. As it came in sight, he snapped at
it viciously through the bars, and squeaked at its precipitate flight. Not
that he grudged it the cheese crumbs, but his nerves were on edge, and it
had frightened him.

[Illustration: IT WAS ONLY A COCKROACH, HOWEVER.]

Body, head, and feet alike, were sleek and resplendent before he caught a
glimpse of his disreputable tail. He was dubious as to whether polishing
would have any beneficial effect on its appearance; but the stump, at any
rate, must be healed, and to do this he set to work with nature's remedy.
Taking the stripped portion in his fore-paws--for, to his astonishment, he
found that he could not move it otherwise--he pulled it gently between his
hind legs up to his mouth. It parted like a pack-thread. Somehow he felt
indifferent. A rigid, lifeless tail was little use, after all. He was
bound to lose it sooner or later, and he was too old to care what the
other mice might think. Besides, as the father of a hundred and fifty, he
was surely entitled to set the fashion. He licked the stump until it felt
easy, shook himself once or twice, gave his whiskers a final polish, and
prepared to walk out.

He felt sleek enough to squeeze through anything--confident, too, though
just a trifle thirsty. It must have been the cheese, for the hot taste
still lingered in his mouth, and he loathed the sight of the remaining
fragments. He flicked them into a corner and carefully surveyed his
position. The bars stretched at even intervals, above and in front. He
tried each one separately and found that, with one exception, they were
fixed and immovable. The exception was number three from the front above
him. It was easily distinguishable from the others, for a curved wire
swung free from its centre. When he gripped his fore-paws round it, he
felt it twist in its sockets. Why did that curved wire rattle about when
he touched it? Those from which he had stolen so many dainty morsels in
the past had seemed fixtures. Perhaps he had gone too recklessly to work
this time. He had certainly been extremely hungry. Anyhow, the bar from
which it hung was loose--he would work that clear of the wood in no time,
and so gain freedom.

[Illustration: HE TRIED EACH BAR SEPARATELY.]

He raised himself on his hind legs and commenced gnawing vigorously at the
socket-hole. The position was a terribly strained one, and time after time
his teeth slipped and met with a scrunching jar upon the metal.

Then he l