A couple of feet below him was a very small raft. Haifa dozen rats were laid neatly on it, and a minute scrap of candle was burning.
A tiny rowing boat entered his vision. A rat was in the bottom of it and, sitting amidships and rowing, was -
'Wee Mad Arthur?'
The gnome looked up. 'Who's that there, then?'
'It's me, your good old mate Fred Colon! Can you give me a hand?'
'Wha're yez doing up there?'
Tm all tied up and they're going to kill me! Why does it smell so bad?'
S the old Cockbill stream. All the cattle pens drain into it.' Wee Mad Arthur grinned. 'Yez can feel it doing yer tubes a power of good, eh? Just call me King of the Golden River, eh?'
'They're going to kill me, Arthur! Don't piss about!'
'Aha, good one!'
Desperate cells flared in Colon's mind. 'I've been on the trail of those blokes who're poisoning your rats,' he said.
The Rat-catchers' Guild!' snarled Arthur, almost dropping an oar. 'I knew it was them, right? This is where I got them rats! There's more of 'em down here, dead as doornails!'
'Right! And I've got to give the names to Commander Vimes! In person! With all my arms and legs on! He's very particular about that sort of thing!'
'Did yez know yez on a trapdoor?' said Arthur. 'Wait right there.'
Arthur rowed out of sight. Colon rolled over. After a while there was a scratching noise in the walls and then someone kicked him in the ear.
'Ow!'
'Would there be any money in this?' said Wee Mad Arthur, holding up his stub of candle. It was a small one, such as might be put on a child's birthday cake.
'What about your public duty?'
'Aye, so there's no money in this?'
'Lots! I promise! Now untie me!'
'This is string they've used,' said Arthur, somewhere around Colon's hands. 'Not proper rope at all.'
Colon felt his hands free, although there was still pressure around his wrists.
'Where's the trapdoor?' he said.
'Yer on it. Handy for dumping stuff. Dunt look as if it been used for years, from underneath. Hey, I been rinding dead rats everywhere down there now!
Fat as yer head and twice as dead! I thought the ones I caught for Gimlet were a wee bit sluggish!'
There was a twang and Colon's legs were free. He sat up cautiously and tried to massage some life back into them.
'Is there any other way out?' he said.
'Plenty for me, none for a silly bigger like yez,' said Wee Mad Arthur. 'Yer'll have to swim for it.'
'You want me to drop into thatT
'Don't yez worry, yez can't drown in it.'