The War for the Lot

by Sterling Lanier

  In a very short time, the tiny deermouse had reappeared and she perched on a jutting stone of the old wall by the road and gave them the news.

  "We found their sentries, all right. But they didn't see us. The rats have the place well guarded, though, and I don't think either of you should get much nearer."

  "So we might as well stay here, is that it?" said Alec.

  "I think so," said Whisperfoot. "Look, here's what we planned. Wandertail will go up and try to get them to take him in, just as we planned. He'll keep sending me messages and I'll pass them on to you. I can get very close to the dump without being found out, and this way the message-sending will be easy. In fact, we think we can fix it so you'll be practically looking out of Wandertail's eyes."

  "Go ahead," said Alec, as calmly as he could. "And remember, call if you need us."

  "Right," said the mouse, and was gone.

  The cat curled up next to Alec and lay quietly. He knew the message would not affect him and he had the patience of his race. He would wait until needed.

  Alec leaned against the wall and shut his eyes. He was unsure about this new method of talking and worried about the safety of both Whisperfoot and the brave woodrat. He felt responsible for the whole plan, which now seemed reckless and crazy, and if the two were hurt, he felt he would be responsible.

  The picture which came unannounced into his mind dispelled all other thoughts for the moment. He was looking at two large, brown rats, looking into their evil, black eyes! The link was working and Wandertail had approached the dump guards! What followed then came directly from the mind of the gallant woodrat, who was risking his life to get the information the animals of The Lot so desperately needed.

  Alec saw the two guards approach and then Wandertail spoke to them.

  "I had a visit from some of your people down in the woods the other day. I was a bit hasty and chased them away. I've changed my mind, and I came over to make a deal. Better get one of your leaders over fast to talk to me."

  "You look too pretty and clean to chase any of us very far!" This from one of the guards, a dirty-looking rat with one eye gouged out.

  "Shut up, you," said the other, an older, grizzled individual. "I'll watch him and see he stays here. You go get Notch-Ear and hurry up with it, too. I've heard about this fellow and maybe he's going to be useful."

  The one-eyed rat looked resentful, but Alec could see that rats all obeyed orders, for he darted off toward the looming central heap of the dump.

  "Don't mind him,'' said the older rat who had stayed with Wandertail. "He'll never get very far, he won't. He doesn't have sense enough to realize that a friend is always useful. But I do." The rat winked and nudged Wandertail. "Get me? Maybe you and me can do each other some good sometime, see. My name's Chip-Tooth, so keep it in mind for future reference."

  As he finished speaking, the one-eyed guard returned. With him were several other dump rats, but only one of them attracted Alec's attention.

  It was the very same rat he had seen in the vision, the one showed him by Manibozo. There was the large size, the wedge-shaped piece cut out of one ear, and the air of confident and brutal command. Surely there could be no mistake, he thought; only one rat looked like this.

  The new rat wasted no time. "I'm Notch-Ear," he said. "I run things around here right now. What do you want? You gave our scouts a pretty rough reception when we sent them to see you. And now you've moved your place, too."

  Alec could feel the disquiet in Wandertail's mind as this last message sank in. The dump rats were so well-informed that they knew he had just moved his home!

  "Come on, come on," said Notch-Ear. "I haven't got all day. What brought you over here?"

  "I want to come in with you people," said Wandertail. "I thought it over down in the woods and I decided I felt closer to you rats up here than I do to anyone over in The Lot. It seemed to me that if I got your help we could chase the foxes and weasels out of the area or at least I could get more protection. So I came to see what was wanted from me. Your scouts spoke of a deal we could make. But I don't know why you want me. Are you the big boss here?"

  Notch-Ear stared hard into the woodrat's eyes for a moment, then grunted, "I'm boss enough for you, my friend. Let's leave it at that. Changed your mind, have you? Maybe and maybe not. Well, I'll think about it. You tell these two where you live now and perhaps someone will be by to see you one night soon. It may be that it isn't too late for you to join up and be smart. But that's also for the future." He turned on his heel to go and his guards turned also.

  Alec felt Wandertail's sense of disaster as keenly as the woodrat did. Being simply dismissed to go home like this was no help at all. They had learned nothing and the trip was wasted time.

  Suddenly though, as Alec stared at Notch-Ear's back through the woodrat's eyes, he saw the rat leader stiffen. For a full minute the big brown rat sat still, rigid and unmoving, as if struck by lightning. Then he turned and hopped back to where Wandertail and his two guardian sentries were still sitting.

  "Things have changed, woodrat. It appears better after all for you to have a visit with us and get to know us better. Who knows? You may even get to leave. Now follow me and stay close.'' On this sinister note he turned again and led the way toward the central mound of the dump. His bodyguard closed in behind Wandertail, and the other two returned to their sentry posts.

  As they scurried along, weaving between old car bodies, piles of smouldering rubbish, and mounds of tin cans, Notch-Ear began to address his guest over his shoulder.

  "You may be trustworthy, I suppose, in your own way. But you have a lot to learn quickly about us brown rats. We operate by orders around here, and on the hop—none of your argle-bargle, let's-think-about-it-for-three-days stuff, like you woods people. We have discipline and that's why we're going to end up on top, my friend. If you really are one of the right sort, why perhaps you'll be included."

  "On top of what?" said Wandertail, giving a good impression of dull-wittedness.

  "Everything," snarled Notch-Ear. "Some fine day, even the humans will learn a lesson from us rats; but until then, your bit of woods will do us for a start. We're going to begin with that, see?"

  "There are humans up in the big house on the hill," said the woodrat as he ran along by Notch-Ear's side. "What about them? Can't they interfere?"

  "We can make humans mighty unhappy, even if we can't kill em," grinned the big rat leader, displaying yellow teeth. "We have plans for them, too, I can assure you." He dodged around a last pile of filthy rubbish and there before them was the entrance to the central hill.

  Two guardian rats crouched by the door, but made no move as Notch-Ear and the others behind him passed them and entered the hole. Inside, Alec was surprised to find that he could see perfectly. Of course he was using the woodrat's wonderful nighteyes and even through Whisperfoot's relay, the picture was perfect.

  Dropping rapidly downward, the passage narrowed only slightly. All the rats, Wandertail in the middle, ran along single file, following Notch-Ear as he led straight down a long slope. Other holes and passages intersected at right angles from both sides and sometimes brown rats could be seen crouched in their entrances or scuttling away on errands. Notch-Ear's party paid no attention to any of them, and every rat who saw them hastened to get out of their way.

  Down, down, down went the main tunnel. Alec was seeing something no human had ever seen before—the living, breathing entity of a brown rat swarm, one of the strangest and most awful of animal societies. The boy was actually holding his breath as he lay, his own eyes shut, using those of the woodrat to pursue the incredible trip.

  At last, at what must have been a point many feet underground, Notch-Ear stopped. Here was another opening, and in front of it were three more rats as big as Notch-Ear or bigger. Unlike any others seen up to now, they showed no special respect for the scarred rat chieftain and plainly were themselves of at least equal rank.

  "You go in, Notch-Ear," said the middle one.
"I'll come with you and the prisoner. The others stay outside."

  Prisoner! Alec felt terror and knew that poor, gallant Wandertail was no better. Had he been led into a dreadful trap? But there was no time for worry.

  The three rats, the new one in the lead and Notch-Ear trailing, passed through the hole. Wandertail jerked to a halt just inside and was prodded forward again by Notch-Ear shoving from behind.

  Before them lay a fantastic scene. They had come to the lip of a great underground chamber. Deep as it was in the bowels of the earth below the dump, it was still large enough to hold many humans. The ceiling Alec guessed to be at least fifteen feet above the floor. And there was actual light, although of a dim, eerie, and unpleasant kind. A small oily stream of water ran across the floor of the place and some luminous insects, glowworms perhaps, were clustered thickly upon its banks and on slimy rocks rising from its surface. The result was a spectral, unclean glow.

  On a low mound in the center of the chamber, not far from the stream's bank, lay five great rats. No scars marked their sleek, fat sides and their pale gray-brown fur was spotlessly clean, their naked tails white and shiny. Around them lay several heaps of white bones, remnants of past meals, gleaming in the shifting light cast by the insects. The round entrance hole through which the three had just come looked far too small for the great bulks of the five to pass through and it was the only exit from the chamber. Even as Alec thought of this fact, a thrill of horror coursed through him. None of the five could ever leave, either by this door or any other!

  For their great naked tails were knotted and tied together in an inextricable tangle, looking in some places as if the flesh had actually grown together. So fused and entwined were the five tails that it was impossible for any one of their owners to move so much as six inches before being brought to a halt by the weight of the others.

  Nor was this all. As he stared at the strange group, one of them, a huge female, lifted her head and sniffed the air, squealing as she did so. But no vicious black eyes were focused on the entrance hole toward which her head was pointed. Only white, empty sockets met Alec's gaze. Aghast, the boy scanned the others, only to find a similar emptiness throughout. They were all blind! And more than blind—blinded. For it was plain that they had not been born this way.

  Their eyes were not simply the unseeing orbs which come from blindness at birth, but scarred, empty pits, still showing the marks of the ancient wounds which had deprived them of sight in their helpless youth. Hideous as they were, Alec felt pity for their maimed and earthbound state. He realized that this was all they had ever known or would ever know: the dim, great chamber buried under tons of garbage and earth and stone, black and hopeless, an eternal night, forever without real movement or air. And so he pitied the Rat Kings in their awful home, a home which was a tomb.

  But not for long. They were all moving now, clumsily straining against each other, stretching toward the small hole that was their only link with the world outside. Alec felt a blast of concentrated evil from their minds, which struck him like a physical blow in the face. They were not helpless from their own point of view, he realized then. Instead, they actually gloried in their horrible state, felt great pride and strength in being pinioned and blinded and yet still acknowledged as rulers of their whole race. His pity vanished as he realized this.

  Alec had no more time to puzzle over the sightless monsters. They were speaking. Notch-Ear and the guard captain crouched subserviently in front of them and held Wandertail helpless.

  "So this is the creature from the wood?" It was the great blind female's mind-voice, Alec sensed.

  "We have sent for you to see us and learn from us, creature," she went on, her snout waving in the gloom. "And perhaps we can learn from you. Perhaps we can even learn enough so that we will let you go. Or perhaps we will feast instead!"

  There was a note of cruel gloating in her tone which chilled Alec's blood. He knew Wandertail was shaking too, but his two guardians held him immovable. The heaped white bones lent horrid meaning to the speech.

  "Listen well, rat of the wood," she went on. "You see the Rat Kings who will someday rule all the world. Even now we plan a move—never mind why—upon the land of trees where you lurk. Our armies are unconquerable and our race will rule the forest whatever happens.

  "But our way can be made easier. We will allow you to aid us, woodrat, and promise you and yours safety and a place in our armies as a reward. Is this not why you have come here?"

  "Yes," said Wandertail. A nudge from Notch-Ear made him think. "Yes, O Great Ones, I meant," he went on. "Tell me what I must do and how I can help the glorious plans of the great Rat Kings."

  "You show sense, woodrat," said the female. She apparently was the only spokesman, for the other four crouched silent and motionless.

  "Go then, with our servant, Notch-Ear, and obey his orders. He will tell you what to do and how best to win our regard. Now leave us, for it is time to feast."

  Then a horrible thing happened. As the three rats turned to leave by the same hole they had entered, Alec saw another large rat go past them, having entered behind them. He dragged a burden in his jaws. The rat spun around and flipped his load neatly through the air as he did so, causing it to fall directly in front of the heads of the five Kings, who waited with jaws agape and watering. It was a young cottontail rabbit, paralyzed with fright and with a broken front leg.

  As the full meaning of this awful scene broke upon Alec's mind, he tried to squeeze his eyes shut even tighter and to cry out in protest at the same time. The darkness before his eyelids was some help, but he still shook with horror at the grisly vision he had been forced to watch. He knew that many animals killed for food, but the thought of helpless prey, dragged alive from the surface to the far reaches of the hideous underground chamber was almost too much for his mind to bear.

  Fortunately, the woodrat's vision altered quickly, and once again Alec saw only the blackness of tunnel outside.

  The return trip to the surface was swift and uninterrupted. Soon the boy saw the dump again in the moonlight and watched as Wandertail received his orders.

  "You bring me news no later than tomorrow night,'' said Notch-Ear. "I want you to be able to tell me every path going around that pond, do you hear? And no delays either. You're working for the brown rats now, my friend, and you've just had a sample of what happens to anyone who gets in our way."

  He turned to one of his attendants and said, "See he leaves at once and give orders he's to be admitted to see me at any time so that no one delays his news." He turned back to Wandertail, "You can stop signaling your wife or whoever it was. We knew you were talking all the time, but we don't care. Just be sure they keep their mouths shut. Now get moving!"

  Alec almost gasped aloud at this last, for he had not realized the rats could detect a message. Thank goodness, they couldn't read it!

  Now Wandertail was ushered out through the rat sentry lines, and at last the sight of the dump vanished from Alec's eyes. He opened his own and stretched, for his legs had gone to sleep as he sat crouched, following Wandertail's progress.

  Beside him, Worthless stirred. "All over?" said the cat. "What happened anyway?"

  Before the boy could answer, two small figures appeared as if by magic on the stone wall before them.

  "All done and satisfactory, I hope," said the woodrat. He sat, neat and trying outwardly at least to be calm, nervously combing his long whiskers in the moonlight. Beside him, Whisperfoot danced with excitement.

  "Wasn't he marvelous. Watcher? Did you ever see anything so brave? Or so awful as those dreadful, filthy creatures and those awful monsters that rule them?" She was bubbling with pent-up emotion and skipped back and forth, talking so fast Alec could hardly understand her.

  Luckily for the future course of events, not everyone was as excited as the two rodents and the boy. Worthless had stolen away a little apart from the three, back toward the dump, and had taken a watching position in the shadow of a bush. Now
he pounced suddenly and there was a shrill squeal. He stood up shaking a limp brown form before their horrified eyes.

  "Looks like you brought company," he observed in sardonic tones to Wandertail. "Just as well that not everyone was so trusting, eh? A spy would have had a nice report to make, back at the dump. Let's go home before they decide to send more. Fortunately, this one was alone."

  He threw the dead brown rat off into the brush and led the way back up the road, satisfaction radiating from his erect plumed tail.

  Chapter Nine

  ALEC, WORTHLESS, and the deermouse let themselves into the house after dropping Wandertail off on the way. The woodrat was already planning to brave the fortress of the dump again as he left them, but the boy told him to stay home and rest until he was sent for.

  "You've done more than enough, if you don't do anything else at all," Alec told him. "I don't think you should go back there. It's far too dangerous now. We've learned pretty well what we wanted to know, and if they should get suspicious about that rat they sent after us, then it would be all over for you!"

  As the boy said to Whisperfoot the following morning up in his room, "It's true, you know. We really have learned a lot."

  "Like what?" she said in dubious tones. "That they were going to attack? We knew that already."

  "No," he said, "the time and the place. Notch-Ear wanted to know about all the trails past Musquash Pond. That means they plan to come straight at us, not go around by some tricky method. And he wanted the news at once. He said so twice. They must be planning a move right away. We have very little time, which is bad, but we know it, which is good."

  "What now?" she said. "Even if we have the information, what can we do with it?"

  "I have some ideas," said Alec. "I always thought, or rather I hoped, that the dump rats would come near the pond. The pond could do a lot to even the odds against us if I'm figuring right, that is. But I don't want to say any more right now, until I've thought about it. Right now we have two other jobs to think about. One isn't too important and we can leave it to Soft Wing, Scratch and the others. Maybe Wandertail can help them when he's had a rest. That's to catch a rat scout and find out what orders he's been given, where he's supposed to explore to, and what he's supposed to look for around here."