AN INTERLUDE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 307, 27 December 1924, Page 17

AN INTERLUDE.

(By "BARXACLE," in the "Public Service Journal").

The Head, being hard of hearing, thought it was the visitor's voice, and inwardly marvelled at its clear shrillness. He learnt afterwards that it was not so —the girls made the noise. One of the lady members of the staff took refuge on her table, from which point of vantage, with skiru tightly grasped, she viewed the scene in. comparative security. I The Head armed himself with half a brick, which happened to be lying handy on the hearth. The senior computer grasped a stout map-roller, and most of the other members of the staff, particularly the boys, each armed himself ■with one of Mr. .Staff Surveyor's totara pegs, of which he always kept a fair supply under the table. The widelyexperienced private surveyor, who happened to be in the room, issued general instructions, which all hands were too busy to observe. j The cause of the trouble was the arrival of a particularly large rat. We had been aware for some time previously of the existence in our environment of this beast, but up to the interlude no one had actually seen him. We saw him all right this time, and, with the sight of him, started in to exact summary vengeance. It svas thought advisable to hold over formal trial and condemnation until after his decease. It was easier said than done. The room contained thirteen tables, not to men-j tion the corresponding stools, chairs, and footstools, all, as it happened, blessed with their full complement of legs —a somewhat rare thing in a Government ofliee. In addition, several large presses helped to tangle up things generally, and as, moreover, tha rat proved to be a wise old strategist, he had it all his own way for some time. , The Head had one glorious chance with his half-brick, but misjudged the speed of the quarry, and missed. He shook i up the door, though, considerably—it would have downed a hnrse. Meanwhile, the boys, using ammunition ; freely, were very busy, following up the quarry and turning it out of various and sundry apparently safe hidingplaces. The wholehearted devotion to duty which they displayed, notwith-1 standing imminent danger of coming into violent contact with the brick aforesaid, was beyond all praise; never-' theless, they were unable to get a fair j whack at him. The remainder of the. staff executed tactical moves about the centre' of the room, awaiting develop- '■ tnents. i The end came wnen the rat, closely ! pursued by the Head with his halfbrick, committed an error of judgment j and blundered within easy reach of the ! senior computer and his map-roller, and 1 received a "Jack Dempsey" over the ' nose. The S.C. need not, however, have struck the conquering hero air he did as he held up the defunct rodent by the tail, leaning on his trusty maproller the while. The Head maintains that it was fear of him and his halfbrick (and not of the S.C.) which was; the cause of the rat's undoing, running j as he did within point-blank range of [ oft-mentioned roller, and that there was ! no heroism in his (the S.C.s) easy victory. It may be so. Anyway, he says his first attempt with the brick was merely a sighter, and that he would have got him as sure as eggs with his second barrel. It, however. dni>s no* matter. The rat ■was satisfactorily disposed of (the court-martial a? mentioned earlier in this narrative was postponed sine die) by being swung by the tail, catapult fashion, into the neighbour's back yard. He (the neighbour) owns to possessing so many and various smells (his back yard is meant, not the neighbour) that an additional one, it was thought, would nncl llTlTlntlPpn. Sα ri-T-P- I