"And our dear old Tobermory is your first successful student?"

I t was a cold, rain-washed afternoon in late August. Lady Blemley and her guests were sitting round the tea table. Everyone was listening open-mouthed to Mr Cornelius Appin.

Although he was one of her guests, Lady Blemley did not know Mr Appin well. She had invited him to stay at Blemley House because she had heard that he was clever. But until teatime that day he had not done or said anything clever. He did not play tennis, or sing, or make intelligent conversation. But now Mr Appin was describing a most extraordinary discovery and the other guests were listening with deep interest. "Are you telling us that you have found a way of teaching animals to talk?" Sir Wilfrid was saying.

"I have studied this problem for seventeen years," said Mr Appin, "but I didn't have any real success until eight or nine months ago. Of course, I have studied thousands of animals, but recently I have worked only with cats. A cat, of course, is a wild animal who agrees to live with you. All cats are intelligent, but naturally some cats are more intelligent than others. When I met Tobermory a week ago, I realized at once that here was an extraordinarily intelligent cat, a very special cat indeed. In Tobermory, I found the student I needed. With him I have succeeded in my plan."

Nobody laughed, and nobody actually said "Rubbish", although Clovis's lips moved silently…

"My dear Miss Resker," said Mr Appin patiently, "we teach little children and very slow, stupid adults in that way. But Tobermory is a most intelligent cat. He can speak English as well as you or I can."

"Mr Appin will try to be clever," said Miss Resker happily, "but if we watch him carefully, we shall see his lips move."

Sir Wilfrid went off to look for Tobermory.

"And have you really taught Tobermory," asked Miss Resker, "to say and understand short, easy words?"

This time Clovis said "Rubbish!" aloud.

Sir Wilfrid was more polite, but it was clear that he did not believe Mr Appin's story.

"It's true, you know!" he said. "I found Tobermory sleeping in the smoking-room, and called out to him to come for his tea. He lifted his head and opened one eye. I said, 'Come on, Toby, don't keep us waiting!' and he said calmly, 'I'll come when I'm ready!' I couldn't believe my ears!"

"Shall we bring the cat in here and hear him for ourselves?" said Lady Blemley.

In a minute Sir Wiflrid returned, looking very excited.

"Which people's intelligence?" asked Tobermory coldly.

"What do you think of the intelligence of people?" asked Mavis Pellington.

"I don't mind. It isn't my carpet, after all," replied Tobermory.

"Oh dear! I'm so sorry," she said.

Then Tobermory entered the room and calmly walked over to the tea table. The conversation stopped. Nobody knew what to say to a talking cat. At last Lady Blemley spoke:

Tobermory looked straight through her with his brightgreen eyes. Clearly, he did not answer questions that did not interest him.

The guests all started talking at once, while Mr Appin sat silently and looked very pleased with himself indeed.

"I don't mind if I do," answered Tobermory. Lady Blemley's hand shook with excitement and some of the milk went onto the carpet.

"Would you like some milk, Tobermory?" she asked in a high, unnatural voice.

"Well, my intelligence, for example," said Mavis with a little laugh.

There was another silence, then Miss Resker asked politely, "Did you find it difficult to learn English, Tobermory?"

"You make things very uncomfortable for me," said Tobermory, although he did not look at all uncomfortable. "When Lady Blemley wanted to invite you here, Sir Wilfrid was not pleased. 'Mavis Pellington is the stupidest woman I know,' he said. 'That's why I want to invite her,' Lady Blemley replied. 'I want her to buy my old car, and she's stupid enough to do that.'"

Major Barfield did his best to help. He tried to start anew conversation. "How are you getting on with your little black and white lady friend in the garden?" he asked Tobermory.

The Major's face became very red, and all the other guests began to look worried and uncomfortable. What was Tobermory going to say next?

"It isn't true!"cried Lady Blemley. "Don't believe him, Mavis!"

"If it isn't true," said Mavis coldly, "why did you say this morning that your car would be just right for me?"

Everybody realized at once that this was a mistake.

Tobermory gave him an icy look. "We do not usually discuss these things in polite company," he said. "But I have watched you a little since you have been in this house. I think perhaps you would not like me to discuss your lady friends."

"Would you like to go down to the kitchen now, Tobermory," asked Lady Blemley politely, "and see if the cook has got your dinner ready?"

"Lady Blemley!" cried Mrs Cornett, "Don't send that cat to the kitchen. He will talk about us to the cook!"

"Cats have nine lives, you know," said Sir Wilfrid with a laugh.

"No, thank you," said Tobermory. "I've only just had my tea. I don't want to make myself sick."

Everyone was very worried now. They remembered uncomfortably that Tobermory moved freely all over the house and gardens, at all hours of the day and night. He could look into any of the bedrooms if he wanted to. What had he seen? What had he heard? Nobody's secrets were safe now.

"Possibly," answered Tobermory. "But only one stomach."

"Oh, why did I come here?" cried Agnes Resker, who could never stay silent for long.

"You know very well why you came here," said Tobermory immediately. "You came for the food, of course. I heard you talking to Mrs Cornett in the garden. You said that the Blemleys were terribly boring people, but they had an excel-lent cook."

"You mustn't believe him!" cried Agnes. "I never said that, did I, Mrs Cornett?"

"Later, Mrs Cornett repeated your words to Bertie Van Tahn," said Tobermory. "She said, 'That Resker woman will go anywhere for four good meals a day,' and Bertie said --"

Just then Tobermory looked out of the window and saw the doctor's big yellow cat crossing the garden. Immediately he disappeared through the open window.

"You're right," said Lady Blemley sadly. "My husband and I love Tobermory -- well, we did before this afternoon -- but now, of course, he must die as soon as possible."

Everyone started talking at once, and Mr Appin found himself in a storm of angry questions.

"It's possible that he has taught the gardener's cat," replied Mr Appin thoughtfully, "but I don't believe he has had time to teach any other cats."

"Then," said Mrs Cornett, "although Tobermory is a valuable cat, he and the gardener's cat must die. Don't you agree, Lady Blemley?"

"You must stop this at once," everyone said to him. "What will happen if Tobermory teaches other cats to talk? We shall never have a moment's peace!"

"But what about my discovery?" cried Mr Appin. "What about all my years of work? Are you going to destroy my only successful student?"

"We will poison his dinner," said Sir Wilfrid, "and I will kill the gardener's cat myself. The gardener won't like it, but I'll say it has some kind of disease --"

"You can go and teach the cows on the farm," said Mrs Cornett coldly, "or the elephants at the zoo. Elephants are very intelligent, they tell me, and elephants don't hide behind chairs or under beds and listen to people's conversations." Mr Appin knew when he was beaten.

After dinner the Blemleys and their guests sat in the smoking-room. Everyone was quiet and worried and nobody wanted to play cards. At eleven o'clock the cook and the housekeeper went to bed. They left the kitchen window open for Tobermory as usual, but he did not come.

Dinner that evening was not a success. Sir Wilfrid had had a difficult time with the gardener's cat and later with the gardener. Agnes Resker refused to eat anything, while Mavis Pellington ate her meal in silence. Everyone was waiting for Tobermory. A plate of poisoned fish stood ready for him in the dining-room, but he did not come home. Nobody talked much, and nobody laughed. It was a most uncomfortable meal.

In the morning Tobermory had still not come home. Breakfast was another quiet, uncomfortable meal. Then, half-way through the coffee, the gardener brought in Tobermory's blood-stained body.

At two o'clock Clovis spoke:

"He won't come home tonight. He's probably in the newspaper office selling them his story. They'll love it. The story will be the excitement of the year."

By lunchtime most of the guests had left Blemley House. Lady Blemley began to feel better. She took out her pen and paper and wrote a very angry letter to the doctor about the death of her valuable cat.

Tobermory was Mr Appin's only successful student. A few weeks after Tobermory's death an elephant escaped from the Dresden Zoo and killed an English visitor.

After that everyone went to bed, but nobody slept.

The zoo keeper said that the elephant had always been a calm and gentle animal before. But suddenly it seemed to become very angry with the English visitor, who was talking to it.

"Look at his claws!" cried Clovis. "He's been fighting!" And there, on Tobermory's claws, was the yellow hair of the doctor's cat.

The dead man's name was reported in the newspapers as Oppin, but his first name was Cornelius.

"If Appin was trying to teach the poor elephant to speak German," said Clovis, "I'm not surprised it killed him."