'A TRAVELLER'S TALES' 



185 



denied this luxury to us rats, and that if we keep 

 on wanting to be sick for a long time we eventually 

 die. London poisoners know it well, and so they 

 put down a slow poison, which a dog or cat can 

 throw up, if they chance to get hold of it, but which 

 will certainly kill a rat, just because he cannot 

 vomit. It is a very cunning device, and all the 

 more so because a rat's instinct, when he feels that 

 he is seriously ill, is to seek some quite out-of-the- 

 way place wherein to die. If he died too quickly, 

 he would leave his body about under the floor or 

 in the wall, and make things unpleasant for every- 

 body. 



* Lordy, how ill I was for two days ! but at the 

 end of the second day my stomach regained its 

 equilibrium, and I could feel the ship rise and fall 

 on the waves without any answering agony inside 

 me. At once I realized that I was very hungry, 

 and I started off in quest of food, and not very far 

 off the food, naturally enough, I found others of my 

 own kind. At first they were inclined to be a trifle 

 stand-oflish, but I was in no mood for trifling, and 

 at once demanded my share of the victuals. I 

 must have looked very gaunt and savage after my 

 bout of illness, for they gave in at once, and I was 

 formally admitted to the brotherhood of the ship ; 



