With our bags full of rats, the five of us began walking towards the line. We'd gone only a few yards when a voice sounded off to our left.

'What 'ave we 'ere, then?' it said.

We turned our heads and say Bluey Lonnegan lifting himself up off a sandstone wall.

'You're lookin' at the Black Dog Gang,' said Mickey.

'No doubt ya heard a us?'

The gang was Mickey's idea. We'd heard the rumours - rats were coming in off the ships and spreading disease. Then the government started offering tuppence a rat, so we decided to get stuck in. But we hadn't counted on someone getting sick. Or on Mickey's dad finding his rats chaining Mickey up. And what happened next . . . well, it would change things forever . . .