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Chapter Three

“Halt in the name of the king!” shouted a voice behind Peter. Before he could turn round to look, more rats raced past him. They were the same size as the pirates, but these were wearing blue-and-white-striped shirts and red cloth caps, and they all had pistols as well as cutlasses. They quickly surrounded the drainhole, ignoring Peter, except for the rat who was obviously their leader.

“Ruffians!” exclaimed this important-looking rat, and marched over to Peter. Peter looked down at him, taking in the blue uniform with gold buttons and braid, and the shiny black arched hat.

“I guess you’re the navy,” said Peter slowly. He couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Well done, sir,” exclaimed the rat. “Captain Erasmus Rattus at your service, of His Majesty’s Royal Ratship Tumblewheel. Currently on an anti-piracy cruise.”

“They took my DVDs,” said Peter. “Four horrible pirates! One had an eyepatch.”

“The scurvy knaves!” exclaimed Captain Rattus angrily. “If coming up Topside ain’t bad enough, it’s pirating videos as well. What’s your name, lad?”

“Peter,” said Peter.

“A goodly name,” said the captain. “Like the Blue Peter flag we fly when we’re leaving port. That’s a name for adventure, that is. I expect you’ll be wanting to come with us to recover your cargo?”

“Cargo?” asked Peter. “What cargo?”

“The DVDs!” cried Captain Rattus. “Why, if we don’t catch those pirates soon, they’ll be turning those DVDs into Frisbees and earrings and coasters and trading them for gold and ivory. They’re probably almost back to their ship by now. Are you coming with us?”

He pointed at the open drain and the sailor rats started to jump down, one after the other. Soon there was only the captain and Peter left. Peter looked at the hole and thought of the lost DVDs.

“I’m too big to get down there,” he said finally. He didn’t know if he wanted to go or not. He did like the sound of an adventure, but he wasn’t sure about all these rats.

“Too big?” muttered Captain Rattus. “We’ll soon fix that. Where’s the doctor!”

“Here, sir!” piped up a rat Peter hadn’t even noticed. An unobtrusive rat in a scruffy brown coat, who was lurking way back near another drain. He hurried over, pulled out a monocle, stuck it in his eye and peered up at Peter.

“Doctor Abednego Norvegicus at your service,” he said. “I take it that this is a matter of shrinkage, captain?”

“Shrinking!” corrected the captain. “Peter here wants to sign on for the duration.”

“Oh, I’m not sure if that’s exactly—” said Peter anxiously. “The duration” sounded like a very long time. “Well, as long as it takes to recover his cargo or when he gets sick of it then,” said the captain. “So if you could please shrink him down immediately, doctor, that would be most agreeable.”

“Hmmm,” said the doctor, looking up at Peter and making estimating motions with his arms. “How old are you, Peter?”

“Nine,” said Peter. “In July.”

“Very well,” said the doctor. “Since I haven’t a potion or the necessary lotion in the quantities you would require, it will have to be a spell.”