The Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Mice, by Richard Harding Davis

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Title: The White Mice

Author: Richard Harding Davis

Illustrator: George Gibbs

Release Date: November 11, 2008 [EBook #27232]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE

WHITE MICE

BY

RICHARD HARDING DAVIS

ILLUSTRATED BY

_GEORGE GIBBS_

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK _1912_

COPYRIGHT, 1909,
BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

[Illustration: "What does anything matter, when I know--that the end
is near!"]

ILLUSTRATIONS

"What does anything matter, when I know--that the
end is near!" _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

"_O-i-i-ga_, you Moso! Get a move on! _Pronto!_ If
you don't I'll do that myself" 20

"I hear the call of the White Mice," said Peter de
Peyster 30

Under the blow, the masked man staggered drunkenly 70

Shifting the reins to his left hand, Roddy let the
other fall upon his revolver 114

"Now I know why I came to Venezuela!" 144

On such a night, Leander swam the Hellespont 198

Her fingers traced the sign of the cross 294

THE WHITE MICE

I

Once upon a time a lion dropped his paw upon a mouse.

"Please let me live!" begged the mouse, "and some day I will do as
much for you."

"That is so funny," roared the king of beasts, "that we will release
you. We had no idea mice had a sense of humor."

And then, as you remember, the lion was caught in the net of the
hunter, and struggled, and fought, and struck blindly, until his
spirit and strength were broken, and he lay helpless and dying.

And the mouse, happening to pass that way, gnawed and nibbled at the
net, and gave the lion his life.

The morals are: t