where you used to live in Regent’s Park. And she wants you to meet us there.”
“But why, General?” asked Pongo.
“Can’t tell you now but the white cat says it’s necessary.”
Then the Jack Russell Terrier was heard barking shrilly. “We ought to be starting, General. Let’s get some action.”
“That’ll be enough from you,” said the General ferociously. “But the cheeky pup’s quite right, Pongo. Now you meet us at that house in a couple of hours. Signing off now.”
The barking stopped. Cadpig, who had heard everything, said, “Well, it’s best to humor the dear old gentleman. And you can take a look at the Zoo as you’ll be so near.”
“I’d forgotten about the Zoo,” said Pongo. “Is all well there?”
“It was when I had my last report. All animals asleep except dogs—there are quite a few dogs attached to the Zoo. They’re patrolling regularly. Dear me, I wonder if there are any half-dogs there? Wolves, for instance.”
“I hope not,” said Missis. She had seen wolves on television and didn’t fancy them.
Cadpig said, “I suppose it’s just possible that the General will get here in a couple of hours—today, anything’s possible. So you might as well get off to the Zoo now, Father. Need Mother come with you? I have to entertain some provincial ladydogs in the drawing room and I thought she might help me.”
“The General asked for me,” said Missis, who very much wanted to see their old home. And there was another reason why she wanted to go to Regent’s Park, a worrying reason. She thought she knew why the white cat wished them to meet her there. But she wasn’t going to tell Pongo, not until she had talked to the cat.
Cadpig said she could manage on her own and perhaps some of her brothers and sisters would like to see the house where they were born. “We’ll go down and collect them. But I’ll keep Patch to help me, if he doesn’t mind.”
“Patch would rather help you than see any house in the world,” said Pongo.
They went down to the Cabinet Room and Babs the Poodle said she would willingly spare Lucky and his wife; Gay wanted to see her husband’s birthplace. So in the end Pongo and Missis were able to take all their family except Cadpig, Patch and Roly Poly. Cadpig barked to the Foreign Secretary’s office, hoping to reach Roly, but the Police Dog on duty there said the Foreign Secretary had taken him out to see London.
“They’ll be all right, Mother,” said Cadpig. “George is quite a dog-about-town.”
Missis was far from sure that made things any safer.
Police Dogs escorted Pongo and Missis and their family until they were through the worst crowds and could swoosh to the Zoo without difficulty.
Missis didn’t fancy the Zoo at all, but when she found that all the wild animals were not only asleep but also safely behind bars, she felt less nervous. The dogs attached to the Zoo were most polite and only sorry that Cadpig hadn’t come. A keeper’s dog said, “We were hoping to catch a glimpse of her. It’s such a pity she can’t appear on television as she does when things are normal.”
Pongo wondered why she couldn’t. Today, when dogs had such extraordinary powers, why couldn’t they make television work? Surely it was just the kind of thing that they could work metaphysically. Indeed television seemed to him quite a bit metaphysical even when things were normal. He must talk to Cadpig about it.
All the Dalmatians were quite used to seeing wild animals, on television, but to see so many sleeping animals was very strange indeed. Elephants, lions, tigers, giraffes, monkeys, polar bears, seals and many, many others lay there utterly still, except for their gentle breathing. Missis need not have worried about the wolves; they slept as deeply as every other animal. Half-dogs they might be but they were not honorary half-dogs. Perhaps that made all the difference.
Birds in the aviary slept on their perches. And strangest of all were the sleeping fish in the aquarium. They might have been painted fish in painted water.
Long before they had seen everything there was to see, Missis said she thought it was time to leave. She could not really enjoy herself because of her secret thoughts. And she wanted to be at the Regent’s Park house when the General and his party arrived, so that no time was wasted before she shared her suspicions with the white cat.
So they said goodbye to the courteous keeper-dogs, who were getting very busy as many sight-seeing dogs were now coming into the Zoo, through the turnstiles which, today, worked without being pushed. And then Pongo and Missis led their family out and along the Outer Circle.
They had not gone far when they heard many dogs barking, and it was a special kind of barking which they recognized as cheering. What could it mean?
The cheering was coming from behind them. Pongo thought a halt, so that he could look back, and a moment later he saw the most astonishing sight. Coming across the bridge over the Regent’s Canal, at a tremendous pace, was the Tractor.
At the wheel sat young Tommy, and near him were the General, the Jack Russell Terrier, the white cat and the tabby cat, Mrs. Willow. All of them were gazing straight ahead and none of them noticed the little group of Dalmatians—who saw, as the Tractor swept past, that it was being pushed by a dozen of the Dalmatians who had been left behind at Hell Hall. They were swooshing and so was the Tractor. Its wheels weren’t touching the ground.
“It’s become a Hover-tractor,” said Missis. “How very metaphysical.”
“We must follow it,” said Pongo. “Quick swoosh.”
They caught up with it just as it stopped in front of the house that had once been the Dearlys’. The Sheepdog, the Jack Russell and the cats got down, but Tommy stayed at the wheel and seemed to be talking to the Tractor.
“He’s thanking it,” the General told Pongo. “It’s behaved magnificently. You’d think it was human.”
“You mean canine,” said Pongo. “Well, between you and it you’ve been marvellously quick.”
“Prince lent me a dozen strong swooshers,” said the General. “And we at the front helped by thinking forward thoughts, which is quite hard work.”
Tommy now got down from the Tractor. Pongo and Missis greeted him affectionately and tried to understand what he said. Usually they did understand him, just as they understood most humans, but he was now talking half-Dog and half-Human, as he had when he was very young, and they couldn’t get the hang of it.
“Needs practice,” said the Sheepdog. “I can follow most of it now and he half understands me, which is more than any other human ever did.”
The Dalmatians who had come with the Tractor had joined the ones who had been born in the Regent’s Park house and Lucky was pointing out the kitchen window. He said, “Shall we go inside, Father? I expect the door will open for us if we ask it to.”
Missis at once said, “The people who live here now might not like us to go in.”
“But they’ll all be asleep, Mother,” said Lucky, who wanted to show his wife the broom cupboard where he had been born. He ran up the steps, willed the door to open and pushed it. But nothing happened.
“That’s because we don’t need to go in,” said Missis. “And anyway, I don’t want to see our home now it isn’t ours.”
Lucky’s wife, who was looking down through the railings, said, “I can see the kitchen quite nicely, Lucky, and I can imagine the broom cupboard, if you describe it.”
As Lucky had only slept in the broom cupboard for the first two weeks of his life he couldn’t really remember it, but Pongo helped him out and described the whole house. All the dogs listened—that is, all except Missis. She drew the two cats aside and asked why they’d specially wanted to come here. She said she couldn’t believe they’d particularly wanted to see the house.
“Well, I’ve nothing against seeing it,” said the white cat. “In fact, I’ve very friendly feelings toward it as it was the first house I ever lived in where I was treated decently. But the house I really want to see is farther along the Outer Circle. And we must go inside. It’s the house where I lived such miserable years with Cruella de Vil. I feel it in my bones that she’s back in England.”
“She is!” cried Missis. “Oh, I guessed you’d suspect her, and so do I. I’m sure she’s causing this mysterious sleeping.”
“Then she must be stopped,” said the tabby cat. “I don’t like the world without humans.”
“We must get into her house and, well, frighten her,” said the white cat. And she meant much more than she said.
Missis had always thought it wrong for any dog or cat to hurt a human, but she was highly in favor of frightening Cruella, so she said at once, “We must convince Pongo.” Then she stared in astonishment.
Swooshing toward them at a tremendous speed and barking loudly was a Staffordshire Terrier. He pulled up when he reached them but, even so, knocked several dogs down.
“Sorry mates,” he said. “Nobody hurt, I hope? (Nobody was.) Well, my old friends Pongo and Missis. Hope you haven’t forgotten me.”
“As if we could!” said Pongo. “You and your miraculous removal van once saved all our lives.”
“Are your humans asleep?” said Missis.
“I’ll say they are,” said the Staffordshire. “And not for the want of waking. I was pretty rough with them before I found out that they couldn’t help it, poor chaps. Not that I hurt them—I hope.”
“So do I,” said Pongo, knowing just how rough the Staffordshire could be. He lived with two removal men who called him names like “Canine Cannon Ball” and “Self-launched Bomb,” but they loved him dearly.
“Just dropped in to see a pal at the Zoo,” said the Staffordshire, “and I heard you were here. Well, perhaps you can tell me what’s up with the world today. Think it’s got anything to do with that old enemy of yours, the one who stole your pups?”
“I do,” said the white cat. “And we ought to attack her.”
The Staffordshire looked at her in surprise. “Didn’t know there were any cats awake today.”
“Both these ladies are honorary dogs,” said Pongo. “And good friends of ours.”
“Then they’re friends of mine, too,” said the Staffordshire, giving up the idea of chasing both cats up a tree—only in fun, of course, but cats never understood, they’d no sense of humor. But the white cat was talking sound sense so he said to her, “Well, if you want to attack the puppy-stealer, count on me. I told Pongo long ago that we ought to do her in.”
“No, no,” said Pongo. “This strangeness today has nothing to do with Cruella. Let’s leave her alone.” But he found everyone was against him.
The General said, “The woman’s a thoroughly bad lot, Pongo. Remember, I saw more of her than you did, in the days when she owned Hell Hall. And the least we can do is to investigate her. Besides, I promised Tommy he should see her.”
Tommy was already up on the Tractor, ready to start. The General, the Jack Russell and the two cats got up, too. Lucky said to Pongo quietly, “I think you’ll have to let them have their heads, Father. But I’ll help you to keep order. And all the Dalmatians will do exactly what you say.”
But would the Sheepdog, Pongo wondered, and would the Staffordshire? They were both formidable dogs. And the cats were capable of dangerous clawing. As for the Jack Russell, he was barking fiercely, “Forward to kill Cruella de Vil!”
“Get into position, Tractor-pushers!” ordered the Sheepdog.
Pongo said he and Missis would lead the way. Their family and the Staffordshire helped to push the Tractor so it went at a tremendous pace.
“Faster, faster!” barked the Jack Russell.
“Pipe down, boy,” said the General. “There’s a legal speed limit in London. Better stick to it, Tommy.”
“How?” said Tommy.
“Just think legal thoughts,” said the General.
The Tractor slowed down a little but, even so, Pongo and Missis were rather afraid they might be run over. They were thankful when they reached Cruella’s house. How well they remembered it and that snowy Christmas Eve when the white cat had invited them in to destroy Cruella’s furs!
“Perhaps she doesn’t live here now,” said Pongo.
The white cat had sprung from the Tractor and run down the steps to look through the kitchen window. She called back to Pongo. “Oh, yes, she does. I can see the giant pepper-grinder she always used at meals.”
Pongo now hoped they wouldn’t be able to open the door. He told himself they wouldn’t if they didn’t need to.
But it seemed they did need to. The door of the kitchen swung open as if to invite them in.
So in they all went.