. As a controllable balancing-pole, there is probably nothing to equal
it. As a parachute, it serves its purpose in a precipitate leap. As a
decoy, it frequently disturbs the enemy's aim. But, when once it is firmly
jammed, it is liable to congestion, and this is what awoke the mouse.

At first he was inclined to treat the matter lightly. He had been caught
by the tail often enough, after all. He tried the normal methods of
release. Swinging round on his haunches, he caught the offending member
between his two fore-paws, so as to ease it out by gentle side-shifts.
Then he brought his tongue into play as a lubricant. Then he simply
pulled. By this time he was fairly awake and could feel.

It was unfortunate that a door banged above him, for, mouse-like, he leapt
forward with all his leaping strength. The leap freed him, but at a price,
and the price was his tail, or, rather, all that made a tail worth having.
For the first half-inch it proceeded soundly enough, a series of neat,
over-lapping, down-covered scale-rings, then, for the next
two-and-three-quarter inches it presented all the naked hideousness of an
X-ray photograph. It was not so much the pain he minded as the indignity,
and he surveyed himself with gloomy disgust. There was, however, just a
grain of consolation. With an imprisoned tail, escape was impossible. Now
that he was free to move, there was surely a chance of squeezing through
those bars. He must take heart and gird himself for the struggle. No
mouse, however, if he can help it, enters upon a serious undertaking
ungroomed. So he sat back on his hind legs and commenced an elaborate
toilet. First he licked his tiny hands and worked them like lightning
across and down his face. This he continued for a full minute, until his
whiskers bristled like tiny needles, without a speck of dust throughout
their length. Then he combed the matted fur of his waistcoat with his
teeth, and smoothed and polished it until every hair was a gleaming strand
of silk. Finally he turned his attention to his back and sides, twisting
his body cat-fashion to reach the remoter portions of himself.

Once, in the middle of his operations, he stopped with a jerk and sat up
motionless, save for a tremulous quiver of his muzzle. There was certainly
something moving close at hand. Long before the faint vibration had reached
his ears, his whiskers had caught it and flashed their danger-signal to his
brain. It was only a cockroach, however