200 



THE RAT 



saw to it that he had no time to change his mind ; 

 and of Fate I was the humble instrument. I 

 cannot think that I robbed the world of any 'bright 

 particular star ' when I ' dowsed his glim,' as he 

 would have expressed it. He was, I take it, one of 

 the world s waifs, born in a sewer, living the life of 

 a gutter-snipe, dignified for a while by contact 

 with the restless and immemorial ocean that 

 cleanses all things, and more than dignified — I 

 might almost say exalted — by meeting his end 

 bravely — comparatively bravely — at the hands of 

 an honest country squire. 



