Boy Tar

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.

  A GRAND RAT-TRAP.

  For some time I have said nothing of the _rats_. Do not fancy, fromthis silence about them, that they had gone away and left me to myself!They had done no such thing. They were around and about me, as brisk asever, and as troublesome. Bolder they could not have been, unless theyhad positively assailed me; and no doubt such would have been the case,had I exposed myself to their attack.

  But, whenever I moved, my first care had been to close them out, bymeans of walls, which I constructed with pieces of cloth, and thus onlyhad I kept them at bay. Now and then, when I had passed from place toplace, I could hear and feel them all around me; and twice or threetimes had I been bitten by one or another. It was only by exercisingextreme vigilance and caution, that I was enabled to keep them fromattacking me.

  This parenthesis will, no doubt, lead you to anticipate what I am comingto, and enable you to guess what was the idea that had taken possessionof my mind. It had occurred to me, then, that instead of letting therats eat me, _I should eat them_. That was it exactly.

  I felt no disgust at the thought of such food; nor would you, if placedin a situation similar to mine. On the contrary, I hailed the idea as awelcome one, since it promised to enable me to carry out my plan ofcutting my way up to the deck--in other words, of _saving my life_.Indeed, as soon as I had conceived it, I felt as if I was actuallysaved. It only remained to carry out the intention.

  I knew there were many rats--too many, I had thought before--but now Icared not how plentiful they were. At all events, there were enough ofthem to "ration" me for a long while--I hoped long enough for mypurpose. The question was, how should I capture them?

  I could think of no other way but by feeling for them with my hands, andboldly grasping them, one at a time, and so squeezing the life out ofthem. I had already given my attention to trapping them, withoutsuccess. I had, as you know, killed one, by the only ingenuity I couldthink of, and likely enough I might get one or two more in the same way,but it was just as likely I might not; or even if I succeeded in killingone or two, the rest might become shy of me, and then the supply wouldstop. Better, therefore, to consider some plan for capturing a largenumber of them at once, and so have a larder that would last me for tenor twelve days. Perhaps by that time I might be within reach of morepalatable food. This would be wiser, as well as safer; and I remainedfor a long while considering how I should make a wholesale capture.

  Necessity is the parent of invention; and I suppose, by the help ofthis, more than from any real genius I possessed for contriving, I atlast succeeded in sketching out the plan of a rat-trap. It wascertainly of the simplest kind, but I felt pretty sure it would beeffective. I should make me a large bag out of the broadcloth, which Icould easily do, by cutting a piece of the proper length, and sewing upthe two sides with a string. Strings I had in plenty for the rolls ofcloth had been tied with strong pieces of twine, and of course thesewere at hand. I should use the blade of my knife for a needle, and bythe same instrument I should be enabled to reeve round the mouth of thebag a strong piece of the twine, to act as a draw-string.

  I not only _should_ do all this, but _did_ it without further delay; forin less than an hour I had my bag (net, I called it) quite finished,draw-string rove around the mouth, and all complete for action.