chapter5_page-35-39

5.

An hour later, the room suddenly becomes very quiet.

The silence disturbs Malcolm.

He looks up from his book.

He just hears the roar of the wind outside and the thick raindrops hitting the window.

The rain is pouring down, and the drops are as big as hail.

The fire in the fireplace is very low.

It just gives out a red glow.

There are no flames.

Malcolm rises from his chair to put some wood on the fire.

But just at that moment, he hears a very faint squeaking sound.

It's coming from the corner near the fireplace.

He looks up at the wall there and he sees the enormous rat.

It is clinging to the alarm bell rope and gnawing it.

The lower half of the rope is damaged.

Malcolm watches this in horror.

Suddenly, the damaged half of the rope falls onto the floor, and the rat clings to the upper part of the rope.

Malcolm feels scared and worried.

Now the rope is broken.

I cannot pull it and ring the alarm bell.

When I am in danger, I cannot call for help.

He thinks to himself in panic.

This thought makes him very angry, so he throws his book at the giant rat.

But the rat jumps down onto the floor before the book reaches it.

Malcolm runs toward the rat immediately, but it escapes.

It disappears in the darkness of the room.

I will stop studying now.

I must hunt that evil rat, Malcolm says to himself.

He starts to look for the giant evil rat.

He first looks in the holes on the wall near the fireplace.

Just then, he notices something in the third painting on the right side of the fireplace.

The big, high -backed chair in the picture is empty.

The figure of the judge is not in the picture anymore.

A great fear comes upon Malcolm.

He begins to shake and tremble.

He can't move, and he can't even think.

He can only see and hear.

He slowly turns around, and he can't believe his eyes.

The judge himself, in his red robe, is sitting on the high -backed wooden chair in the room.

With his evil eyes, he is looking directly at Malcolm.

He has a smile of victory on his cruel face.

Then he holds up a black cap.

The black cap means a judge is giving a death punishment to a criminal.

Malcolm is horrified now.

He just stands like a statue without any movement.

His eyes are wide open in horror.

At that moment, the chimes at the marketplace begin to strike 12 midnight.

The smile of victory on the judge's face gets bigger.

As soon as the chimes stop ringing, he puts the black cap on his head.

He rises from the high -backed chair.

He takes the damaged half of the rope from the floor.

He begins to make a knot at the end of it, and he makes a noose.

Then he tightens the noose, and with a quick movement,

he walks toward the door.

He stands between Malcolm and the door.

I am trapped.

I can't escape from here.

I must do something, says Malcolm to himself.

The judge holds the noose up and throws it toward Malcolm.

He wants to entangle him.

Malcolm, with a great effort, moves to the side and the noose falls beside him on the floor.

The judge takes the noose from the floor and tries to entangle Malcolm with it one more time.

Malcolm moves to the side again and escapes the rope.

The judge tries several times and the noose misses Malcolm each time,

but he does not stop trying.

In fact, he is enjoying this, like a cat playing with a mouse.

Malcolm takes a quick look around the room.

He hopes to find something to save him.

He sees the eyes of the little rats in all the holes and cracks on the walls.

He looks at the upper half of the great alarm bells rope.

It is covered with hundreds of rats.

This makes Malcolm feel comfortable.

There are more and more rats coming down from the bell's hole on the ceiling.

And with their weight, the great alarm bell on the roof begins to swing very slowly.

The bell is making a faint sound now, but it will get louder with more rats on the rope.

Malcolm thinks to himself.

Then he thinks about the doctor.

Perhaps Dr. Thornhill is not sleeping now.

He will hear the alarm bell.

He will get other people, and they will all come and rescue me.

The judge now hears the faint sound of the great alarm bell on the roof.

He looks up angrily at the hanging rope with the rats on it.

He gets angrier, and his eyes glow like pieces of coal.

He picks up the noose from the floor again and slowly comes near Malcolm with it.

Malcolm is standing rigid in horror now.

He is like a corpse.

He can't speak.

He can't even scream.

Soon he feels the judge's cold fingers on his throat.

He is placing the noose over Malcolm's head around his neck.

He pulls the noose tighter and tighter.

Then he carries Malcolm to the high -backed chair and makes him stand on it.

The judge stands on the chair, too, beside Malcolm.

He catches the end of the swinging rope of the alarm bell.

The rats on the rope all escape through the hole on the ceiling.

The judge ties the end of the noose to the end of the alarm bell's rope.

After that, he gets down on the floor.

He pulls the chair away from under Malcolm's feet.

And so the alarm bell on the roof begins to ring loudly.

Soon the doctor and a crowd of people come running to the judge's house with torches and lights in their hands.

They knock on the door loudly.

No one answers the door.

So they break the door down.

They run to the dining room with the doctor at the front.

They are shocked.

Malcolm's dead body is hanging at the end of the alarm bell's rope.

Now the judge is sitting in the high -backed chair in the picture.

There is an evil smile on his face.