And now, off we go,€ said Pongo, bringing the pups out of the bakehouse. And no straggling! Because it would be very easy to lose a black pup on a dark night.€

But it was not really a very dark night, for already the moon was rising and the stars were out. There was one specially large, bright star.

The Collie said straight ahead, and that star is straight ahead,€ said Pongo. So we’ll steer by it.€ He was thankful they were going by way of the fields and not by the road for he remembered that Cruella had told the Baddun brothers she would come down tomorrow night€ to count the bodies. Now it was tomorrow night€ and the great zebra-striped car would be somewhere on the road from London to Suffolk. How terrible it would be to meet it! He imagined the glare from the headlights, imagined Cruella driving straight at the army of panic-stricken puppies. Yes, he would certainly avoid the roads! But, even so, it was frightening to know that Cruella might be quite near. He put the thought from his mind as he and Missis got the pups into marching order.

Their way lay through grassy meadows over which the Cadpig’s cart trundled smoothly. At every hedge and ditch Pongo paused and counted the pups to see none had strayed, and Missis changed the pups who drew the cart and the pups who rested in it. Already even the smallest puppies were getting hardier even the Cadpig got out of the cart and walked three fields before getting in again.

Soon we shall be able to do ten miles a day,€ said Pongo.

They had travelled about three miles when the first disaster of the night happened. There was a sudden bump, and a wild squeal from the Cadpig. A wheel had come off the little blue cart.

Pongo saw at once that the cart could be mended. A wooden peg which fixed the hub of the wheel to the axle had come out. But could he ever, using his teeth, put this peg back? He tried and failed.

Could the Cadpig manage without the cart?€ he whispered to Missis.

Missis shook her head. Walking three fields had been enough for her smallest daughter. And her other daughters could not walk more than a mile without a rest.

Then mend the cart I must,€ said Pongo. And you must help me, by holding the wheel in position.€

They tried and tried, without success. Then, while they were resting for a moment, Missis noticed that many of the pups were shivering.

They’d better keep warm by running races,€ said Pongo.

But that would tire them,€ said Missis. Couldn’t they all go to that barn over there?€

They could just see a big tiled roof, two short fields away not very clearly, because the moon was behind clouds; it was this lack of light which made it so hard to mend the cart.