Later that day, Prince heard mouse squeaks coming from the corner. That was where we had put the mousetrap. We checked again, only to be not surprised that it was empty--well, except for some mouse hair.

However, the squeaking continued. Glancing a little more towards the corner, Prince saw him.

"Quick, gimmme some gloves," he said. And then it was over. Was this mouse Saruman, the Uncatchable? Saruman, the Nimble? Saruman, the Witty?

The mouse Prince held in his hands had walked onto the trap. It had escaped the trap, but in doing so glue was smeared all over it, so it stuck to one of the walls. And that's how we caught him.

Thinking it was Saruman, Jonah had his way with it...and it died an evil sorcerer's death.

But was it Saruman?

The evidence points to: yes. Saruman evaded traps all his life...even the last one that caught him. It was like drinking iocane, not being afraid because you had built up an immunity to it, drinking some Robitussin, then dying because you forgot to read the big yellow label that said "DO NOT MIX WITH IOCANE--MAY CAUSE DEATH OR TEMPORARY PARALYSIS."

So as Saruman struggled his last, gnawed on his legs, wiggled unwaveringly, and squeaked in fear--his last squeak--so, too, did our ambitions die out. Without an adversary like Saruman, was trying to catch a mouse worth it?