t me no choice to doubt of its species. The moment
my fingers touched its smooth coat, I recognised it by the "feel;" but I
felt the wicked creature in a double sense, for before I could disengage
my hand from the clutch I had so rashly taken, its sharp teeth had
pierced my thumb, until they nearly met through the flesh. At the same
instant its screech sounded in my ears shrill and terrifying!

I withdrew my fingers as quickly as I could, and flinging myself to the
furthest corner of the chamber--that is, the one which I thought
furthest from my disagreeable visitor--there for some minutes I
crouched, listening to hear whether the hideous animal had left me.

I could hear nothing, and I concluded it had made a retreat to some
other part of the ship. Most probably it was as badly scared as I--
though that could hardly have been--and in proof that I was the more
frightened of the two, the rat had the presence of mind to use its teeth
and bite me, while I was for the moment quite driven out of my senses.

In the brief encounter my antagonist had certainly proved victorious;
for in addition to the fright he had given me, he had inflicted a severe
and painful wound, that was every moment growing more painful. I
perceived that my thumb was bleeding freely, for I could feel the blood
running over my fingers, and glueing them to the very tips.

I could have borne my discomfiture calmly enough, for what signified the
bite of a rat? but that was not the whole question. The thought that
troubled me was, whether the creature had quite gone away, or whether it
was still near, and would return?

The thought of its coming back again, perhaps emboldened by having got
off without punishment, caused me very great annoyance.

You may wonder at this, but it was really the case. During all my life
I have had a sort of instinctive antipathy to rats--I might even say a
_dread_ of them. This feeling was stronger while I was only a boy; but,
although I have since encountered animals of a much more dangerous
character, and fought with some, I do not remember any that ever
inspired me with more fear than I have felt in coming in contact with
that common and ubiquitous creature--the _rat_. It is a fear blended
with a feeling of disgust; and it is a fear not altogether unfounded--
for I know of many well-authenticated cases, in which rats have attacked
human beings, and not a few where children, and even men, wounded or
otherwise disab