School Stories · Chapter
The Tabby Terror explained
The chapter details the escalating conflict between the students of Prater's House and a thieving cat named Captain Kettle.
What happens
The chapter details the escalating conflict between the students of Prater's House and a thieving cat named Captain Kettle. After the cat steals food from Smith and Montgomery's study, a campaign of retaliation begins, but the cat continues its raids, stealing from prefects and fags alike. Trentham, injured and visited by his sister, convinces her to ask the Praters for the cat. When Captain Kettle eats the Praters' prized canary, they decide to get rid of him, and Trentham's sister takes him away, ending the 'Tabby Terror'.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Falling action.
- Setup
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
In this excerpt, the narrative climax occurs as the tension surrounding the impending Greek examination reache…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Trickery and Cunning
The cat's clever thefts and the students' schemes to stop it, including Trentham's plan to have his sister adopt the cat, highlight themes of cunning and deception.
- Authority and Rebellion
The students' struggle against the cat, which is protected by the Praters, reflects a rebellion against the authority that allows the cat's misdeeds.
Characters to notice
- Smith
Discovers the cat's theft of sardines and participates in the discussion about the cat's guilt.
- Montgomery
Uses deductive reasoning to identify the cat as the thief and suggests methods of dealing with it.
- Trentham
The head of the House who loses sausages to the cat and devises the plan to have his sister adopt it.
- Shawyer
Joins the discussion about the cat's thefts and suggests using an airgun against it.
Key passages
“The struggle between Prater's cat and Prater's cat's conscience was short, and ended in the hollowest of victories for the former.”
The cat's conscience put up no real fight against its desire to steal the sardines.
Describes the cat's lack of moral restraint.
“I traced his little footprints in the butter. Now, is that the mark of a human foot?”
Montgomery points out the cat's paw prints in the butter as proof of its guilt.
Montgomery uses a Sherlock Holmes-style deduction to solve the mystery.
“Buy the beak's cat, hissed Trentham, in a hoarse whisper.”
Trentham urges his sister to purchase the master's cat.
Trentham's plan to get rid of the cat by having his sister adopt it.
