Part 1

Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

THE

WHITE MICE

RICHARD HARDING DAVIS

ILLUSTRATED BY

GEORGE GIBBS

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK 1912

COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

ILLUSTRATIONS

"What does anything matter, when I know--that the end is near!" Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

"O-i-i-ga, you Moso! Get a move on! Pronto! If you don't I'll do that myself" 20

"I hear the call of the White Mice," said Peter de Peyster 30

Under the blow, the masked man staggered drunkenly 70

Shifting the reins to his left hand, Roddy let the other fall upon his revolver 114

"Now I know why I came to Venezuela!" 144

On such a night, Leander swam the Hellespont 198

Her fingers traced the sign of the cross 294

THE WHITE MICE

Once upon a time a lion dropped his paw upon a mouse.

"Please let me live!" begged the mouse, "and some day I will do as much for you."

"That is so funny," roared the king of beasts, "that we will release you. We had no idea mice had a sense of humor."

And then, as you remember, the lion was caught in the net of the hunter, and struggled, and fought, and struck blindly, until his spirit and strength were broken, and he lay helpless and dying.

And the mouse, happening to pass that way, gnawed and nibbled at the net, and gave the lion his life.

The morals are: that an appreciation of humor is a precious thing; that God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform, and that you never can tell.

In regard to this fable it is urged that, according to the doctrine of chances, it is extremely unlikely that at the very moment the lion lay bound and helpless the very same mouse should pass by. But the explanation is very simple and bromidic.

It is this--that this is a small world.

People who are stay-at-home bodies come to believe the whole world is the village in which they live. People who are rolling-stones claim that if you travel far enough and long enough the whole world becomes as one village; that sooner or later you make friends with every one in it; that the only difference between the stay-at-homes and the gadabouts is that while the former answer local telephone calls, the others receive picture postal-cards. There is a story that seems to illustrate how small this world is. In fact, this is the story.