2S0 



THE RAT 



paper if, by any chance, it was demanded of you ? 

 Perhaps it is just as well that we neither of us 

 absolutely need one. Boys will be boys, I suppose, 

 to the end of the chapter, and I am quite sure that 

 rats will always be rats. You will not succeed in 

 clearing the world of us, so you had better direct 

 your efforts towards getting rid of some of the 

 more crying evils. I may be an e^dl, but it shall 

 never be said of me that I am a crying evil. No 

 idle tears for me ; what I have done, I have done, 

 and w^hat T have to suffer, I will suffer it in 

 silence. 



All that I seriously wish to ask you is to play 

 the game fairly. I know^ that I should find hfe a 

 dull affair if there were to be no risks and excite- 

 ment in it. Therefore set all your traps, pursue 

 me with dogs and feiTets, and with sticks and 

 stones : put some brain-work into it, and catch me 

 if you can. for I am not afraid of you. But — and 

 I want to make it a veiy large ' but ' — kill me 

 quickly wiien you do kill. I feel sure that I should 

 hate to be kept w^aiting ; visions of my many mis- 

 deeds in the past w^ould come floating across my 

 brain, and I might turn coward at the last. Nobody's 

 courage can be kept screwed up to the sticking 

 place for ever. Therefore, strike hard and straight, 



