He slept so sound that he was not even waked by Mrs. Dempster comingin to make up his room. It was only when she had tidied up the placeand got his breakfast ready and tapped on the screen which closed inhis bed that he woke. He was a little tired still after his night'shard work, but a strong cup of tea soon freshened him up and, takinghis book, he went out for his morning walk, bringing with him a fewsandwiches lest he should not care to return till dinner time. Hefound a quiet walk between high elms some way outside the town, andhere he spent the greater part of the day studying his Laplace. On hisreturn he looked in to see Mrs. Witham and to thank her for herkindness. When she saw him coming through the diamond-paned bay windowof her sanctum she came out to meet him and asked him in. She lookedat him searchingly and shook her head as she said:
'You must not overdo it, sir. You are paler this morning than youshould be. Too late hours and too hard work on the brain isn't goodfor any man! But tell me, sir, how did you pass the night? Well, Ihope? But my heart! sir, I was glad when Mrs. Dempster told me thismorning that you were all right and sleeping sound when she went in.'
'Oh, I was all right,' he answered smiling, 'the "somethings" didn'tworry me, as yet. Only the rats; and they had a circus, I tell you,all over the place. There was one wicked looking old devil that sat upon my own chair by the fire, and wouldn't go till I took the poker tohim, and then he ran up the rope of the alarm bell and got tosomewhere up the wall or the ceiling--I couldn't see where, it was sodark.'
'Mercy on us,' said Mrs. Witham, 'an old devil, and sitting on a chairby the fireside! Take care, sir! take care! There's many a true wordspoken in jest.'
'How do you mean? Pon my word I don't understand.'
'An old devil! The old devil, perhaps. There! sir, you needn't laugh,'for Malcolmson had broken into a hearty peal. 'You young folks thinksit easy to laugh at things that makes older ones shudder. Never mind,sir! never mind! Please God, you'll laugh all the time. It's what Iwish you myself!' and the good lady beamed all over in sympathy withhis enjoyment, her fears gone for a moment.
'Oh, forgive me!' said Malcolmson presently. 'Don't think me rude; butthe idea was too much for me--that the old devil himself was on thechair last night!' And at the thought he laughed again. Then he wenthome to dinner.
This evening the scampering of the rats began earlier; indeed it hadbeen going on before his arrival, and only ceased whilst his presenceby its freshness disturbed them. After dinner he sat by the fire for awhile and had a smoke; and then, having cleared his table, began towork as before. Tonight the rats disturbed him more than they had doneon the previous night. How they scampered up and down and under andover! How they squeaked, and scratched, and gnawed! How they, gettingbolder by degrees, came to the mouths of their holes and to the chinksand cracks and crannies in the wainscoting till their eyes shone liketiny lamps as the firelight rose and fell. But to him, now doubtlessaccustomed to them, their eyes were not wicked; only their playfulnesstouched him. Sometimes the boldest of them made sallies out on thefloor or along the mouldings of the wainscot. Now and again as theydisturbed him Malcolmson made a
sound to frighten them, smiting thetable with his hand or giving a fierce 'Hsh, hsh,' so that they fledstraightway to their holes.
And so the early part of the night wore on; and despite the noiseMalcolmson got more and more immersed in his work.
All at once he stopped, as on the previous night, being overcome by asudden sense of silence. There was not the faintest sound of gnaw, orscratch, or squeak. The silence was as of the grave. He remembered theodd occurrence of the previous night, and instinctively he looked atthe chair standing close by the fireside. And then a very oddsensation thrilled through him.
There, on the great old high-backed carved oak chair beside thefireplace sat the same enormous rat, steadily glaring at him withbaleful eyes.
Instinctively he took the nearest thing to his hand, a book oflogarithms, and flung it at it. The book was badly aimed and the ratdid not stir, so again the poker performance of the previous night wasrepeated; and again the rat, being closely pursued, fled up the ropeof the alarm bell. Strangely too, the departure of this rat wasinstantly followed by the renewal of the noise made by the general ratcommunity. On this occasion, as on the previous one, Malcolmson couldnot see at what part of the room the rat disappeared, for the greenshade of his lamp left the upper part of the room in darkness, and thefire had burned low.
On looking at his watch he found it was close on midnight; and, notsorry for the _divertissement_, he made up his fire and made himselfhis nightly pot of tea. He had got through a good spell of work, andthought himself entitled to a cigarette; and so he sat on the greatoak chair before the fire and enjoyed it. Whilst smoking he began tothink that he would like to know where the rat disappeared to, for hehad certain ideas for the morrow not entirely disconnected with arat-trap. Accordingly he lit another lamp and placed it so that itwould shine well into the right-hand corner of the wall by thefireplace. Then he got all the books he had with him, and placed themhandy to throw at the vermin. Finally he lifted the rope of the alarmbell and placed the end of it on the table, fixing the extreme endunder the lamp. As he handled it he could not help noticing howpliable it was, especially for so strong a rope, and one not in use.'You could hang a man with it,' he thought to himself. When hispreparations were made he looked around, and said complacently:
'There now, my friend, I think we shall learn something of you thistime!' He began his work again, and though as before somewhatdisturbed at first by the noise of the rats, soon lost himself in hispropositions and problems.
Again he was called to his immediate surroundings suddenly. This timeit might not have been the sudden silence only which took hisattention; there was a slight movement of the rope, and the lampmoved. Without stirring, he looked to see if his pile of books waswithin range, and then cast his eye along the rope. As he looked hesaw the great rat drop from the rope on the oak arm-chair and sitthere glaring at him. He raised a book in his right hand, and takingcareful aim, flung it at the rat. The latter, with a quick movement,sprang aside and dodged the missile. He then took another book, and athird, and flung them one after another at the rat, but each timeunsuccessfully. At last, as he stood with a book poised in his hand tothrow, the rat squeaked and seemed afraid. This made Malcolmson morethan ever eager to strike, and the book flew and struck the rat aresounding blow. It gave a terrified squeak, and turning on hispursuer a look of terrible malevolence, ran up the chair-back and madea great jump to the rope of the alarm bell and ran up it likelightning. The lamp rocked under the sudden strain, but it was a heavyone and did not topple over. Malcolmson kept his eyes on the rat, andsaw it by the light of the second lamp leap to a moulding of thewainscot and disappear through a hole in one of the great pictureswhich hung on the wall, obscured and invisible through its coating ofdirt and dust.
'I shall look up my friend's habitation in the morning,' said thestudent, as he went over to collect his books. 'The third picture fromthe fireplace; I shall not forget.' He picked up the books one by one,commenting on them as he lifted them. '_Conic Sections_ he does notmind, nor _Cycloidal Oscillations_, nor the _Principia_, nor_Quaternions_, nor _Thermodynamics_. Now for the book that fetchedhim!' Malcolmson took it up and looked at it. As he did so he started,and a sudden pallor overspread his face. He looked round uneasily andshivered slightly, as he murmured to himself:
'The Bible my mother gave me! What an odd coincidence.' He sat down towork again, and the rats in the wainscot renewed their gambols. Theydid not disturb him, however; somehow their presence gave him a senseof companionship. But he could not attend to his work, and afterstriving to master the subject on which he was engaged gave it up indespair, and went to bed as the first streak of dawn stole in throughthe eastern window.
He slept heavily but uneasily, and dreamed much; and when Mrs.Dempster woke him late in the morning he seemed ill at ease, and for afew minutes did not seem to realise exactly where he was. His firstrequest rather surprised the servant.
'Mrs. Dempster, when I am out to-day I wish you would get the stepsand dust or wash those pictures--specially that one the third from thefireplace--I want to see what they are.'
Late in the afternoon Malcolmson worked at his books in the shadedwalk, and the cheerfulness of the previous day came back to him as theday wore on, and he found that his reading was progressing well. Hehad worked out to a satisfactory conclusion all the problems which hadas yet baffled him, and it was in a state of jubilation that he paid avisit to Mrs. Witham at 'The Good Traveller'. He found a stranger inthe cosy sitting-room with the landlady, who was introduced to him asDr. Thornhill. She was not quite at ease, and this, combined with thedoctor's plunging at once into a series of questions, made Malcolmsoncome to the conclusion that his presence was not an accident, sowithout preliminary he said:
'Dr. Thornhill, I shall with pleasure answer you any question you maychoose to ask me if you will answer me one question first.'
The doctor seemed surprised, but he smiled and answered at once,'Done! What is it?'
'Did Mrs. Witham ask you to come here and see me and advise me?'
Dr. Thornhill for a moment was taken aback, and Mrs. Witham got fieryred and turned away; but the doctor was a frank and ready man, and heanswered at once and openly.
'She did: but she didn't intend you to know it. I suppose it was myclumsy haste that made you suspect. She told me that she did not likethe idea of your being in that house all by yourself, and that shethought you took too much strong tea. In fact, she wants me to adviseyou if possible to give up the tea and the very late hours. I was akeen student in my time, so I suppose I may take the liberty of acollege man, and without offence, advise you not quite as a stranger.'
Malcolmson with a bright smile held out his hand. 'Shake! as they sayin America,' he said. 'I must thank you for your kindness and Mrs.Witham too, and your kindness deserves a return on my part. I promiseto take no more strong tea--no tea at all till you let me--and I shallgo to bed tonight at one o'clock at latest. Will that do?'
'Capital,' said the doctor. 'Now tell us all that you noticed in theold house,' and so Malcolmson then and there told in minute detail allthat had happened in the last two nights. He was interrupted every nowand then by some exclamation from Mrs. Witham, till finally when hetold of the episode of the Bible the landlady's pent-up emotions foundvent in a shriek; and it was not till a stiff glass of brandy andwater had been administered that she grew composed again. Dr.Thornhill listened with a face of growing gravity, and when thenarrative was complete and Mrs. Witham had been restored he asked:
'The rat always went up the rope of the alarm bell?'
'Always.'