Chapter 14 Doctor Dolittle's Zoo by Hugh Lofting
LEERY, THE OUTCAST
“More dead than alive,” the Hotel Rat went on, “I did finally reach my home hole, crawled to the bottom of it and collapsed in a faint.
“When I came to, Leery was bending over me.
“'Ah, Snap,' said he with tears in his eyes, 'this is one place where your philosophy doesn't work.'
“'What's the matter with me?' I asked. 'What's broken?'
“'Both your hind legs,' said he. 'We've got to get you to Doctor Dolittle, over to Puddleby. Your home hole is no help to you this time.'
“My two brothers were there, Snip and Snop; and the three of them put their heads together to work out a way to get me to the Doctor's. They found an old slipper somewhere which they said would do for a stretcher or a sort of sleigh-ambulance. They were going to put me in it and drag it along the ground.”
“What, not all the way to Puddleby!” cried the Doctor.
“No,” said the Hotel Rat. “They had done some scouting outside. All the rats in most of the colonies around had heard about the accident and had helped with their advice and in any other way they could. And a farm wagon had been found loaded with cabbages, standing in an inn yard down the street. It was going to Puddleby first thing in the morning. Their idea was to drag me to the yard in their shoe-ambulance, hide me among the cabbages and at Puddleby watch their opportunity to get me across to your house.
“Well, everything was in readiness and they had me tucked up in the ambulance when Leery comes running back from the mouth of the hole swearing something terrible.
“'We can't go yet,' he whispered. 'Those horrible cats have come back and they've mounted guard outside the hole. They know well enough we've only got one entrance. I nearly walked right into their paws just now. We're nicely trapped! Give me the open, town or country, any day.'
“So, there was nothing to do but to wait. My legs were getting worse and worse all the time and I had an awful high fever. Leery got me mad by keeping on talking about relying on yourself.
“'This shows you,' says he: 'What's the good of a fine hole now? We want to get out of it and we can't. You've got to rely on your wits, on yourself. That's my motto.'
“'Oh, be quiet!' I cried. 'Such a comfort you are to have at a sick bed! My head feels red-hot. Pour some cold water over it. You'll find a thimbleful over there in the corner.'
“But if Leery's bedside manner was not as cheerful as it might be, just the same, in the end, he saved my life—and nearly lost his own in doing it. The best part of a day went by and those horrible cats still kept watch at the mouth of the hole. I was so bad now that I was only conscious in short spells—and even then sort of delirious with fever.
“In one of my clear moments after Leery had been watching me for a few minutes he turned to my brothers and said:
“'There's only one thing to be done. Those cats may stick on at the mouth of the hole for another couple of days. Snap can't last much longer. If we can't get him to the Doctor soon, it's all up with him. He saved my life once, did Snap. Now's the time I can pay back the debt—or try to. I'm going to give those cats a run.'
“'What,' cried my brothers, 'you mean to try and draw them off!'
“'Just that,' said Leery, winking with his one shifty eye. 'I'm the fastest rat in the country. If I can't do it, no one can. You pull the shoe up to the mouth of the hole and stand ready. In a little while it will be late enough so the streets are nearly empty. I'll give them a run right round the town. Get Snap down to that inn-yard. There's a cart full of cabbage leaves there every morning just about daylight. If I'm lucky I can keep those two mean brutes busy till you've had time to get him in among the cabbages.'
“'There are two cats, remember,' said my brothers. 'Watch out! If you get caught we'll only be one less to get him to the Doctor's.'
“Well, they drew my shoe ambulance up to within about three inches of the mouth of the hole. Then Leery, one-eyed outcast, champion runner and faithful friend, went up to the entrance. The light of the street-lamps, coming in through the window, shone down into the hole and lit up his ugly face. You could see too the shadows of those beastly cats, waiting—waiting with the patience of the Devil.
“It was indeed a dramatic moment. Leery was a born gambler; I had often seen him bet all he had on any reckless chance, apparently for the fun of the thing. And so, I think, in his own strange way he rather enjoyed this theatrical situation.
“With a little wriggle of his hind quarters he made ready for the leap—the most daring leap of his life.
“Then, zip!—He was gone!
“Instantly we heard a scuffle as the two cats wrenched around and started off in pursuit.
“Then for a whole hour Leery played the most dangerous game a rat can play, hide-and-seek with two angry cats, touch-and-go with double death. First he led them down the street at full speed. He had his whole program mapped out in his own mind, with every stop, trick and turnabout. There was a little yard behind a house he knew of. In that yard there was a small duck-pond; and in the pond a cardboard box was floating. Leery led the chase into the yard, leapt the pond, using the box as a sort of stepping-stone. The cat who was furthest ahead followed him, but found out too late that the floating box would take a rat's weight but not a cat's. With a gurgle she went down out of sight and was kept busy for the rest of the night getting herself dry. She, for one, had had enough of hunting.
“But the other, realizing that she had a clever quarry to deal with, took no chances. She stuck to Leery like a leech—which was exactly what Leery wanted, so long as he could keep out of her clutches. He would slip into a hole just an inch ahead of her pounce. Then he'd get his breath while she waited, swearing, outside. And just as she was thinking of giving him up as a bad job and coming back to our hole after me, he'd pop out again and give her another run.
“All around the town he went: down into cellars; up on to roofs; along the tops of breakneck walls. He even led her up a tree, where she thought she'd surely get him in the upper branches. But right at the top he took a flying leap across on to a clothes' line—from which he actually jeered at her and dared her to follow.
“In the meantime Snip and Snop were trundling me along the road in my shoe ambulance. I never had such a dreadful ride. Twice they spilled me into the gutter. At last they reached the inn-yard and somehow got me up into the wagon and stowed me away among the cabbages. As daylight appeared the wagon started on its way. Oh, dear, how ill I felt! Luckily that load of cabbages came into Puddleby by the Oxenthorpe Road. They dropped me off the tail of the cart right at the Doctor's door—only just in time to save my life. But without Leery the outcast it could never have been done. One of my brothers, Snip, hustled back at once to the hole and hung around for hours waiting for Leery, worried to death that he might have paid the price of his life to save mine. For both of them realized now that even if Leery was an outcast from Rat Society, he was a hero just the same. About eight o'clock in the morning he strolled in chewing a straw as though he had spent a pleasant day in the country....
“Well, after all, I suppose he was right: in the end you have to rely on your wits, on yourself.”