the house!" I ejaculated, with a genuine mixture of fear and
detestation, "we have not had a pleasant hour since we came to live
here"; and so I went on, and related incidentally my adventure with the
plethoric old rat.

"Well, if that were _all_," said my cousin, affecting to make light of
the matter, "I don't think I should have minded it very much."

"Ay, but its eye--its countenance, my dear Tom," urged I; "if you had
seen _that_, you would have felt it might be _anything_ but what it
seemed."

"I inclined to think the best conjurer in such a case would be an
able-bodied cat," he said, with a provoking chuckle.

"But let us hear your own adventure," I said tartly.

At this challenge he looked uneasily round him. I had poked up a very
unpleasant recollection.

"You shall hear it, Dick; I'll tell it to you," he said. "Begad, sir, I
should feel quite queer, though, telling it _here_, though we are too
strong a body for ghosts to meddle with just now."

Though he spoke this like a joke, I think it was serious calculation.
Our Hebe was in a corner of the room, packing our cracked delft tea and
dinner-services in a basket. She soon suspended operations, and with
mouth and eyes wide open became an absorbed listener. Tom's experiences
were told nearly in these words:----

"I saw it three times, Dick--three distinct times; and I am perfectly
certain it meant me some infernal harm. I was, I say, in danger--in
_extreme_ danger; for, if nothing else had happened, my reason would
most certainly have failed me, unless I had escaped so soon. Thank God.
I _did_ escape.

"The first night of this hateful disturbance, I was lying in the
attitude of sleep, in that lumbering old bed. I hate to think of it. I
was really wide awake, though I had put out my candle, and was lying as
quietly as if I had been asleep; and although accidentally restless, my
thoughts were running in a cheerful and agreeable channel.

"I think it must have been two o'clock at least when I thought I heard a
sound in that--that odious dark recess at the far end of the bedroom. It
was as if someone was drawing a piece of cord slowly along the floor,
lifting it up, and dropping it softly down again in coils. I sate up
once or twice in my bed, but could see nothing, so I concluded it must
be mice in the wainscot. I felt no emotion graver than curiosity, and
after a few minutes ceased to observe it.

"While lying in this state, strange to say; without at f