d that you are dead! bravest, noblest of rats,
they can torture you no more!"

The dogs showed by their impatient movements that they considered that
their master took a great deal too much time in his survey of a lifeless
rat I suspect that he only did so to tease and tantalize them, for
suddenly raising Whiskerandos still higher, to give more force to his
fling, he cried, "Now Carlo-- Rover-- Caesar-- who's first!" and swung
the body away towards the door behind which I stood a trembling,
shuddering spectator!

But lo and behold! no sooner did the seemingly dead rat touch the
ground, than he found life, strength, and speed in a moment! The dogs
were after him like the wind, but the very force of the fling had given
him a good start, and he was through the opening under the door,
knocking me over as he pushed past, almost before I could recall my
scattered senses sufficiently to understand that he was actually alive!
I have some remembrance of the young man's exclamation of amazement as
the dead rat found his feet and disappeared,-- his shout, and the yells
of the disappointed dogs,-- but I recollect no more, for I heard no
more. Whiskerandos and I had a fair start, and we made the best of it,
and scampered off as rats scamper for their lives. Well for us that that
door was locked!-- well for us that there were broken bits of bottles on
the top! well for us that the hole was too small for the passage of any
thing larger than a rat!

I do not think that we were pursued: perhaps the unlocking of the door
took our foe too much time, perhaps he did not think it worth while to
hunt down such ignoble game, or perhaps he considered (but this I much
doubt) that the cleverness which a rat had shown in making so
extraordinary an escape, entitled him to a little indulgence. But we ran
as though a whole pack of hounds were behind us; we never paused to take
breath or look behind us, till we had buried ourselves in a corn-field.

"And are you really unhurt?" I exclaimed, when we stopped at last,
panting and exhausted.

"Unhurt? yes!-- only bruised by the fling,-- it was well that the yard
was not paved with stones."

"And you were really alive and had your senses while that savage was
holding you up with your head hanging down! Why, you looked as like a
dead rat as ever I saw one!"

"I was wide awake all the time," said Whiskerandos, "but I knew that it
was my only chance to feign death. This has been a narrow escape, Ratto