"WHO STOLE MY COOKIES!?" Alonzo thundered. Pouncival heard him and quickly stuffed the reast of the cookie he was eating into his mouth.

"What cookies?" Jemima asked.

"The ones I had stashed in my flat," the large tom growled.

"I don't know," Jemima told him.

"Obviously," he rolled his navy blue eyes and turned away in time to see Pouncival slide the bag towards him. With a hiss, he pounced on the smaller tom. "You dared to steal my cookies?"

"I didn't know they were yours," Pouncival told him. "I swear it. Tumble gave them to me."

"If I find out you lied to me," Alonzo growled as he let the younger tom up. "You are dead."

Pouncival sighed his relief as the white and black tom left in search of the white and brown Tumblebrutus.

"That wasn't a nice thing to do, Pouncival," Jemima scolded the white, brown and gray tom.

"What?" Pouncival was puzzled.

"You lied to Alonzo about the cookies," she replied.

"No, I didn't," he protested. "Honest."

"Where'd you get the cookies?" Alonzo asked, eyes flashing.

"Plato," Tumblebrutus answered.

"If you've lied," Alonzo warned him, "you are dead."

"I got them from Cass," Plato told his friend.

"Exotica," the Burmese queen replied.

"Victoria," Exotica informed him.

"Etcetera," Victoria answered.

"Electra."

"Tugger."

"Admetus."

"Mistoffelees."

"Tantomille and Coricopat."

"Mungojerrie AND Rumpelteazer."

"Your flat," Mungojerrie confessed.

"Don't you ever steal my cookies again," Alonzo told them and headed back for his flat, where he'd stashed the bag before looking for Tumblebrutus. He reached into the bag and shouted, "Hey! It's empty!"