The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rats in the Belfry, by John York Cabot

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Title: Rats in the Belfry

Author: John York Cabot

Release Date: June 19, 2010 [EBook #32900]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Rats in the Belfry

By JOHN YORK CABOT

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories January
1943. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: This house was built to specifications that were strange
indeed; and the rats that inhabited it were stranger still!]

This little guy Stoddard was one of the toughest customers I'd ever done
business with. To look at him you'd think he was typical of the mild
pleasant little sort of suburban home owner who caught the eight-oh-two
six days a week and watered the lawn on the seventh. Physically, his
appearance was completely that of the inconspicuous average citizen.
Baldish, fortiesh, bespectacled, with the usual behind-the-desk bay
window that most office workers get at his age, he looked like nothing
more than the amiable citizen you see in comic cartoons on suburban
life.

Yet, what I'm getting at is that this Stoddard's appearance was
distinctly deceptive. He was the sort of customer that we in the
contracting business would label as a combination grouser and eccentric.

When he and his wife came to me with plans for the home they wanted
built in Mayfair's second subdivision, they were already full of ideas
on exactly what they wanted.

This Stoddard--his name was George B. Stoddard in full--had
painstakingly outlined about two dozen sheets of drafting paper with
some of the craziest ideas you have ever seen.

"These specifications aren't quite down to the exact inchage, Mr.
Kermit," Stoddard had admitted, "for I don't pretend to be a first class
architectural draftsman. But my wife and I have had ideas on what sort
of a house we want for years, and these