THE JUDGE'S HOUSE
by
Bram Stoker

When the time for his examination drew near Malcolm Malcolmson made up his
mind to go somewhere to read by himself. He feared the attractions of the
seaside, and also he feared completely rural isolation, for of old he knew
its charms, and so he determined to find some unpretentious little town
where there would be nothing to distract him. He refrained from asking
suggestions from any of his friends, for he argued that each would recommend
some place of which he had knowledge, and where he had already
acquaintances. As Malcolmson wished to avoid friends he had no wish to
encumber himself with the attention of friends' friends and so he determined
to look out for a place for himself. He packed a portmanteau with some
clothes and all the books he required, and then took ticket for the first
name on the local time-table which he did not know.

When at the end of three hours' journey he alighted at Benchurch, he felt
satisfied that he had so far obliterated his tracks as to be sure of having
a peaceful opportunity of pursuing his studies. He went straight to the one
inn which the sleepy little place contained, and put up for the night.
Benchurch was a market town, and once in three weeks was crowded to excess,
but for the reminder of the twenty-one days it was as attractive as a
desert. Malcolmson looked around the day after his arrival to try to find
quarters more isolated than even so quiet an inn as "The Good Traveller"
afforded. There was only one place which took his fancy, and it certainly
satisfied his wildest ideas regarding quiet; in fact, quiet was not the
proper word to apply to it -- desolation was the only term conveying any
suitable idea of its isolation. It was an old, rambling, heavy-built house
of the Jacobean style, with heavy gables and windows, unusually small, and
set higher than was customary in such houses, and was surrounded with a high
brick wall massively built. Indeed, on examination, it looked more like a
fortified house than an ordinary dwelling. But all these things pleased
Malcolmson. "Here," he thought, "is the very spot I have been looking for,
and if I can only get opportunity of using it I shall be happy." His joy was
increased when he realized beyond doubt that it was not at present
inhabited.

From the post-office he got the name of the agent, who was rarely surprised
at the application to rent a part of the old house. Mr. Carnford, the local
lawyer and agent, was a genial old gentleman, and frankly confessed his
delight at anyone being willing to live in the house.

"To tell you the truth," said he, "I should be only too happy, on behalf of
the owners, to let anyone have the house rent free, for a term of years if
only to accustom the people here to see it inhabited. It has been so long
empty that some kind of absurd prejudice has grown up about it, and this can
be best put down by its occupation -- if only," he added with a sly glance
at Malcolmson, "by a scholar like yourself, who wants its quiet for a time."

Malcolmson thought it needless to ask the agent about the "absurd
prejudice"; he knew he would get more information, if he should require it,
on that subject from other quarters. He paid his three months' rent, got a
receipt, and the name of an old woman who would probably undertake to "do"
for him, and came away with the keys in his pocket. He then went to the
landlady of the inn, who was a cheerful and most kindly person, and asked
her advice as to such stores and provisions as he would be likely to
require. She threw up her hands in amazement when he told her where he was
going to settle himself.

"Not in the Judge's House!" she said, and grew pale as she spoke. He
explained the locality of the house, saying that he did not know its name.
When he had finished she answered:

"Aye, sure enough -- sure enough the very place! It is the Judge's House
sure enough." He asked her to tell him about the place, why so called, and
what there was against it. She told him that it was so called locally
because it had been many years before -- how long she could not say, as she
was herself from another part of the country, but she thought it must have
been a hundred years or more -- the abode of a judge who was held in great
terror on account of his harsh sentences and his hostility to prisoners at
Assizes. As to what there was against the house she could not tell. She had
often asked, but no one could inform her, but there was a general feeling
that there was something, and for her own part she would not take all the
money in Drinkwater's Bank and stay in the house an hour by herself. Then
she apologized to Malcolmson for her disturbing talk.

"It is too bad of me, sir, and you -- and a young gentleman, too -- if you
will pardon me saying it, going to live there all alone. If you were my boy
-- and you'll excuse me for saying it -- you wouldn't sleep there a night,
not if I had to go there myself and pull the big alarm bell that's on the
roof!" The good creature was so manifestly in earnest, and was so kindly in
her intentions, that Malcolmson, although amused, was touched. He told her
kindly how much he appreciated her interest in him, and added:

"But, my dear Mrs. Witham, indeed you need not be concerned about me! A man
who is reading for the Mathematical Tripos has too much to think of to be
disturbed by any of these mysterious 'somethings,' and his work is of too
exact and prosaic a kind to allow of his having any order in his mind for
mysteries of any kind. Harmonical Progression, Permutations and
Combinations, and Elliptic Functions have sufficient mysteries for me!" Mrs.
Witham kindly undertook to see after his commissions, and he went himself to
look for the old woman who had been recommended to him. When he turned to
the Judge's House with her, after an interval of a couple of hours, he found
Mrs. Witham herself waiting with several men and boys carrying parcels, and
an upholsterer's man with a bed in a cart, for she said, though table and
chairs might be all very well, a bed that hadn't been aired for maybe fifty
years was not proper for young ones to lie on. She was evidently curious to
see the inside of the house, and though manifestly so afraid of the
'somethings' that at the slightest sound she clutched on to Malcolmson, whom
she never left for a moment, went over the whole place.

After his examination of the house, Malcolmson decided to take up his abode
in the great dining-room, which was big enough to serve for all his
requirements, and Mrs. Witham, with the aid of the charwoman, Mrs. Dempster,
proceeded to arrange matters. When the hampers were brought in and unpacked,
Malcolmson saw that with much kind forethought she had sent from her own
kitchen sufficient provisions to last for a few days. Before going she
expressed all sorts of kind wishes, and at the door turned and said:

"And perhaps, sir, as the room is big and draughty it might be well to have
one of those big screens put round your bed at night -- though truth to
tell, I would die myself if I were to be so shut in with all kinds of -- of
'things,' that put their heads round the sides or over the top, and look on
me!" The image which she had called up was too much for her nerves and she
fled incontinently.

Mrs. Dempster sniffed in a superior manner as the landlady disappeared, and
remarked that for her own part she wasn't afraid of all the bogies in the
kingdom.

"I'll tell you what it is, sir," she said, "bogies is all kinds and sorts of
things -- except bogies! Rats and mice, and beetles and creaky doors, and
loose slates, and broken panes, and stiff drawer handles, that stay out when
you pull them and then fall down in the middle of the night. Look at the
wainscot of the room! It is old -- hundreds of years old! Do you think
there's no rats and beetles there? And do you imagine, sir, that you won't
see none of them? Rats is bogies, I tell you, and bogies is rats, and don't
you get to think anything else!"

"Mrs. Dempster," said Malcolmson gravely, making her a polite bow, "you know
more than a Senior Wrangler! And let me say that, as a mark of esteem for
your indubitable soundness of head and heart, I shall, when I go, give you
possession of this house, and let you stay here by yourself for the last two
months of my tenancy, for four weeks will serve my purpose."

"Thank you kindly, sir!" she answered, "but I couldn't sleep away from home
a night. I am in Greenhow's Charity, and if I slept a night away from my
rooms I should lose all I have got to live on. The rules is very strict, and
there's too many watching for a vacancy for me to run any risks in the
matter. Only for that, sir, I'd gladly come here and attend on you
altogether during your stay."

"My good woman," said Malcolmson hastily, "I have come here on a purpose to
obtain solitude, and believe me that I am grateful to the late Greenhow for
having organized his admirable charity -- whatever it is -- that I am
perforce denied the opportunity of suffering from such a form of temptation!
Saint Anthony himself could not be more rigid on the point!"

The old woman laughed harshly. "Ah, you young gentlemen," she said, "you
don't fear for nought, and belike you'll get all the solitude you want
here." She set to work with her cleaning, and by nightfall, when Malcolmson
returned from his walk -- he always had one of his books to study as he
walked -- he found the room swept and tidied, a fire burning on the old
hearth, the lamp lit, and the table spread for supper with Mrs. Witham's
excellent fare. "This is comfort indeed," he said, and rubbed his hands.

When he had finished his supper, and lifted the tray to the other end of the
great oak dining-table, he got out his books again, put fresh wood on the
fire, trimmed his lamp, and set himself down to a spell of real hard work.
He went on without a pause till about eleven o'clock, when he knocked off
for a bit to fix his fire and lamp, and to make himself a cup of tea. He had
always been a tea-drinker, and during his college life had sat late at work
and had taken tea late. The rest was a great luxury to him, and he enjoyed
it with a sense of delicious voluptuous ease. The renewed fire leaped and
sparkled, and threw quaint shadows through the great old room, and as he
sipped his hot tea he revelled in the sense of isolation from his kind. Then
it was that he began to notice for the first time what a noise the rats were
making.

"Surely," he thought, "they cannot have been at it all the time I was
reading. Had they been, I must have noticed it!" Presently, when the noise
increased, he satisfied himself that it was really new. It was evident that
at first the rats had been frightened at the presence of a stranger, and the
light of fire and lamp, but that as the time went on they had grown bolder
and were now disporting themselves as was their wont.

How busy they were -- and hark to the strange noises! Up and down the old
wainscot, over the ceiling and under the floor they raced, and gnawed, and
scratched! Malcolmson smiled to himself as he recalled to mind the saying of
Mrs. Dempster, "Bogies is rats, and rats is bogies!" The tea began to have
its effect of intellectual and nervous stimulus, he saw with joy another
long spell of work to be done before the night was past, and in the sense of
security which it gave him, he allowed himself the luxury of a good look
round the room. He took his lamp in one hand, and went all round, wondering
that so quaint and beautiful an old house had been so long neglected. The
carving of the oak on the panels of the wainscot was fine, and on and round
the doors and windows it was beautiful and of rare merit. There were some
old pictures on the walls, but they were coated so thick with dust and dirt
that he could not distinguish any detail of them, though he held his lamp as
high as he could over his head. Here and there as he went round he saw some
crack or hole blocked for a moment by the face of a rat with its bright eyes
glittering in the light, but in an instant it was gone, and a squeak and a
scamper followed. The thing that most struck him, however, was the rope of
the great alarm bell on the roof, which hung down in a corner of the room on
the right-hand side of the fireplace. He pulled up close to the hearth a
great high-backed carved oak chair, and sat down to his last cup of tea.
When this was done he made up the fire, and went back to his work, sitting
at the corner of the table, having the fire to his left. For a little while
the rats disturbed him somewhat with their perpetual scampering, but he got
accustomed to the noise as one does to the ticking of the clock or to the
roar of moving water, and he became so immersed in his work that everything
in the world, except the problem which he was trying to solve, passed away
from him.

He suddenly looked up, his problem was still unsolved, and there was in the
air that sense of the hour before the dawn, which is so dread to doubtful
life. The noise of the rats had ceased. Indeed it seemed to him that it must
have ceased but lately and that it was the sudden cessation which had
disturbed him. The fire had fallen low, but still it threw out a deep red
glow. As he looked he started in spite of his sang froid.

There, on the great high-backed carved oak chair by the right side of the
fire-place sat an enormous rat, steadily glaring at him with baleful eyes.
He made a motion to it as though to hunt it away, but it did not stir. Then
he made the motion of throwing something. Still it did not stir, but showed
its great white teeth angrily, and its cruel eyes shone in the lamplight
with an added vindictiveness.

Malcolmson felt amazed, and seizing the poker from the hearth ran at it to
kill it. Before, however, he could strike it the rat, with a squeak that
sounded like the concentration of hate, jumped upon the floor, and, running
up the rope of the alarm bell, disappeared in the darkness beyond the range
of the green-shaded lamp. Instantly, strange to say, the noisy scampering of
the rats in the wainscot began again.

By this time Malcolmson's mind was quite off the problem, and as a shrill
cock-crow outside told him of the approach of morning, he went to bed and to
sleep.

He slept so sound that he was not even waked by Mrs. Dempster coming in to
make up his room. It was only when she had tided up the place and got his
breakfast ready and tapped on the screen which closed in his bed that he
woke. He was a little tired still after his night's hard work, but a strong
cup of tea soon freshened him up and, taking his book, he went out for his
morning walk, bringing with him a few sandwiches lest he should not care to
return till dinner-time. He found a quiet walk between high elms some way
outside the town, and here he spent the greater part of the day studying his
Laplace. On his return he looked in to see Mrs. Witham and to thank her for
her kindness. When she saw him coming through the diamond-paned bay window
of her sanctum she came out to meet him and asked him in. She looked at him
searchingly and shook her head as she said:

"You must not overdo it, sir. You are paler this morning than you should be.
Too late hours and too hard work on the brains isn't good for any man! But
tell me, sir, how did you pass the night? Well, I hope? But, my heart! sir,
I was glad when Mrs. Dempster told me this morning that you were all right
and sleeping sound when she went in."

"Oh, I was all right," he answered smiling, "The 'somethings' didn't worry
me, as yet. Only the rats, and they had a circus, I tell you, all over the
place. There was one wicked-looking old devil that sat up on my own chair by
the fire, and wouldn't go till I took the poker to him, and then he ran up
the rope of the alarm bell and got to somewhere up the wall or the ceiling
-- I couldn't see where, it was so dark."

"Mercy on us," said Mrs. Witham, "an old devil, and sitting on a chair by
the fireside! Take care, sir! take care! There's many a true word spoken in
jest."

"How do you mean? 'Pon my word, I don't understand."

"An old devil! The old devil, perhaps. There! sir, you needn't laugh," for
Malcolmson had broken into a hearty peal. "You young folks think it easy to
laugh at things that makes older ones shudder. Never mind, sir! never mind!
Please God, you'll laugh all the time. It's what I wish you myself!" and the
good lady beamed all over in sympathy with his enjoyment, her fears gone for
a moment.

"Oh, forgive me," said Malcolmson presently. "Don't think me rude, but the
idea was too much for me -- that the old devil himself was on the chair last
night!" And at the thought he laughed again. Then he went home to dinner.

This evening the scampering of the rats began earlier, indeed it had been
going on before his arrival, and only ceased whilst his presence by its
freshness disturbed them. After dinner he sat by the fire for a while and
had a smoke, and then, having cleared his table, began to work as before.
To-night the rats disturbed him more than they had done on the previous
night.

How they scampered up and down and under and over! How they squeaked and
scratched and gnawed! How they, getting bolder by degrees, came to the
mouths of their holes and to the chinks and cracks and crannies in the
wainscoting till their eyes shone like tiny lamps as the firelight rose and
fell. But to him, now doubtless accustomed to them, their eyes were not
wicked, only their playfulness touched him. Sometimes the boldest of them
made sallies out on the floor or along the mouldings of the wainscot. Now
and again as they disturbed him Malcolmson made a sound to frighten them,
smiting the table with his hand or giving a fierce "Hsh, hsh," so that they
fled straightway to their holes.

And so the early part of the night wore on, and despite the noise Malcolmson
got more and more immersed in his work.

All at once he stopped, as on the previous night, being overcome by a sudden
silence. There was not the faintest sound of gnaw, or scratch, or squeak.
The silence was as of the grave.

He remembered the odd occurrence of the previous night, and instinctively he
looked at the chair standing close by the fireside. And then a very odd
sensation thrilled through him.

There, on the great old high-backed carved oak chair beside the fireplace
sat the same enormous rat, steadily glaring at him with baleful eyes.

Instinctively he took the nearest thing to his hand, a book of logarithms,
and flung it at it. The book was badly aimed and the rat did not stir, so
again the poker performance of the previous night was repeated, and again
the rat, being closely pursued, fled up the rope of the alarm bell.
Strangely, too, the departure of this rat was instantly followed by the
renewal of the noise made by the general rat community. On this occasion, as
on the previous one, Malcolmson could not see at what part of the room the
rat disappeared, for the green shade of his lamp left the upper part of the
room in darkness and the fire had burned low.

On looking at his watch he found it was close on midnight, and, not sorry
for the divertissement, he made up his fire and made himself his nightly pot
of tea. He had got through a good spell of work, and thought himself
entitled to a cigarette, and so he sat on the great carved oak chair before
the fire and enjoyed it. Whilst smoking he began to think that he would like
to know where the rat disappeared to, for he had certain ideas for the
morrow not entirely disconnected with a rat-trap. Accordingly he lit another
lamp and placed it so that it would shine well into the right-hand corner of
the wall by the fireplace. Then he got all the books he had with him, and
placed them handy to throw at the vermin. Finally he lifted the rope of the
alarm bell and placed the end of it on the table, fixing the extreme end
under the lamp. As he handled it he could not help noticing how pliable it
was, especially for so strong a rope and one not in use. "You could hang a
man with it," he thought to himself. When his preparations were made he
looked around, and said complacently:

"There now, my friend, I think we shall learn something of you this time!"
He began his work again, and though, as before, somewhat disturbed at first
by the noise of the rats, soon lost himself in his proposition and problems.

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 arm-chair 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. Then he took another book,
and a third, and flung them one after the other 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 Cycloid
Oscillations, nor the Principia, nor Quaternions, nor Thermodynamics. Now
for a look at the book that fetched him!" Malcolmson took it up and looked
at it. As he did so he started, and 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 first streak of dawn stole in through the eastern window.

He slept heavily but uneasily, and dreamed much, and when Mrs. Dempster woke
him late in the morning he seemed ill at ease, and for a few minutes did not
seem to realize exactly where he was. His first request rather surprised the
servant.

"Mrs. Dempster, when I am out to-day I wish you would get the steps and dust
or wash those pictures -- specially that one the third from the fireplace --
I want to see what they are."

Late in the afternoon Malcolmson worked at his books in the shaded walk, and
the cheerfulness of the previous day came back to him as the day wore on,
and he found that his reading was progressing well. He had worked out to a
satisfactory conclusion all the problems which had as yet baffled him, and
it was in a state of jubilation that he paid a visit to Mrs. Witham at "The
Good Traveller." He found a stranger in the cosy sitting-room with the
landlady, who was introduced to him as Dr. Thornhill. She was not quite at
ease, and this, combined with the doctor's plunging at once into a series of
questions, made Malcolmson come to the conclusion that his presence was not
an accident, so without preliminary he said:

"Dr. Thornhill, I shall with pleasure answer you any question you may choose
to ask me if you will answer me one question first."

The doctor seemed surprised, but he smiled and answered at once, "Done! What
is it?"

"Did Mrs. Witham ask you to come here and see me and advise me?"

Dr. Thornhill for a moment was taken aback, and Mrs. Witham got fiery red
and turned away, but the doctor was a frank and ready man, and he answered
at once and openly:

"She did, but she didn't intend you to know it. I suppose it was my clumsy
haste that made you suspect. She told me that she did not like the idea of
your being in that house all by yourself, and that she thought you took too
much strong tea. In fact, she wants me to advise you, if possible, to give
up the tea and the very late hours. I was a keen student in my time, so I
suppose I may take the liberty of a college man, and without offence, advise
you not quite as a stranger."

Malcolmson with a bright smile held out his hand. "Shake -- as they say in
America," he said. "I must thank you for your kindness, and Mrs. Witham too,
and your kindness deserves a return on my part. I promise to take no more
strong tea -- no tea at all till you let me -- and I shall go to bed
to-night at one o'clock at latest. Will that do?"

"Capital," said the doctor. "Now tell us all that you noticed in the old
house," and so Malcolmson then and there told in minute detail all that had
happened in the last two nights. He was interrupted every now and then by
some exclamation from Mrs. Witham, till finally when he told of the episode
of the Bible the landlady's pent-up emotions found vent in a shriek, and it
was not till a stiff glass of brandy and water had been administered that
she grew composed again. Dr. Thornhill listened with a face of growing
gravity, and when the narrative was complete and Mrs. Witham had been
restored he asked:

"The rat always went up the rope of the alarm bell?"

"Always."

"I suppose you know," said the Doctor after a pause, "what that rope is?"

"No?"

"It is," said the Doctor slowly, "the very rope which the hangman used for
all the victims of the Judge's judicial rancour!" Here he was interrupted by
another scream from Mrs. Witham, and steps had to be taken for her recovery.
Malcolmson having looked at his watch, and found that it was close to his
dinner-hour, had gone home before her complete recovery.

When Mrs. Witham was herself again she almost assailed the Doctor with angry
questions as to what he meant by putting such horrible ideas into the poor
young man's mind. "He has quite enough there already to upset him," she
added.

Dr. Thornhill replied:

"My dear madam, I had a distinct purpose in it! I wanted to draw his
attention to the bell-rope, and to fix it there. It may be that he is in a
highly over-wrought state, and has been studying too much, although I am
bound to say that he seems as sound and healthy a young man, mentally and
bodily, as ever I saw -- but then the rats -- and that suggestion of the
devil." The doctor shook his head and went on. "I would have offered to go
and stay the first night with him but that I felt sure it would have been a
cause of offence. He may get in the night some strange fright or
hallucination, and if he does I want him to pull that rope. All alone as he
is it will give us warning, and we may reach him in time to be of service. I
shall be sitting up pretty late to-night and shall keep my ears open. Do not
be alarmed if Benchurch gets a surprise before morning."

"Oh, Doctor, what do you mean? What do you mean?"

"I mean this, that possibly -- nay, more probably -- we shall hear the great
alarm-bell from the Judge's House to-night," and the Doctor made about an
effective an exit as could be thought of.

When Malcolmson arrived home he found that it was a little after his usual
time, and Mrs. Dempster had gone away -- the rules of Greenhow's Charity
were not to be neglected. He was glad to see that the place was bright and
tidy with a cheerful fire and a well-trimmed lamp. The evening was colder
than might have been expected in April, and a heavy wind was blowing with
such rapidly-increasing strength that there was every promise of a storm
during the night. For a few minutes after his entrance the noise of the rats
ceased, but so soon as they became accustomed to his presence they began
again. He was glad to hear them, for he felt once more the feeling of
companionship in their noise, and his mind ran back to the strange fact that
they only ceased to manifest themselves when the other -- the great rat with
the baleful eyes -- came upon the scene. The reading- lamp only was lit and
its green shade kept the ceiling and the upper part of the room in darkness
so that the cheerful light from the hearth spreading over the floor and
shining on the white cloth laid over the end of the table was warm and
cheery. Malcolmson sat down to his dinner with a good appetite and a buoyant
spirit. After his dinner and a cigarette he sat steadily down to work,
determined not to let anything disturb him, for he remembered his promise to
the doctor, and made up his mind to make the best of the time at his
disposal.

For an hour or so he worked all right, and then his thoughts began to wander
from his books. The actual circumstances around him, and the calls on his
physical attention, and his nervous susceptibility were not to be denied. By
this time the wind had become a gale, and the gale a storm. The old house,
solid though it was, seemed to shake to its foundation, and the storm roared
and raged through its many chimneys and its queer old gables, producing
strange, unearthly sounds in the empty rooms and corridors. Even the great
alarm-bell on the roof must have felt the force of the wind, for the rope
rose and fell slightly, as though the bell were moved a little from time to
time, and the limber rope fell on the oak floor with a hard and hollow
sound.

As Malcolmson listened to it he bethought himself of the doctor's words, "It
is the rope which the hangman used for the victims of the Judge's judicial
rancour," and he went over to the corner of the fireplace and took it in his
hand to look at it. There seemed a sort of deadly interest in it, and as he
stood there he lost himself for a moment in speculation as to who these
victims were, and the grim wish of the Judge to have such a ghastly relic
ever under his eyes. As he stood there the swaying of the bell on the roof
still lifted the rope now and again, but presently there came a new
sensation -- a sort of tremor in the rope, as though something was moving
along it.

Looking up instinctively Malcolmson saw the great rat coming slowly down
towards him, glaring at him steadily. He dropped the rope and started back
with a muttered curse, and the rat turning ran up the slope again and
disappeared, and at the same instant Malcolmson became conscious that the
noise of the other rats, which had ceased for a while, began again.

All this set him thinking, and it occurred to him that he had not
investigated the lair of the rat or looked at the pictures, as he had
intended. He lit the other lamp without the shade, and, holding it up went
and stood opposite the third picture from the fireplace on the right-hand
side where he had seen the rat disappear on the previous night.

At the first glance he started back so suddenly that he almost dropped the
lamp, and a deadly pallor overspread his face.

His knees shook, and heavy drops of sweat came on his forehead, and he
trembled like an aspen. But he was young and plucky, and pulled himself
together, and after the pause of a few seconds stepped forward again, raised
the lamp, and examined the picture which had been dusted and washed, and now
stood out clearly.

It was of a judge dressed in his robes of scarlet and ermine. His face was
strong and merciless, evil, crafty and vindictive, with a sensual mouth,
hooked nose of ruddy colour, and shaped like the beak of a bird of prey. The
rest of the face was of a cadaverous colour. The eyes were of peculiar
brilliance and with a terribly malignant expression. As he looked at them,
Malcolmson grew cold, for he saw there the very counterpart of the eyes of
the great rat. The lamp almost fell from his hand, he saw the rat with its
baleful eyes peering out through the hole in the corner of the picture, and
noted the sudden cessation of the noise of the other rats. However, he
pulled himself together, and went on with his examination of the picture.

The Judge was seated in a great high-backed carved oak chair, on the
right-hand side of a great stone fireplace where, in the corner, a rope hung
down from the ceiling, its end lying coiled on the floor. With a feeling of
something like horror, Malcolmson recognized the scene of the room as it
stood, and gazed around him in an awestruck manner as though he expected to
find some strange presence behind him. Then he looked over to the corner of
the fireplace -- and with a loud cry he let the lamp fall from his hand.

There, in the judge's arm-chair, with the rope hanging behind, sat the rat
with the Judge's baleful eyes, now intensified as with a fiendish leer. Save
for the howling of the storm without there was silence.

The fallen lamp recalled Malcolmson to himself. Fortunately it was of metal,
and so the oil was not spilt. However, the practical need of attending to it
settled at once his nervous apprehensions. When he had turned it out, he
wiped his brow and thought for a moment.

"This will not do," he said to himself. "If I go on like this I shall become
a crazy fool. This must stop! I promised the doctor I would not take tea.
Faith, he was pretty right! My nerves must have been getting into a queer
state. Funny I did not notice it. I never felt better in my life. However,
it is all right now, and I shall not be such a fool again."

Then he mixed himself a good stiff glass of brandy and water and resolutely
sat down to his work.

It was nearly an hour when he looked up from his book, disturbed by the
sudden stillness. Without, the wind howled and roared louder then ever, and
the rain drove in sheets against the windows, beating like hail on the
glass, but within there was no sound whatever save the echo of the wind as
it roared in the great chimney, and now and then a hiss as a few raindrops
found their way down the chimney in a lull of the storm. The fire had fallen
low and had ceased to flame, though it threw out a red glow. Malcolmson
listened attentively, and presently heard a thin, squeaking noise, very
faint. It came from the corner of the room where the rope hung down, and he
thought it was the creaking of the rope on the floor as the swaying of the
bell raised and lowered it. Looking up, however, he saw in the dim light the
great rat clinging to the rope and gnawing it. The rope was already nearly
gnawed through -- he could see the lighter colour where the strands were
laid bare. As he looked the job was completed, and the severed end of the
rope fell clattering on the oaken floor, whilst for an instant the great rat
remained like a knob or tassel at the end of the rope, which now began to
sway to and fro. Malcolmson felt for a moment another pang of terror as he
thought that now the possibility of calling the outer world to his
assistance was cut off, but an intense anger took its place, and seizing the
book he was reading he hurled it at the rat. The blow was well-aimed, but
before the missile could reach him the rat dropped off and struck the floor
with a soft thud. Malcolmson instantly rushed over towards him, but it
darted away and disappeared in the darkness of the shadows of the room.
Malcolmson felt that his work was over for the night, and determined then
and there to vary the monotony of the proceedings by a hunt for the rat, and
took off the green shade of the lamp so as to insure a wider spreading
light. As he did so the gloom of the upper part of the room was relieved,
and in the new flood of light, great by comparison with the previous
darkness, the pictures on the wall stood out boldly.

From where he stood, Malcolmson saw right opposite to him the third picture
on the wall from the right of the fireplace. He rubbed his eyes in surprise,
and then a great fear began to come upon him.

In the centre of the picture was a great irregular patch of brown canvas, as
fresh as when it was stretched on the frame. The background was as before,
with chair and chimney-corner and rope, but the figure of the Judge had
disappeared.

Malcolmson, almost in a chill of horror, turned slowly round, and then he
began to shake and tremble like a man in a palsy. His strength seemed to
have left him, and he was incapable of action or movement, hardly even of
thought. He could only see and hear.

There, on the great high-backed carved oak chair sat the judge in his robes
of scarlet and ermine, with his baleful eyes glaring vindictively, and a
smile of triumph on the resolute cruel mouth, as he lifted with his hands a
black cap. Malcolmson felt as if the blood was running from his heart, as
one does in moments of prolonged suspense. There was a singing in his ears.
Without, he could hear the roar and howl of the tempest, and through it,
swept on the storm, came the striking of midnight by the great chimes in the
market-place. He stood for a space of time that seemed to him endless still
as a statue, and with wide-open, horror-struck eyes, breathless. As the
clock struck, so the smile of triumph on the Judge's face intensified, and
at the last stroke of midnight he placed the black cap on his head.

Slowly and deliberately the Judge rose from his chair and picked up the
piece of rope of the alarm bell which lay on the floor, drew it through his
hands as if he enjoyed its touch and then deliberately began to knot one end
of it, fashioning it into a noose. This he tightened and tested with his
foot, pulling hard at it till he was satisfied and then making a running
noose of it, which he held in his hand. Then he began to move along the
table on the opposite side of Malcolmson keeping his eyes on him until he
had passed him, when with a quick movement he stood in front of the door.
Malcolmson then began to feel that he was trapped, and tried to think of
what he should do. There was some fascination in the Judge's eyes, which he
never took off him, and he had, perforce, to look. He saw the Judge approach
-- still keeping between him and the door -- and raise the noose and throw
it towards him as if to entangle him. With a great effort he made a quick
movement to one side, and saw the rope fall beside him, and heard it strike
the oaken floor. Again the Judge raised the noose and tried to ensnare him,
ever keeping his baleful eyes fixed on him, and each time by a mighty effort
the student just managed to evade it. So this went on for many times, the
Judge seeming never discouraged nor discomposed at failure, but playing as a
cat does with a mouse. At last in despair, which had reached its climax,
Malcolmson cast a quick glance round him. The lamp seemed to have blazed up,
and there was a fairly good light in the room. At the many rat-holes and in
the chinks and crannies of the wainscot he saw the rats' eyes, and this
aspect, that was purely physical, gave him a gleam of comfort. He looked
round and saw that the rope of the great alarm bell was laden with rats.
Every inch of it was covered with them, and more and more were pouring
through the small circular hole in the ceiling whence it emerged, so that
with their weight the bell was beginning to sway.

Hark! it had swayed till the clapper had touched the bell. The sound was but
a tiny one, but the bell was only beginning to sway, and it would increase.

At the sound the Judge, who had been keeping his eyes fixed on Malcolmson,
looked up, and a scowl of diabolical anger overspread his face. His eyes
fairly glowed like hot coals, and he stamped his foot with a sound that
seemed to make the house shake. A dreadful peal of thunder broke overhead as
he raised the rope again, whilst the rats kept running up and down the rope
as though working against time. This time, instead of throwing it, he drew
close to his victim, and held open the noose as he approached. As he came
closer there seemed something paralyzing in his very presence, and
Malcolmson stood rigid as a corpse. He felt the Judge's icy fingers touch
his throat as he adjusted the rope. The noose tightened -- tightened. Then
the Judge, taking the rigid form of the student in his arms, carried him
over and placed him standing in the oak chair, and stepping up beside him,
put his hand up and caught the end of the swaying rope of the alarm-bell. As
he raised his hand the rats fled squeaking and disappeared through the hole
in the ceiling. Taking the end of the noose which was round Malcolmson's
neck he tied it to the hanging bell-rope, and then descending pulled away
the chair.

* * * * *

When the alarm-bell of the Judge's House began to sound a crowd soon
assembled. Lights and torches of various kinds appeared, and soon a silent
crowd was hurrying to the spot. They knocked loudly at the door, but there
was no reply. Then they burst in the door, and poured into the great
dining-room, the doctor at the head.

There at the end of the rope of the great alarm-bell hung the body of the
student, and on the face of the Judge in the picture was a malignant smile.