Kit licked and licked Dulcie's ear, and she stared at the three feral cats. The cats looked back at her, their eyes merry with recognition. Their looks seemed to say, See how she's grown. Look how beautiful she's become, that skinny little waif. Joe watched Chichi shake Maria gently by the shoulders.

"Where's the key, Maria? What did he do with the key?"

"You can't, Chichi. Luis will be… He'll kill me. He would beat Abuela. He thinks she took the key. If you…"

Chichi shook her harder. "You have rope? Cord? Your belts… the belt on your robe, on Abuela's robe. Take them off. Get belts, all you can find." She looked at Clyde. "Forget the key. Use that saw. Get busy…"

Clyde got to work with the hacksaw, jamming the padlock at an angle to hold it steady. The saw's rasping was incredibly loud even over the sounds from the TV Joe pressed against Dulcie tight between the captive cats, watching Chichi tie up Maria and Abuela with a bright collection of belts, binding them to the curved bars of their antique iron beds like a scene in some Western melodrama. Abuela was grinning ear to ear, as if the cats' impending escape filled her with wicked delight, now that she and Maria would not be blamed for it. Chichi, tying knots, glanced nervously at the bedroom door watching for Luis or Tommie to come barging through. The minute she had the two women secure, she headed for the window and safety.

"I'll be in your car!" she hissed, and she was through the window and gone. Clyde calmly removed the lock and opened the cage door. Coyote and Cotton squeezed through both at once, their tails lashing. Coyote's ears were erect and eager as he sniffed the fresh outdoor air. Cotton pushed past him and they leaped to the sill. Both toms turned to look at Clyde, a silent moment of thanks, then they were gone, racing away through the moonlight. Willow followed more slowly, pausing on the sill for a long moment, looking back at Joe and Dulcie and Clyde, a deep and loving look. Then she exploded away behind the others.

When the captives were gone, Joe and Dulcie came out from the cage, licked Kit to thank her, and rubbed against Clyde's hand. But as Clyde scooped them up in his arms and reached for the kit, prepared to climb back out the window, Kit drew away.

Racing ahead of them, she stopped in the bushes and lifted a paw, but backed away when Clyde stooped to reach for her. "I heard something, I have to tell…"

"Come on," Clyde said. "We're out of here, you can tell us later."

"Now!" Kit said with an imperative yowl that startled them all. "Right now! That man… Slayter, that handsome obnoxious man? He's part of this gang, with Luis, it's a big gang. They broke in the jewelry store. He's part of it and he's staying in the Gardenview Inn and Chichi wants to get in there and search for something, I don't know what. She…"

A sound from the house, a hush of muffled footsteps in the bedroom, made Clyde snatch at her again. He missed and she leaped away and Clyde could only follow, clutching Joe and Dulcie. When they heard the bedroom door bang open Clyde ran, Joe and Dulcie clinging to him with all forty claws. But Kit was gone, racing away through the night.

"Kit, come back!" Dulcie hissed. "Kit, wait…" They heard her leaping away through the bushes, following the wild ones.

Shocked, Clyde clutched Joe and Dulcie closer as he rounded the house, heading fast for the car. No one said what they were all thinking-that Kit might stay with the feral band. Might race away with them into the hills to take up that old life once more. Swinging into the car, Clyde still watched the bushes, but Joe and Dulcie knew she was gone. Kit's wild streak had taken her, Kit's longings that could never be tamed.

They were all three strung with nerves as Clyde dropped the two cats in the back of the roadster and slid in beside Chichi and headed home. They were all three hearing Kit's words… Slayter… staying in the Gardenview… Chichi wants to search. ..

Chichi, all scowls and fidgets, watched warily for Luis's car, as if it would appear at any instant racing after them or waiting on some dark side street. Joe considered her with interest.

She did not look like a vamp now, but like a lost soul. She sat hunched and miserable, perhaps imagining what Luis would do to her when he found the cats gone, certain that she was responsible. All her lipstick had worn off, and her pale hair hung limp and lifeless. She seemed not to care. There wasn't, at this moment, much pizzazz left to Chichi, and Joe liked her better this way.

But then the next minute she whipped out a comb and lipstick and got to work fixing herself up in the dark. She seemed to be skilled in such matters. Fishing out a little vial of perfume, she had soon restored the old Chichi. She watched Clyde with speculation.

In the back seat, Dulcie peered out, longing for a glimpse of Kit and feeling cold inside and lost and frightened. She was far more upset than she wanted to let on. Oh, Kit, she thought, you won't go with them, not forever. Not back to the clowder. You won't go for good, you won't do that, you can't.

But when she looked at Joe, his whiskers drooped and his yellow eyes were filled with misery, and she could smell fear on him. Fear that Kit had gone for good with the ferals, that the little tattercoat had let her hunger for crazy new adventures magic her away-that the unfettered wildness of her kittenhood had filled her right up again so she could think of nothing else.

Clyde's yellow convertible, having no power steering or power brakes, took his full attention-or he let Chichi think it did as he negotiated the dark, narrow, hilly streets down into the village. Three times Chichi asked him how he knew Luis had his cat, when he hadn't known anything about Luis.

"Damn, that was lucky," Clyde said. "I was just coming home from walking the streets shouting for Joe-he'll usually come when I call him. I was getting mad and worried. I guess you think it's foolish, to be that fond of a cat, but I've had him a long time. I'd about given up, and was going in the house when I passed that guy leaving your place." Clyde looked across at her. "I heard him muttering. Talking to himself about cats. Something about a cage, a key. Muttering about cats in a damned cage."

Joe, crouched in the back seat with Dulcie, glanced at her with amusement. Clyde wasn't the greatest liar. Still, it wasn't bad. He watched Chichi sidle closer to Clyde, looking up at him engagingly.

Ignoring her advances, Clyde parked across the street from her place, didn't pull into his own drive. He glanced at her. "You know how cat lovers are. The guy looked… I just had this feeling he was talking about my cat! That he was some nutcase, had caught my cat here in the yard, and put him in a cage." He left the engine running, glancing at Chichi. "This time, my hunch was right. Thanks, Chichi. I really owe you." He swung out to open her door. "You want me to walk you back? That driveway's dark."

Chichi looked at him with speculation. "You want a cup of coffee? Or a drink?"

Clyde shook his head. "I need to run Dulcie home, her owner's worried, too. She called me twice."

"Could you walk me in, though? It is dark back there. If Luis-if he's come back…" She shivered. "If he got home and saw the empty cage…" She did look frightened. Joe wished he knew what she was thinking, wished he could read her thoughts.

He'd been startled at how tender she was with Abuela, as if she really cared for the old woman. Strange, he thought as he watched Clyde walking Chichi down the drive. He hoped Clyde wouldn't go in, wouldn't succumb to this out-of-character side of Chichi Barbi, and to the charms that would likely follow.