154 Studies in Rat Catching, [ch. ix. 



a bright lamp shed its rays over the cove, 

 and the rector took me straight to the door 

 of this house, and having knocked and been 

 told to come in, he lifted the latch and 

 ushered me inside. The room was like 

 hundreds of others along that coast, the 

 homes of the toilers of the deep, and bore 

 evident signs of being made by men more 

 used to ships than stone or brick buildings. 

 It was a good large room, very low, with 

 heavy rafters overhead, which, with the 

 planks of which the walls were constructed, 

 had doubtless been taken from boats and 

 ships that had served their time on the sea. 

 The open fireplace at the end, with its wide 

 chimney, was the only part of the building 

 not made of old ship timbers and planks, and 

 there was a strong smell of tar from these 

 and from sundry coils of dark rope that were 

 stowed away in a far corner. The long 

 table down the middle of the room was of 



