A Box of Nothing Read Online Free

officer because it had a sword in its belt and a band of gold around its cap.
    The officer squeaked. The patrol halted. More rats rose to their hind legs and aimed their guns at the sky. Five rats from the back of the patrol quickly assembled a small anti-aircraft gun. As soon as they’d got it loaded and ready the rest of the patrol split up and scurried around, searching the slope. The officer went and inspected the broken trip wire.
    They all moved like ordinary rats, scuttling along with their noses close to the ground and their whiskers quivering. Suddenly one gave an excited squeak and began nosing around the white fridge. Two others joined it and together they came squeaking up toward the cliff.
    â€œI think they’ve picked up my trail,” whispered James.
    â€œSmelled you?” said the Burra, after the usual pause. “We should have thought of that. We do not have any special smell, ourselves. Well, now, let us see …”
    It did not sound especially worried. In any case, James was distracted by a wild squeak from one of the rats near the cannon.
    All the other rats stopped what they were doing and aimed their guns upward. James heard the whimper of wings and saw the gull for a moment before it soared away out of sight. The rats stayed on the alert for another swoop.
    Something nudged against his jeans. He looked down and saw a hairy leg, torn at the top and with sawdust spilling out, nuzzling against him like a too friendly dog. When he tried to back away it followed him.
    â€œStand still, please,” said the Burra. “We must get your smell on us.”
    James saw that the Burra was standing on its wooden leg now, and it was the camel leg that had come loose and was doing the nuzzling. He put up with it until the leg seemed to have had enough and went hopping away into the dark.
    The rats on the slope below had just relaxed their guard and were starting to search again when there was an explosion of squeaking. Several guns aimed at the cliff, but James couldn’t see what the target was until the leg came into sight, darting in zigzag hops across the slope. The nearest rats rushed at it, trying to catch it, which meant that the others couldn’t shoot without hitting them, but as soon as it had dodged clear they started blasting away. They weren’t very good shots, James thought, though the leg was obviously a tricky target, darting around like that. They all missed and the leg could have got clear away, only it suddenly stopped hopping around and stood still on a boulder, outlined against the red sky. It was almost as though it was teasing the rats for their bad shooting.
    Several guns banged together. The leg was blasted sideways. Puffs of sawdust shot out and a bit of cloth flapped loose. The leg struggled onto its foot again, although it was cut almost in two halfway up. More guns banged and it toppled over, twitched, and lay still.
    With excited squeaks the rats scuttled toward it, but before they reached it James heard the rush of wings as one of the great gulls came skimming low over the slope from the other side. It almost brushed the backs of the scampering rats as it passed them, scooped the leg into its beak, and slipped away over the ridge and out of sight. The rats only started shooting after it had gone.
    The officer was jumping up and down. When it stopped doing that it rushed at the gun crew and beat them with the flat of its sword until one of the rats came back from where the leg had fallen. It was carrying something in its mouth. The officer turned with snarling lips, but took the offering, sniffed it, and calmed down. It looked like the bit of cloth that had been torn off the leg by the bullets. The officer stuffed it into a pouch and squeaked orders. The patrol packed up its gun and filed away into the dusk.
    James was very glad now that the rats hadn’t found him on the slope. Even the idea was frightening, though it hadn’t happened. And he