The bedroom door creaked open and the huge rugged face of a human male peered warily into the darkened room. With a quick sweep of his massive hand he flicked the light switch on and stood in the doorway armed with a rolling pin.

From their hidey hole, Fiddler and Delta were poised ready for action. Still unable to put aside his thoughts of the award, Fiddler gestured silently for Delta to start filming.

“Looks impressive, doesn’t he?” whispered Fiddler, gazing at the human figure framed in the doorway.

“Looks dangerous to me,” commented Delta drily.

The man slowly entered the room and made his way over to the glass bowl under which Hazel was trapped. “Ready?” Fiddler asked.

Delta packed his camera away and shouldered the case. He nodded calmly.

The man lifted the bowl and grabbed Hazel firmly before she could escape. Quick as a flash Fiddler put his revised plan into action.

Squeaking loudly and jumping as high as he could to make himself obvious to the human, Fiddler ran into the middle of the room. The human watched in bewilderment as a crazed mouse leapt about in front of him.

Hazel took her cue and bit the man’s thumb as hard as she could. With a cry of alarm the man dropped her. That was Delta’s signal to act.

Joining the fray, the rat rushed onto the scene and grabbed Hazel, running with her from the room whilst the human tried to flatten Fiddler.

“The whole house is riddled with vermin!” the man cried, pounding away with his rolling pin. “Argh!”

Judging Delta and Hazel to be at a safe distant Fiddler now stopped leaping about and made a straight dash for the open doorway. With an angry yell the human jumped up and hurried to close the door. The mouse squeezed through the door just as the man slammed it shut.

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Fiddler collected his friends and charged down the stairs with the man’s curses ringing in his ears.

“Quickly! To the cat flap!”

The three friends dashed onwards, making a bee line towards the cat flap. Being the faster runner Delta was there first. Desperately, the rat pushed at the cat flap. “I can’t open it!” he cried, his eyes wild as he saw the man making his way down the stairs.

Fiddler pushed his friend aside roughly and pushed at the cat flap himself. “It’s locked!”

“What do we do?” Hazel grabbed hold of Fiddler. “The man’s coming!”

Fiddler kicked the cat flap urgently until his paw hurt, then he turned and cried out in alarm as the human bore down on them. He stared at the cat flap one last time and then, as the human raised his rolling pin, he threw back his head and yelled, “Run!” at the top of his voice.

In a blind panic the three of them scattered just as the man slammed the rolling pin down where they had been stood. With a deafening roar, the man straightened up and came after them again.

Fiddler desperately squeezed under a door, pulling Hazel in behind him.

“I can’t fit under there, Fiddler,” cried Delta, peering under the door at the two mice. “I’m too big and the man’s coming after me!”

Delta turned and saw the man looming way above his head. He looked up and for the first time in his life he looked a human in the eye.

Carefully, so that he wouldn’t frighten the rat away, the man lent forward and opened the door. Delta was so puzzled that he was unable to move. Realising that his friend was frozen to the spot Fiddler grabbed him and pulled him into the room. As soon as the rat was inside the man quickly closed the door behind them.

In the gloom, Delta looked at the two mice. “What do you suppose he did that for?”

Fiddler shrugged and blinked his eyes until they adjusted to the darkness. He held out a paw to Hazel. “Are you okay?”

She nodded silently. Then blankly she pointed to the crack under the door. “Fiddler, I’ve just realised what he’s doing. He’s got us trapped in here!”

Sure enough the light under the door was slowly disappearing as the man blocked the gap.

Fiddler held onto his two friends' paws tightly and tried to reassure them. “Then we’ll just have to find another way out. Don’t fear, Fiddler’s here!”

But despite his bravado Fiddler failed to convince them and after an hour of sitting in total darkness in fearful silence he too started to worry.