FINGERS AND TOES. 
105 
Neither bed nor board was there, nor any sign of a 
rat ever having occupied the place. Explain it as you 
may, that was the fact. Perhaps, as we excavated the 
main passage, some side door leading to the bed chambers 
got covered with debris and escaped our notice. Or is 
it possible that the old rat was dead, and the neighbours 
had mournfully barred the door of the ownerless mansion ? 
Strange things are possible ! 
It was too late now to trace anything among the 
ruins, and I had to give up my enterprise. But I 
measured the ground over which we had gone, and 
found that we had followed the burrow of that in- 
dustrious rat for thirty feet. I afterwards set traps, 
but to no purpose. I am still unacquainted with that rat. 
THE BELOVED HAT. 
