I told them you would, but they’ve been pretty nervous. I’ll just send the word round that they can count on you.€ He whispered to a pup at the end of a row, and the word travelled like wind over a cornfield. There was barely a sound that a human ear could have heard, except a couple of tail thumps, instantly repressed. All knew they must not give away the fact that Pongo was in their midst, and when he went silently along the rows there was scarcely a movement. But he could feel great waves of love and trust rolling towards him. And suddenly all the pups were real and living for him, not just a problem he had to face. He felt as if he were the father of them all. And he knew that he could never desert them.

He felt a special sympathy for the big pups in the two back rows. Some of them were fully half-grown young dogs rather than puppies, lollopy creatures with clumsy feet. They made him remember his own not very far-away youth. He wondered how long their skins would be safe from Cruella, would she have the patience to wait much longer? Did the big pups know that danger drew close every day? Something in their eyes told him they did. And many of them had been in this horrible place for months, without hope until Lucky had spread the news that his father and mother were coming. Proud Lucky now, taking his father along the rows of hero-worshipping pups!

Blissfully happy, Missis sat with her children clustered about her. She had eyes only for them, but they were determined she should not miss the television. She had never seen it before (Mr. and Mrs. Dearly did not care for it) and found it difficult to follow. The pups did not follow it completely, as they had not yet learned enough human words; but they liked the little moving figures, and watched in the perpetual hope of seeing dogs on the screen.

Can we have it when we get back home?€ said the Cadpig.

Indeed you shall, my darling,€ said Missis. Somehow, somehow, the Dearlys must be made to buy a set.

Pongo had now silently met€ all the pups. He told Lucky he would like to have a good look at the Badduns. So Lucky took him a little way up the back staircase, where they could see without being noticed.

No one would have guessed that Saul and Jasper Baddun were brothers. Saul was heavy and dark, with a forehead so low that his bushy eyebrows often got tangled with his matted hair. Jasper was thin and fair, with a chin so sharp and pointed that it had worn holes in all his shirts not that he had many. Both brothers looked very dirty.