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 around, 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 a 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