The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

silly pipe and, yes, my rats will scamper after him out of the town. Do you know how a piper kills rats?
    'No.'
    He leads them into the river where… are you listening?… where they all drown!
    'But rats are good swimmers,' said Dangerous Beans.
    Yes! Never trust a rat-catcher! They will leave themselves work for tomorrow. But humans like to believe stones! They would prefer to believe stories rather than the truth! But we, we are RATS! And my rats will swim, believe me. Big rats, different rats, rats who survive, rats with part of my mind in them. And they will spread from town to town and then there will be destruction such as people cannot imagine! We will pay them back a thousandfold for every trap! Humans have tortured and poisoned and killed and all of that is now given form in me and there will be REVENGE .
    'Given form in you. Yes, I think I begin to understand,' said Dangerous Beans.
    There was a crackle and flare behind him. Peaches had lit the second match from the dying, flickering flame of the first one. The ring of rats, which had been creeping closer, swayed back again.
    Two more matches, said Spider. And then, one way or another, little rat, you belong to me .
    'I want to see who I am talking to,' said Dangerous Beans, firmly.
    You are blind, little white rat. Through your pink eyes I see only mist .
    'They see more than you think,' said Dangerous Beans. 'And if you are, as you say, the Big Rat… then show yourself to me. Smelling is believing.'
    There was a scrabbling, and Spider came out of the shadows.
    It looked to Maurice like a bundle of rats, rats scampering across the boxes but flowing, as if all the legs were being operated by one creature. As it crawled into the light, over the top of a sack, he saw that the tails were twisted together into one huge, ugly knot. And each rat was blind. As the voice of Spider thundered in his head, the eight rats reared and tugged at the knot.
    Then tell me the truth, white rat. Do you see me? Come closer! Yes, you see me, in your mist. You see me. Men made me for sport! Tie the rats' tails together and watch them struggle! But I did not struggle. Together we are strong! One mind is as strong as one mind and two minds are as strong as two minds, but three minds are four minds, and four minds are eight minds and eight minds… are one-one mind stronger than eight. My time is near. The stupid men let rats fight and the strong survive, and then they fight, and the strongest of the strong survive… and soon the cages will open, and men shall know the meaning of the word 'plague'! See the stupid cat? It wants to leap, but I hold it so easily. No mind can withstand me. Yet you… you are interesting. You have a mind like mine, that thinks for many rats, not just one rat. We want the same things. We have plans. We want the triumph of rats. Join us. Together we will be… STRONG .
    There was a long pause. It was, Maurice thought, too long. And then:
    'Yes, your offer is… interesting,' said Dangerous Beans.
    There was a gasp from Peaches, but Dangerous Beans went on, in a small voice: 'The world is big and dangerous, indeed. And we are weak, and I am tired. Together we can be strong.'
    Indeed!
    'But what of those who aren't strong, please?'
    The weak are food. That is how it has always been!
    'Ah,' said Dangerous Beans. 'How it has always been. Things are becoming clearer.'
    'Don't listen to it!' Peaches hissed. 'It's affecting your mind!'
    'No, my mind is working perfectly, thank you,' said Dangerous Beans, still in the same calm voice. 'Yes, the proposition is beguiling. And we would rule the rat world together, would we?'
    We would… co-operate . And Maurice, on the sidelines, thought: yeah, right. You co-operate, they rule. Surely you can't fall for this!
    But Dangerous Beans said: 'Co-operate. Yes. And together we could give the humans a war they won't believe. Tempting. Very tempting. Of course, millions of rats would die…'
    They die anyway .
    'Mmm, yes. Yes. Yes, that is true. And this rat here,' said Dangerous Beans, suddenly waving a paw towards one of the big rats that was hypnotized by the flame, 'can you tell me what she thinks about this?'
    Spider sounded taken aback. Thinks? Why should it think anything? It is a rat!
    'Ah,' said Dangerous Beans. 'How clear it is now. But it would not work.'
    Would not work?
    Dangerous Beans raised his head.
    'Because, you see, you just think for many rats,' he said. 'But you don't think of them. Nor are you, for