Free Mystery of the Disappearing Cat by Enid Blyton Page A

Bets. “I’m counting how many times they fall off.”
    “Oh, what a funny little girl!” said Miss Trimble, looking rather cross. She held her glasses on with her hand, and Bets was sorry. She felt that wasn’t fair!
    They came to the cat-house. Miss Harmer was there, mixing some food. She looked up. Her plump, jolly face looked worried.
    “Hallo!” she said. “Come to see my cats?”
    “Yes, please,” said Bets. “Miss Harmer, wasn’t it awful Dark Queen being stolen whilst you were away?”
    “Yes,” said the kennel-girl, stirring the food in the pan. “I wish I hadn’t gone. I should only have taken half a day, really; but Mr. Tupping offered to look after the cats for me if I’d like the whole day — so I thanked him and went. But I’ve reproached myself ever since.”
    “Mr. Tupping offered to look after the cats, did you say?” said Pip, full of amazement at the thought of Tupping offering to do anyone a kindness. “Golly! that’s not like him.”
    “No, it isn’t,” said the girl, with a laugh. “But I badly wanted to go home, and I can’t unless I have a whole day, because my home is so far away. Do you collect railway tickets? Because the collector didn’t take my ticket when I got back to the station last night. You can have it if you like.”
    Pip did collect railway tickets. He took the return-half that Miss Harmer held out to him. “Thanks,” he said, “I’d like it.” He put it into his pocket, thinking how envious Larry would be, for he collected railway tickets too.
    “Do you think Luke stole the cat, Miss Harmer?” said Pip.
    “No, I don’t,” said Miss Harmer. “He’s a bit silly, but he’s honest enough. But I tell you who might have taken the cat — that circus friend of Luke’s! What’s his name now — Jake, I think it is.”
    This was news to the two children. Luke had never told them about Jake. A circus friend! How exciting! Why had Luke never mentioned him?
    “Does Jake live near here?” asked Pip.
    “Oh no, but the circus he belongs to is performing in the next town — in Farring,” said Miss Harmer. “So I suppose he’s somewhere near. You know, Dark Queen would be marvellous in a circus. I had already taught her to do a few tricks.”
    Miss Trimble was getting impatient, for it was near her tea-time. She gave three or four polite little coughs, and her glasses promptly fell off.
    “We’d better go,” said Pip. “Thanks for showing us the cats. You needn’t bother to show us out, Miss Tremble. We’ll go over the wall.”
    “My name is Trimble, not Tremble,” said Miss Trimble, losing her smile for a moment. “I wish you would try and remember. And surely you should not go over the wall? Let me take you down the drive.”
    “Tupping’s there,” said Bets. Miss Trimble’s glasses fell off at once at the mention of the surly gardener.
    “Oh well, if you really want to get over the wall, I won’t stop you!” she said. “Good-bye, dear children. I’ll tell Lady Candling you came.”
    “They fell off eight times,” said Bets in a pleased tone as the two of them climbed over the wall. “I say. Pip, isn’t it funny that Luke never told us about Jake?”
     
    A Visit to the Circus.
     
    Pip and Bets were to go to tea with Larry and Daisy that afternoon, so they all went up the lane together, Fatty and Buster too. Pip had a lot to tell.
    “Luke hasn’t turned up today,” he said. “It’s funny, isn’t it, because Lady Candling hasn’t given him notice. And I say, I wonder why he never told us about Jake.”
    “I suppose — I suppose he couldn’t possibly have told Jake to come to the cat-house yesterday, and he couldn’t possibly have given him the cat, could he?” said Larry.
    “I mean — I know we think Luke didn’t do it — but, well, what do you others think?”
    For the first time a small doubt about Luke came into the children’s minds. He hadn’t told them about Jake. And he was a man they would have liked to hear