Mr. Dearly took one look through the door, then dashed into the back drawing room and flung open the double doors. A sea of pups surged in. And now that there was a little spare floor space, Pongo barked a command.

All pups who can find space: Roll! Roll, Missis!€ And he himself rolled with a will.

The Dearlys stared in utter bewilderment and then both of them shouted, Look!€

The white carpet was becoming blacker, the black dogs were becoming whiter.

It’s Pongo!€ cried Mr. Dearly.

It’s Missis! cried Mrs. Dearly.

It’s Pongo, Missis, and all their puppies!€ cried the Nannies, from the top of the piano.

It’s considerably more than all their puppies,€ said Mr. Dearly just before Pongo forcibly embraced him.

Missis was embracing Mrs. Dearly. And in a corner of the room there was a great deal more embracing. Perdita was going absolutely wild, trying to embrace eight puppies at once. They were her own long-lost family! It had never struck Pongo that they might be among the rescued pups. He had not even noticed their brown spots, because he had scarcely seen any of the pups by daylight before they all rolled in the soot. It turned out that Perdita’s family was the one that fitted the Cadpig’s little blue cart so well and had pulled it so faithfully.

Mr. Dearly had put the cart down in the back drawing room and the Nannies had now got off the piano and gone to look at it.

That’s a child’s toy,€ said Nanny Cook.

And it’s got a name and address on it,€ said Nanny Butler. And she read out, Master Tommy Tompkins, Farmer. Dympling, Suffolk.€

Dympling?€ said Mrs. Dearly, That’s where Cruella de Vil has a country house. She told us about it when we had dinner with her and asked if we’d like to buy it.€

And then Mr. Dearly saw it all. He remembered Cruella’s desire for a Dalmatian fur coat, guessed that she had collected all these pups so that Mr. de Vil could make many such coats.

You must have the law on her,€ cried both the Nannies together.

Mr. Dearly said he would think about that after Christmas, but now he must think about feeding the pups when all the shops were closed. He hurriedly telephoned the Ritz, the Savoy, Claridges, and other rather good hotels and asked them to send page boys along with steaks. The hotels were most anxious to help when they heard that the Missing Dalmatians had come home. And at least six dozen more than I ever hoped for,€ said Mr. Dearly not that he had had time to count the pups.

Nanny Butler said, They must be bathed first.

Bathed? gasped Mrs. Dearly. €All of them?