of kicking, and scrambling, and biting
within the bag, and I am sure there was plenty of squealing, for that I
heard. I gave no heed to such demonstrations, but kept churning on till
every motion had ceased, and all was silence underneath.

I now ventured to take up the bag, and examine its contents. I was
gratified at the wholesale slaughter I had committed. There was
evidently a large number of rats within the trap, and every one of them
dead as a door-nail!

At all events, none of them seemed to be stirring, for when I held the
bag up by its mouth, it hung down perfectly still, and there was neither
kick nor squeak inside; and therefore I took it for granted that I had
killed them all.

Notwithstanding this belief, when I proceeded to count them, I inserted
my hand with great caution, and drew them one by one out of the bag.
There were ten of them!

"Ha! ha!" exclaimed I, apostrophising the dead rats, "I've got you at
last, you ugly brutes! and this serves you right for the trouble you
have put me to. If one good turn deserves another, I suppose so does
one evil one. Had you let me and mine alone, this ill fortune might not
have befallen you. But you left me no alternative. You ate my
biscuits, and, to save myself from starving, I am compelled to eat you!"

This apostrophe ended, I commenced skinning one of the rats, with the
intention of dining upon him.

You may fancy that I anticipated the meal with a feeling of disgust, but
in this you would be greatly mistaken. Hunger had cured me of all
daintiness. I had not the slightest repugnance for the food of which I
was about to partake. On the contrary, I longed to be at it, as much as
you might do for a dinner of the most delicate viands.

So keen was my hunger, that I could hardly wait till I had stripped off
the skin; and five minutes after this operation was finished, I had
bolted the rat raw--body, bones, and all!

If you are anxious to know how it tasted I can only tell you that I
observed nothing disagreeable about it, no more than if it had been the
leg of a fowl or a slice off the most delicate mutton. It was the first
flesh-meat I had eaten for weeks, and this may have added to my zest for
such food. Certainly I thought, at the time, that a sweeter morsel had
never gone down my throat, and no longer felt wonder at what books had
told me about the rat-eating Laplanders.

CHAPTER FIFTY THREE.

ABOUT FACE!

The aspect of my affairs