THE RAT 



purely a matter of accident that he did not get the 

 better of me. 



He based his nefarious scheme on the fact that 

 if you tie a bit of thread or fine string across a rat's 

 hole, he will carefully nibble it in half ; and his trap 

 was composed of string, an indiarubber band, one 

 or two pieces of crooked wood, turning easily upon 

 a loose screw, and an old pistol. I cannot, of course, 

 tell you exactly what happened, but, after thinking 

 it over carefully, I conclude that his scheme was 

 somewhat as follows : 



The pistol was loaded and lashed tightly to a 

 beam, so that it pointed straight into my doorway 

 above the shelf One end of the indiarubber band 

 was nailed to the wall, six inches or so on one side 

 of my hole, and two threads were run through the 

 other end of it. One of these threads was used to 

 pull the band to its full stretch, passing across the 

 middle of my hole, and being securely fastened to 

 a nail on the opposite side ; the other, by being 

 attached to the crooked pieces of wood and other 

 threads, made a connection with the trigger of the 

 pistol. I cannot describe it very clearly, but I can 

 see it all in my mind, and I feel pretty confident 

 that you will be able to work it all out for yourself, 

 if you care to try. Only be careful not to let the 



