ad found a bale of linen; but on the top of the same case
rested another of cloth, apparently similar to itself. Into this one on
the top I had already effected an entrance; and therefore I could now
count upon having made so much way _upward_. By emptying the upper case
of its contents, I should thus have gained one clear stage in the right
direction; and considering the time and trouble it took to hew my way
through the side of one box, and then through the adjacent side of
another, this portion of my work already accomplished was a matter of
congratulation. I say already accomplished, for it only remained to
drag down the pieces of cloth contained in the upper box, and stow them
away to the rear.

To do this, then, was the first act of my new enterprise, and I
proceeded to its execution without further delay.

After all, it did not prove a very easy task. I experienced the same
difficulty as before, in detaching the pieces of cloth from one another,
and drawing them forth from their tightly-fitting places. How-ever, I
succeeded in getting them clear; and then taking them, one at a time, I
carried, or rather pushed them before me, until I had got them to the
very farthest corner of my quarters, by the end of the old brandy-cask.
There I arranged them, not in any loose or negligent manner, but with
the greatest precision and care; packing them into the smallest bulk,
and leaving no empty corners, between them and the timbers, big enough
to have given room to a rat.

Not that I cared about rats sheltering themselves there. I no longer
troubled my head about them; and although I had reason to know that
there were still some of them in the neighbourhood, my late sanguinary
_razzia_ among them had evidently rendered them afraid to come within
reach of me. The terrible screeching which their companions had
uttered, while I was pounding the life out of them, had rung loudly all
through the hold of the ship, and had acted upon those of the survivors,
that had heard it, as a salutary warning. No doubt they were greatly
frightened by what they had heard; and perceiving that I was a dangerous
fellow-passenger, would be likely to give me a "wide berth" during the
remainder of the voyage.

It was not any thought about the rats, then, that caused me to caulk up
every corner so closely, but simply with the view of economising space;
for, as I have already said, this was the point about which I had the
greatest apprehensi