54 Studies in Rat Catching, [ch. hi. 



bones, and by the starved look of him I 

 should say this was the biggest meal he had 

 ever had in his life. 



I sat up late that night reading, and all 

 the time in a remote corner of my mind the 

 sand-pit man, the two children and the dog 

 kept turning about, till at last, about mid- 

 night or later, I thought I would go to bed ; 

 but before doing so I made up my mind that 

 I would see if my new dog was all right. I 

 lit a lantern and stepped out of the door and 

 found it was blowing and snowing and biting 

 cold. Mercifully I persevered and reached 

 the wood-shed, and what I saw there by 

 the light of my lantern did startle me. There 

 was the bull-dog sure enough lying curled up 

 in the straw blinking hard at me, but — could 

 I believe my eyes ? — there lying with him, 

 with their arms entwined round each other 

 and round the dog, were the two children 

 from the sand-pit fast asleep, but looking so 



