Lucky left his own brothers and sisters to the last and last of all to leave was the Cadpig. She was an intelligent little puppy and quite understood that she had to escape, but oh, how she hated leaving the television! She went out backwards, still staring at the screen.

Then Pongo and Missis sped swiftly and silently across the big red kitchen. They looked back from the larder door and saw that the Badduns had not stirred.

How much longer will What's My Crime?' last?€ whispered Pongo.

Twenty minutes,€ said the Cadpig promptly and wistfully.

Pongo and Missis closed the larder door. The bolt on the inside was low down and easy to manage. Pongo shot it home at once, while the pups looked on admiringly. Every pup had its place at a trough, but not one lick of food had been eaten.

One, two, three feed!€ commanded Pongo.

In fifty-nine seconds flat every scrap of food had been eaten.

But what about you and Mother?€ said Lucky. I think I can find the Badduns’Sunday dinner.€

He found it on a shelf two steaks, rather poor grade, but Pongo and Missis swiftly ate them. The Pongo gave troops the right to forage and led a search through the larder. Everything eatable was eaten, the big pups sharing with the little pups most fairly.

Anything in that cupboard?€ said Pongo at last.

Only coke for the central-heating furnace,€ said Lucky. Well, the Badduns won’t find anything to eat tomorrow, will they?€

Let them eat coke,€ said Pongo.

The entire meal had taken nearly five minutes. Pongo now felt he must get his troops out of Hell Hall as fast as possible. There had been no time to think out plans for the future he was counting on the Colonel’s advice. All that could be done now was to lead the pups to the Folly. The outer door of the larder was easily opened; then across the old orchard they went and in at the door which the Colonel had so thoughtfully propped open. Missis gave one backward glance at black Hell Hall under the full moon. What would the Badduns do when they found not one pup in the kitchen?

There was not room for ninety-seven pups on the ground floor of the Folly, nor would there have been in the crowded upstairs rooms, so Pongo marched everyone out onto the heath. As the last pup marched out, the Sheepdog arrived.

At first he thought Pongo had recklessly begun the escape too soon, but when he heard the true facts he praised Pongo highly and was particularly pleased that all pups had been fed before escaping.

That was Sergeant Lucky’s idea,€ said Pongo proudly.

Good work, Sergeant-Major,€ said the Colonel.

But where are we to go?€ asked Missis anxiously. Look, the puppies are shivering.€

They were indeed, for though it was not freezing it seemed terribly cold to them all after the warm kitchen.