Again he was called to his immediate surroundings suddenly. This time it might not have been the sudden silence only which took his attention;there was a slight movement of the rope, and the lamp moved.Without stirring, he looked to see if his pile of books was within range, and then cast his eye along the rope. As he looked he saw the great rat drop from the rope on the oak armchair and sit there glaring at him.He raised a book in his right hand, and taking careful aim, flung it at the rat.The latter, with a quick movement, sprang aside and dodged the missile.He then took another book, and a third, and flung them one after another at the rat, but each time unsuccessfully.At last, as he stood with a book poised in his hand to throw, the rat squeaked and seemed afraid.This made Malcolmson more than ever eager to strike, and the book flew and struck the rat a resounding blow.It gave a terrified squeak, and turning on his pursuer a look of terrible malevolence, ran up the chair-back and made a great jump to the rope of the alarm bell and ran up it like lightning.The lamp rocked under the sudden strain, but it was a heavy one and did not topple over.Malcolmson kept his eyes on the rat, and saw it by the light of the second lamp leap to a moulding of the wainscot and disappear through a hole in one of the great pictures which hung on the wall, obscured and invisible through its coating of dirt and dust.
"I shall look up my friend's habitation in the morning," said the student, as he went over to collect his books. "The third picture from the fireplace;I shall not forget." He picked up the books one by one, commenting on them as he lifted them. "Conic Sections he does not mind, nor Cycloidal Oscillations, nor the Principia, nor Quaternions, nor Thermodynamics. Now for the book that fetched him!" Malcolmson took it up and looked at it.As he did so he started, a sudden pallor overspread his face.He looked round uneasily and shivered slightly, as he murmured to himself:"The Bible my mother gave me!What an odd coincidence." He sat down to work again, and the rats in the wainscot renewed their gambols.They did not disturb him, however;somehow their presence gave him a sense of companionship.But he could not attend to his work, and after striving to master the subject on which he was engaged gave it up in despair, and went to bed as the he first streak of dawn stole in through the eastern window.