CH. v.] A Rat in a Queer Place. 87 



barking disturbed my dogs. This was done, 

 and a minute afterwards Chance was sidling 

 round the kennel, staking her reputation 

 upon the rat being under it. I got out a 

 ferret and looked round the kennel, and was 

 utterly disgusted to find it was placed firmly 

 on hard ground without a vestige of a hole. 

 I am sorry to say I went so far as to sneer 

 at Chance and tell her she did not know the 

 difference between a dog and a rat. She 

 herself for a moment seemed in doubt, but 

 the next she went mside the kennel and 

 stood at a hole in the plank floor. I put the 

 ferret back in the bag and, taking hold of the 

 kennel, tilted it up, and in an instant the dogs 

 had a vicious-looking old monster dead. 



Now the only possible way thai rat could 

 have got in and out of his house was by 

 passing the dog as he slept, and yet the old 

 lady and her gardener assured me that the 

 dog was as keen as mustard after rats. 



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