lamps as the firelight rose and fell. But to him, now doubtless
accustomed to them, their eyes were not wicked; only their playfulness
touched him. Sometimes the boldest of them made sallies out on the
floor or along the mouldings of the wainscot. Now and again as they
disturbed him Malcolmson made a sound to frighten them, smiting the
table with his hand or giving a fierce 'Hsh, hsh,' so that they fled
straightway to their holes.

And so the early part of the night wore on; and despite the noise
Malcolmson got more and more immersed in his work.

All at once he stopped, as on the previous night, being overcome by a
sudden sense of silence. There was not the faintest sound of gnaw, or
scratch, or squeak. The silence was as of the grave. He remembered the
odd occurrence of the previous night, and instinctively he looked at
the chair standing close by the fireside. And then a very odd
sensation thrilled through him.

There, on the great old high-backed carved oak chair beside the
fireplace sat the same enormous rat, steadily glaring at him with
baleful eyes.

Instinctively he took the nearest thing to his hand, a book of
logarithms, and flung it at it. The book was badly aimed and the rat
did not stir, so again the poker performance of the previous night was
repeated; and again the rat, being closely pursued, fled up the rope
of the alarm bell. Strangely too, the departure of this rat was
instantly followed by the renewal of the noise made by the general rat
community. On this occasion, as on the previous one, Malcolmson could
not see at what part of the room the rat disappeared, for the green
shade of his lamp left the upper part of the room in darkness, and the
fire had burned low.

On looking at his watch he found it was close on midnight; and, not
sorry for the _divertissement_, he made up his fire and made himself
his nightly pot of tea. He had got through a good spell of work, and
thought himself entitled to a cigarette; and so he sat on the great
oak chair before the fire and enjoyed it. Whilst smoking he began to
think that he would like to know where the rat disappeared to, for he
had certain ideas for the morrow not entirely disconnected with a
rat-trap. Accordingly he lit another lamp and placed it so that it
would shine well into the right-hand corner of the wall by the
fireplace. Then he got all the books he had with him, and placed them
handy to throw at the vermin. Finally he lifted the rope of the a