There was a faint scuffling sound behind the wainscot.
"There it is again," said Araminta.
"Not a doubt of it," I replied, turning pale.
Thrusting on my hat I rushed up the hill to the Town Hall and asked to see
the Clerk of the Borough Council immediately.
"I have reason to suspect," I said in a hoarse low whisper, as soon as I
was shown into the man's presence, "that our premises are in imminent
danger of being infested. Counsel me as to what I should do."
"It is your duty as a good citizen to take such steps as may from time to
time be necessary and reasonably practicable to destroy the vermin," he
said in a rather weary and mechanical tone.
"I hope I am not one to take my civic duties lightly," I replied with some
_hauteur_, "but observe that I merely said I had reason to suspect the
imminence of the peril. I should like to know the legal definition of
infestment, if you please. I cannot definitely say that house-breaking has
taken place as yet. I do not know that there has even been petty larceny.
There may have been merely loitering with felonious intent."
"What is the size of your premises?" he inquired.
"It is more a messuage than a premises," I explained. "About twelve feet by
ten, I should say--speaking without the lease."
"And how many vermin do you expect it to be about to harbour?"
"None have actually hove in sight at present," I said reassuringly, "but
there is a sound of one in the offing--in the wainscoting, I mean."
"In a residence of your size I should say that a single mouse would
constitute infestation within the meaning of the Act, so soon as it forces
an ingress. It will then be your bounden duty to demolish it. How about
purchasing a trap?"
"You are sure that is better than hiding behind the arras and hitting it
over the head with a pole-axe?" I inquired anxiously, "or proffering it a
bowl of poisoned wine?"
"Poison is no longer supplied free," he answered coldly, and I went out.
Very luckily, as I hastened up the hill, I had observed a building with the
words, "Job Masters. Traps for Hire," written upon a wooden board. I went
inside and found an elderly man sitting at a desk in a small office. He
looked extremely patient. "Are you Job?" I asked breathlessly. "I have come
to buy a mouse-trap."
Appearances, of course, are quite often deceptive. They were in this case.
The elderly man was very much annoyed. When he had explained matters
forcibly to me I went on down the hill and entered an ironmonger's.
"I wish to buy a trap to catch a mouse," I said to the assistant behind the
counter.
"Certainly, Sir. What size?" said the lad politely.
"Small to medium," I replied, rather baffled. "It has only a medium-sized
scratch."
He showed me a peculiar apparatus made of wire and wood containing
apparently a vestibule, two reception rooms, staircase and first-floor
lobby, with an open window and a diving-board. Underneath the window was a
small swimming tank.
"I don't want a hydropathic exactly," I explained. "I propose to
exterminate this rodent, not to foster longevity in it. How does it work?"
He pointed out that, after examining the various apartments, the animal
would be allured by the fragrance of a small portion of cheese placed above
the diving-board; overbalancing, it would then be projected into the water,
where it would infallibly drown. "It is a thoroughly humane instrument," he
assured me, "and used in the best 'omes."
I bought it and went on to a cheese foundry. Araminta was rather scornful
of the sanatorium when I came home with it and set it, loaded and trained,
on the dining-room floor; but the children were delighted. It ranked only a
little lower than the pantomime, and if only we could have secured an
outside visitor to it I believe that it would have defeated the Zoo. To
visit it with a sort of wistful hope became the principal treat of the day.
But, alas, the mansion remained untenanted. Sometimes during a lull in
conversation we would hear the faint scuffling again, but after about six
days I became convinced, by kneeling down and placing my ear to the carpet
like an Indian, that the noise was even fainter than it had been at first.
A terrible suspicion seized me. I dashed out and rang the bell of the flat
next door.
"It is just as I feared," I said to Araminta on returning a few moments
later. "We are not going to be infested after all. The vermin has been
sighted in No. 140B."
"We must make the best of it," she said, trying to speak cheerfully,
"though it _is_ hard on the children, poor dears."
"I wasn't thinking of the children," I replied bitterly; "I was thinking of
the expense. If we had been living in a house instead of a flat we could at
least have deducted it from the rates."
I sat down and made out a bill as follows to the Clerk of the Borough
Council, heading it:--
_On Account of Spurious Infestment._
s. d.
To one Mouse Institute and Aquarium 5 6
" Cheese 0 6
" Labour at 2/6 per hour 0 7-1/2
---------
Total 6 7-1/2
The man replied coldly that the householder was responsible for all
expenditure incurred in precautionary measures and that the Council was in
no way liable for the costs resulting from an offensive that failed to
materialize. He ended with the rather rude postscript, "What kind of cheese
did you use?"
This was a bit sickening. However, by threatening to lay information
against him, I have at last succeeded in inducing the occupier of 140B to
take over the abattoir at a very satisfactory valuation. It was between
that and buying his mouse.