ed with that creep over and amongst the cargo. Time seemed
to be indefinitely prolonged. I could fancy one moment that I had been
crawling and crawling for hours, and going a tremendous distance, while
the next my idea was that I had hardly moved and not been there a
minute. Every now and then, in spite of setting my teeth hard, and even
biting my tongue, that horrible feeling of fright came back; and I have
often asked myself since whether I was an awful coward. But I never
could give a fair judgment, for I have thought that most people would
have felt the same, whether they were lads or grown men, and certainly
my three companions in talking it over said it upset them more than
going in for a real fight.

It was curious, too, how busy one's brain was when I could keep from
thinking of being smothered or crushed, or so fixed in that I could not
get out. For then I began to think about moles burrowing underground,
and worms in their holes, and rabbits and mice; and on one of these
occasions I started and wondered at the peculiarity of the coincidence,
for I suddenly became aware of a peculiar, half-musky smell, and then
there was a scuffling, squealing sound which sent a shudder through me.

"Hear the rats, sir?" whispered Barney; but I was so upset that I
couldn't reply.

All at once, as I was crawling more freely, my companion whispered--

"You ought to be close to where I turned myself round, sir. Aren't
there more room?"

"Yes," I said.

"Then that's it, sir. Eh?"

"I didn't speak."

"But some one did, sir. It arn't them in the forksle, is it?"

We listened, and there was whispered, close to us apparently--

"How are you getting on?"

"It's them behind, sir. I'll lay down flat as I can, and you whisper
back as we're all right. Sound travels easy."

I found that I could readily turn, and I did as he proposed that I
should, hearing my voice sound so smothered that it startled me again.
But the tapping was resumed; and answering it again, I turned and went
on once more in silence till all at once my way was stopped by a crate
which touched the beams overhead.

"Is this where you got to, Barney?" I said.

"Where there's a big crate thing, sir, as goes right up? That's it."

"Then we can't get any farther?"

"I don't think I can; but that tapping wouldn't come so plain if there
warn't a way. It weer too tight for me; but you can try if you can't
get round the end of the stopper. It may b