The rafters were not very wide apart, not too far for me to jump from one to another with fair ease. But they were rough-hewn and narrow at the top, and the heavier cat could not get a foothold so quickly as I; so I gained all the way to the window. The second rafter from the window was a very narrow and awkward one. Even I found it hard to balance myself upon it. As I did so, I caught a glimpse of something hanging from the last rafter, the only one left between me and the window. It was a peculiar-looking, pear-shaped object, grey in colour, rough in texture, and in size rather larger than my body. I knew well enough what it was, though in my fright I barely noticed it. Next instant I had landed just above it, then, gathering all my powers for a longer leap than any before, launched myself towards the window-sill. I just succeeded in reaching it, only to find that the opening was covered with wire netting. I was hopelessly trapped. Hot-foot after me came the cat. She could jump as well or better than I, but, as I said before, the narrowness of the beams bothered her. When she reached the narrowest, the second from the window, she had all she could do to keep her balance. The result was that her next jump was a trifle short. Her fore-paws clutched the beam, but her hind-feet failed to reach it, and struggling desperately to pull herself up, she drove her hind-claws deep into the pear-shaped object which hung exactly below her. Instantly there arose a deep-toned buzzing, and the air was thick with a cloud of furious wasps. There followed a perfect squeal of pain and terror, and my enemy, covered with a swarm of the fierce little stinging insects, dropped with a resounding thump on to the boards below, and fled like a mad thing, pursued by scores of angry wasps. The wasps rose to the very roof; they were all round me. I made one frantic scramble up the rusty netting, found a hole, squeezed through anyhow, and just as the first wasp landed on my back and drove a vicious sting through my thick fur, took a wild jump in the direction of the nearest shrub. The distance was too much for me. My fore-paws just touched the leaves, and I went sailing downwards into the deep shadows beneath. Down, down into absolute blackness, to land at last with a shock that for the moment completely deprived me of my few remaining senses. Fortunately for us squirrel folk and all other animals except man, we never remain insensible for long. I was all awake again in a very few moments, and found myself lying on a thick bed of damp, decaying leaves. It was almost pitch dark, but a little light which leaked down from somewhere high above showed me that I was at the bottom of a deep hole, with perpendicular sides of mouldering brickwork.