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THE RATS

James Herbert



By James Herbert and published by
New English Library
Copyright 1974 by James Herbert
First published inGreat Britainin 1974 by New English Library,Mill Road,Dunton
Green,Sevenoaks,Kent.
Editorial office:47 Bedford Square,LondonWC1B 3DP
Second impression 1985


All rights reserved. No part of this publication may he reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, without permission of the publishers.


Printed inGreat Britainby StEdmundsbury Press
Bury St Edmunds,Suffolk.


British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Herbert, James
The rats.
Title 823тАЩ .914[F] PR6058.E62 ISBN 0-450-01867-9




Prologue
The old house had been empty for more than a year. It stood, detached and faded, next to a disused
canal, away from the road, screened by foliage gone wild. No one went there, nobody showed much
interest anymore. A few windows had been shattered by the neighbourhood kids, but even they lost
interest when nothing more than silence responded to the crash of broken glass. In fact, the only interest
that had ever been shown by others was on the day they took the old woman away.
They knew sheтАЩd been living alone since her husband had died, never went out, and was only rarely seen
peering from behind lace curtains. She never parted the curtains, just gazed through them,so only a hazy,
spectral form could be seen by anyone interested enough to look. Her groceries were delivered every
week and left on the back step. Powdered milk was included amongst them. The local grocer said the
old womanтАЩs bank paid her bills regularly every three months with never any queries as to the contents of
his delivery.Which suited him. HeтАЩd been given a list at the beginning for a regular order, but if he forgot
to include a pound of butter or two pounds of sugar now and again, no one noticed- no one complained.
Still, he was curious. He used to see her occasionally when her husband was alive, but even then she
didnтАЩt have much to say. They were a couple of queer old birds, her and her old man. Never going out,
never having company. But well off because theyтАЩdтАЩ been abroad for years and since their return the
husband never seemed to work. Then the old boy had died. The grocer wasnтАЩt sure of what but it had
been a recurrence of some tropical disease heтАЩd caught whilst abroad. The old woman was never seen
after that, but the grocer had heard her. Nothing much, just the scraping of chairs or a door dosing. HeтАЩd