y of it, that for a time I scarce knew what I was
doing.

The consequences were plain enough. My provisions were gone--starvation
stared me in the face. Nay, starvation was no longer a matter of doubt.
It was now certain. The mumbled crumbs which the hideous robbers had
left (and which they would also have eaten up in another hour, had I not
surprised them) would not keep the life in me for a week; and what then?
ay, what then! Starvation--death by hunger!

There was no alternative. So reasoned I, and how could it be otherwise?

For awhile, I felt reckless and despairing--almost reckless enough to
refrain from taking any steps to hinder the rats from returning to the
box. It was my belief, that I must in the end succumb to this
misfortune--_must starve_--and it was no use procrastinating my fate. I
might as well die at once, as at the end of the week. To live for days,
knowing that death was certain, would be a terrible state of endurance--
worse than death itself; and here again returned to me those dark
suicidal thoughts, that had once before passed through my mind.

They troubled me only for a moment. The remembrance that I had had them
before, and that then I had been delivered from them--as it were
miraculously--that although I could not see how it was to be found,
there might still be a way of escape--the hand of Providence, as it had
done already, might still be held over me, and point out that way--these
reflections and remembrances came back into my mind, and once more a ray
of hope shone upon my future. True, there was no definite hope, but
just enough to arouse me to fresh energy, and save me from absolute
despair. The presence of the rats, too, had an effect in quickening my
actions. I perceived that they were still close at hand, threatening to
re-enter the box and finish their work of demolition. In truth, I could
now only keep them out by making the most violent demonstrations.

I found that the place where they had got in was not the aperture which
I myself used. That was closed up with the web, and they could not pass
through there. They had entered on the opposite side, from the box of
cloth, into which they had been able to make their way, since I had
myself removed one of the boards out of its side. It had all been done
recently; or, more likely, to cut through the thick plank had employed
them for some time, and so delayed the execution of their design. But
for this, they might