“I know all!” the Rabbit said sternly. “You are a little villain! What defence can you offer for so grossly deceiving me?”
But the Mouse made no reply. In a fury of disappointment and fear he was biting the Rabbit’s legs, hoping thus to disable him and prevent his punishing the treachery that had been brought to light.
“Desist!” cried the Rabbit, “or I shall end your life without delay. I repeat, what excuse can you offer for having so wickedly broken the terms of our agreement? You have tried to rob me of my life and my money. Make your defence.”
“There was no written agreement,” answered the Mouse shamelessly. “Each was at liberty to understand it in his own way.”
“Most wicked of animals, you are not fit to live,” cried the Rabbit with disgust. “Your moments are numbered.”
Then before the Mouse could offer any protest, the Rabbit bit his head right off and swallowed it.
“You will observe,” said the Rabbit to the Owl with dignity, “that I still maintain my proper position in the eyes of the world as a Welsh rare-bit, but the Mouse, owing to his misdeeds, is now in the contemptible state of the biter bit. Such is the end of the wicked.
“As for you,” he continued to the Sentry, who, with his boastful spirit crushed, stood trembling in the Sentry-box; “as for you, you have seen too much of the world and its ways. It would be better for you to see a little less of it for a time.”