HICKLING DISTRICT 195 



the island, well baited with various luxuries from our larder. 

 His idea was that if he could get a rat alive we could 

 have great fun with several of the younger dogs. I failed 

 to see the force of the joke, and so expressed myself, but 

 he beseeched rne to have patience and I should not be dis- 

 appointed. Little did I anticipate what was in store for me. 



The sun sank to rest without a rat being caught, and our 

 host in the cabin had progressed from the merry to the 

 argumentative, thence to the hostile, and now to the maudlin 

 and drowsy state; he hardly knew the water from the 

 whisky bottle, and swearing to himself he crawled into his 

 berth to sleep himself sufficiently sober to begin another 

 carouse. I smoked a last pipe on deck listening to the water- 

 birds and watching the reflection of the stars upon the broad 

 before I sought my own berth, and was lulled to sleep by 

 the rustling reeds, which a slight breeze from the sea had 

 set in motion. 



" Sir, wake up, there is a rat in the trap," said John, the , 

 waterman, who was bo'sun's mate and bo'sun combined, and 

 who was acting upon his overnight instructions. " There's a 

 whater rapping -on the strap where, when, which, who, 

 what's matter 



" There's a rat in the trap, sir ; " and he shook the skipper 

 again and again. "Oh, is there?" and half asleep, half 

 awake, he tumbled out of his berth, wildly halloaing his seven 

 dogs from all parts of the ship where they had stowed them- 

 selves away as best they could, and scrambling up the com- 

 panion ladder in a short and airy robe de chambre, he toed the 

 plankway for the shore. Not having slept off all the fumes 

 from his overnight carouse, he was much too unsteady to suc- 

 cessfully negotiate the single plank, and a mighty splash, ac- 

 companied with a big, far-sounding exclamation, broke the 

 silent echoes of the night, whilst the dogs barked and whined, 

 and John, the boy and myself hurried to the rescue. 



The cold water acted as a partial steadier to my friend, and 

 as he crawled out from the reeds he inquired the whereabouts 

 of the rat. Its squeals soon located it, and once more the 



