Each held a fencing foil (made from the tip of a broken knitting needle) at the ready in his paw. Each wore a fencing mask (cleverly fashioned from bits of mesh from an old screen door) that obscured his face. Clack-clack! Clack-clack! Clack-clack-clack-CLACK! The knitting-needle foils darted this way and that as the two thrust and parried, slashing at each other fiercely. ‘I have you now!’ crowed the white mouse, forcing his opponent into a corner. ‘Not so fast,’ puffed the other. As the white mouse moved to press his advantage, the grey mouse ducked and twirled, leaping nimbly out of reach. The white mouse whirled round, but it was too late. He froze as his opponent’s foil made one final thrust, stopping just a whisker’s width away from his throat. Both mice stood motionless for a moment; then the grey mouse removed his mask. ‘Well done, Mr Burner!’ said Julius Folger, head of Washington DC’s Spy Mice Agency. ‘I’m seeing much improvement in your skills.’ He patted his stomach, panting slightly.
