A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE. 97 
We had trapped him and he had suc- 
ceeded in extracting himself. He was 
never seen but once in the daylight and be- 
fore we reached the gun rack he had dis- 
appeared. 
I set a trap for him one night and felt 
confident Iwould have himin the morning. 
Rising early I found he had been through 
everything, including 3 fur capes, which he 
ruined. 
One night shortly after this when I was 
asleep, I heard a terrific crash and sat up 
in bed rubbing my eyes. Will called to 
me to get up and strike a light. I did so 
and found him in his night shirt, with the 
potato masher in his hand, gazing intently 
at the dresser. Below lay a boot in a pail 
of milk. He had been awakened by the rat. 
After listening a while he heard it sipping 
milk on top of the dresser and reaching 
cautiously for a boot, he threw it toward 
the sound. 
The dresser showed he had thrown to 
kill. The rat was gone but Will had 
smashed the milk pan and the milk was 
forming a small lake. 
He told me to jump to the other end of 
the dresser for he believed the rat was 
down behind. I got the lamp and looked. 
There he was, jumping up and hunting for 
a way to escape. 
We called Jim. When he learned what 
the matter was he caught up the butcher 

AMATEUR PHOTO BY F. BENECKE. 
ANOTHER GOOD MULE DEER HEAD. 
knife, saying: ‘‘He must not escape alive.”’ 
We had him cornered, but not caught 
by a long way; he could run up the wall 
like a fly, and Willie said, “I’ll bet he gets 
away aiter all.” 
Nope beksnow it aeusatde leeward calling: 
jim) to take my place, I reached for the 
shot gun. We would have used a rifle but 
he was jumping all the time and it would 
have been hard to hit him. 
I ran two shells in the gun, intending to 
hit him when he ran across the floor. 
The situation was so ludicrous that we all 
burst out laughing. We were all in our 
night shirts. Will with the lamp in one 
hand and the potato masher in the other; 
Jim flourishing the butcher knife, and I 
with a double-barreled shot gun, at full 
cock. Will shined the lamp down behind 
the dresser and I stepped up with the gun. 
The rat kept running up and down, now 
on the wall, now on the dresser, and just 
when he turned to come down I pulled the 
trigger. 
Whether Will shook the lamp or 
whether it was the concussion, we don't 
know, but the glass went to pieces. We 
struck a light as quickly as possible and 
looked eagerly behind the dresser; there lay 
part of the poor rodent, the rest of him was 
sticking on the wall. He was an enormous 
fellow with whiskers 4 inches long. 
Be GC] Dewar mopokane, Wash: 


PHOTO BY W. H. WRIGHT. 
THE SENTRY< 


