This was stopped when Delapore's ancestor killed his entire family in their sleep and left the country in order to end the horror, leaving the remaining human livestock and a surviving relative to be devoured by the rats inhabiting the city's cesspits. Upon investigating further, and through recurring dreams, Delapore learns that his family maintained an underground city for centuries, where they raised generations of ”human cattle”-some regressed to a quadrupedal state-to supply their taste for human flesh. After moving in, Delapore and his cat frequently hear the sounds of rats scurrying behind the walls. To the dismay of nearby residents, he restores the estate, called Exham Priory. In 1923, an American named Delapore, the last descendant of the De la Poer family, moves to his ancestral estate in England following the death of his only son during World War I. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924. ”The Rats in the Walls” is a short story by American author H.
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