k to his work, sitting at the corner of
the table, having the fire to his left. For a little while the rats
disturbed him somewhat with their perpetual scampering, but he got
accustomed to the noise as one does to the ticking of a clock or to
the roar of moving water; and he became so immersed in his work that
everything in the world, except the problem which he was trying to
solve, passed away from him.

He suddenly looked up, his problem was still unsolved, and there was
in the air that sense of the hour before the dawn, which is so dread
to doubtful life. The noise of the rats had ceased. Indeed it seemed
to him that it must have ceased but lately and that it was the sudden
cessation which had disturbed him. The fire had fallen low, but still
it threw out a deep red glow. As he looked he started in spite of his
_sang froid_.

There on the great high-backed carved oak chair by the right side of
the fireplace sat an enormous rat, steadily glaring at him with
baleful eyes. He made a motion to it as though to hunt it away, but it
did not stir. Then he made the motion of throwing something. Still it
did not stir, but showed its great white teeth angrily, and its cruel
eyes shone in the lamplight with an added vindictiveness.

Malcolmson felt amazed, and seizing the poker from the hearth ran at
it to kill it. Before, however, he could strike it, the rat, with a
squeak that sounded like the concentration of hate, jumped upon the
floor, and, running up the rope of the alarm bell, disappeared in the
darkness beyond the range of the green-shaded lamp. Instantly, strange
to say, the noisy scampering of the rats in the wainscot began again.

By this time Malcolmson's mind was quite off the problem; and as a
shrill cock-crow outside told him of the approach of morning, he went
to bed and to sleep.

He slept so sound that he was not even waked by Mrs. Dempster coming
in to make up his room. It was only when she had tidied up the place
and got his breakfast ready and tapped on the screen which closed in
his bed that he woke. He was a little tired still after his night's
hard work, but a strong cup of tea soon freshened him up and, taking
his book, he went out for his morning walk, bringing with him a few
sandwiches lest he should not care to return till dinner time. He
found a quiet walk between high elms some way outside the town, and
here he spent the greater part of the day studying his Laplace. On his
return he looked in