g his hair as red as
ever, and I should have known it anywhere--on the darkest night. I dived
for him and his hole, pushed him into it, and re-introduced myself. He
remembered me quite well, shook my chilblains heartily, and invited me
further underground for tea and talk.

It was a nice hole, cramped and damp, but very deep, and with those Bosch
love-tokens thudding away upstairs I felt that the nearer Australia the
better. But the rats! Never before have I seen rats in such quantities;
they flowed unchidden all over the dug-out, rummaged in the cupboards,
played kiss-in-the-ring in the shadows, and sang and brawled behind the old
oak panelling until you could barely hear yourself shout. I am fond of
animals, but I do not like having to share my tea with a bald-headed rodent
who gets noisy in his cups, or having a brace of high-spirited youngsters
wrestle out the championship of the district on my bread-and-butter.

Freddy apologised for them; they were getting a bit above themselves, he
was afraid, but they were seldom dangerous, seldom attacked one unprovoked.
"Live and let live" was their motto. For all that they _did_ get a trifle
_de trop_ sometimes; he himself had lost his temper when he awoke one
morning to find a brawny rat sitting on his face combing his whiskers in
mistake for his own (a pardonable error in the dark); and, determining to
teach them a lesson, had bethought him of his old friend, the noble fert.
He therefore sent home for two of the best.

The ferrets arrived in due course, received the names Burroughs and
Welcome, were blessed and turned loose.

They had had a rough trip over at the bottom of the mail sack and were
looking for trouble. An old rat strolled out of his club to see what all
the noise was about, and got the excitement he needed. Seven friends came
to his funeral and never smiled again. There was great rejoicing in that
underground Mess that evening; Burroughs and Welcome were feted on bully
beef and condensed milk, and made honorary members.

For three days the good work went on; there was weeping in the cupboards
and gnashing of teeth behind the old oak panelling. Then on the fourth day
Burroughs and Welcome disappeared, and the rats swarmed to their own again.
The deserters were found a week later; they had wormed through a system of
rat-holes into the next dug-out, inhabited by the Atkinses, and had
remained there, honoured guests.

It is the nature of the British Atkins to