Stan Lynn Part 20

For Stan's temper boiled over at once.

"You insolent hound!" he roared, striking the bamboo aside, as he sprang at the man. "How dare you!"

Stan's aspect was tragic, for, in spite of the disproportion between him and his enemy, the man started back, and the scene became a farce.

The great cowardly brute fell against one of his comrades, who responded by giving him a heavy thrust which sent him against the third, who raised his knee so suddenly that Stan's a.s.sailant cannoned off and fell heavily against the cage-like part.i.tion.

"Hergh!" he growled savagely as he began to gather himself up slowly, glowering at Stan the while and muttering threats. But the next minute he uttered a yell and sprang to his feet, but only to fall back, with his head giving a heavy, resounding rap against the bamboo uprights, where Stan saw that it was held tightly, while his big, round face, turned towards the spectators of his trouble, was wrinkled up into distortions caused by fear and pain.

For the moment Stan was puzzled, and the more so at seeing the other two begin roaring with laughter as their companion continued to yell for help, while they stamped about the prison, thumping the b.u.t.ts of their spears upon the open floor.

"Why doesn't he get up?" thought Stan.

A strange, snarling, growling noise gave the explanation. It was just such a sound as would be given out by a hound worrying a fox, and now it was that Stan grasped what had happened. For the enraged monkey had seen its opportunity when its tormentor had fallen and the back of his head struck the part.i.tion; it had darted its long, sinewy hand and arm through, and s.n.a.t.c.hed them back, drawing soldier's pigtail into the den.

Then, with a snarl of triumph, a grab was made with the other hand and feet, the steel-trap-like jaws closed upon the thickest part of the plait, and holding on with bulldog-like tenacity, and more than double that animal's strength, the fierce little creature growled and worried and tore away till Stan's rage evaporated in something very much like enjoyment of the victim's discomfiture.

"Well done, monkey!" he said to himself, and then waited to see the termination of the encounter.

One thing was very evident, and that was the impossibility of the man freeing himself, for at every struggle to draw the tail from the little animal's grasp, and any increase of the distance between the imprisoned head and the bars, there was a fierce, worrying noise, and the monkey made a bound back which drew the head against the bars with a heavy thump, to the increase of the man's agony, as it forced from him fresh yells for help and more laughter from his companions.

This went on and on, the sufferer running up and down a whole gamut of appeals, cries that were doubtless Chinese oaths hurled at his friends, threats of what he would do to the monkey, and orders to Stan--at least they seemed to be, for he stared furiously at the lad as he shouted, and at last so piteously in the midst of a savage worrying, which sounded as if the monkey was beginning to tear at the sufferer's head, that Stan's compa.s.sion was moved, and he went forward to try and get the man free.

But the others dashed at him at once, and holding their spears horizontally, thrust him back, growling out what evidently meant "No, no, no!" and completely debarring the lad from giving any aid.

At last, not from good fellows.h.i.+p, but from growing tired of the sport, the two soldiers began to lend an ear to their comrade's appeals; and after a little banter from one, and a few shouts from the other to the monkey, which seemed to Stan to be incitements to the animal to go on worrying, a word or two pa.s.sed between them, resulting in one picking up the water-pot, putting his spear in a corner, and stepping out into what seemed to be a pa.s.sage.

Seeing this, a wild idea crossed Stan's mind that now would be his time--that is, to seize the spear and make a dash for liberty.

But he made no attempt, for he felt that a better chance must come, and he waited, to see the man step back directly with the heavy pot brim full. This he bore towards the sufferer, who yelled at him savagely, words which Stan felt certain were a bullying, insulting order to make haste, for he saw the Chinese Aquarius exchange a malicious grin with his comrade, who stood leaning on his spear; and then the whole of the contents of the pot were discharged full at the part.i.tion, but with so mischievous an aim that the imprisoned head received a larger share than the monkey on the other side.

But the result was freedom.

Once more the monkey uttered a shriek at the unexpected bath, and darted away, while its victim scrambled up, feeling at his tail, which was ragged and torn frightfully about six inches or a foot from his head.

As the gallant warrior felt how terribly the n.o.ble appendage had been damaged, he burst forth into a piteous howl, and then literally blubbered with misery like a great, fat-headed b.o.o.by of a boy.

"Oh, how-w!" he cried--"oh, how-w!" and once more his comrades stamped about and thumped the floor with their spear-ends in the exuberance of their delight.

"I wish I thoroughly understood Chinese," said Stan to himself as, quite forgetting his own troubles, he listened to the crying soldier's string of reproach poured out upon his comrades, till, after wiping the water from his head and clothes, and feeling his tail again from end to end, the pause he made over the gnawed and tattered portion was too much for him.

Uttering a howl of rage, he dashed at his spear, seized it from where it leaned, made for the part.i.tion, and thrust the sharp point through.

The monkey took this for a challenge, and uttered a chattering yell of defiance, while Stan saw it advance bravely to meet the fresh a.s.sault.

This could only have had one result, but the poor beast found an unexpected ally in Stan, who stepped forward just in time.

The spear was half its length through the bars, and on a level with the monkey's broad breast, as the soldier made his thrust, one which must have spitted the little, dwarfish creature through had not Stan made a thrust at the same moment, diverting the man's aim. The result was that the spear met with no opposition, and the fierce energy with which the stroke at the monkey was made carried the soldier crash against the part.i.tion and within reach of the animal's hands, which pa.s.sed through the bars, caught him by the ears, and held on for a moment or two--not more.

For the man threw himself back with a yell of dismay, escaped, and, now more enraged than ever, turned upon Stan with his spear.

It would have gone hard with the lad, for the soldier was furious, but his comrades interfered with angry word and action, dragged the spear from him, and bundled him out of the place, before refilling the water-pot and half-filling the other vessel with cold boiled rice.

While these proceedings were taking place Stan attacked the two soldiers verbally with the best Chinese he could command, a.s.suring them that they had made a great mistake in arresting him, an Englishman, bidding them find out what had become of Wing, and ordering them to go straight to the merchant's house at the other side of the town to tell him of what had happened, and then inform the mandarin of the city, so that the speaker might be released at once.

All of this the prisoner emphasised with great volubility. The two soldiers smiled and listened and nodded their heads, before going out and fastening the door after them, leaving poor Stan with the determination upon him to wait patiently until the messages were delivered, but all the time with his heart sinking and his common-sense telling him that his present jailers had not grasped a word he said.

"Oh dear!" he cried bitterly; "they didn't understand a word. Oh, dear!

why didn't the Doctor teach me Chinese instead of all that Latin and Greek? They would have understood me then; while now I'm perfectly helpless, the brutes treating me just as if I were some newly discovered wild beast. Whatever shall I do?

"I know," thought the lad at last: "wait till it's dark. These bars are only bamboo, and it will be strange if I can't get through as soon as I set to work. And what then? Why, the river! I must be able to find some boat or another. Pooh! I'm not going to despair.

"No," he added gloomily after a few moments' thought; "I can't go alone, and leave poor old Wing in the lurch. He wouldn't leave me, I know. I will make for the farm. Perhaps Wing is over there after all, and for aught I know he may be following me up, and is perhaps hunting for me even now. There, I'm not going to be heart-sick and despairing. I shall get away back to the _hong_ after all."

"Tchack!"

As Stan talked to himself he was gazing at the prison door, but this sound brought him round in the other direction, to see a pair of bright brown eyes watching him, and the fierce Chinese mountain monkey with its long, thin arm stretched through the bars.

"Hullo, savage!" cried Stan aloud. "I'd forgotten you. Nice game this, making me your companion. What do the contemptible brutes mean? To send us both to their wretched Zoological Gardens in Peking? I should like to catch them at it! Well, you're not handsome, but, my word, you are a plucky little chap! Think of your tackling that great hulking John Chinaman as you did! I say, though, it was nearly all over with you with that spear."

"_Tchack_!" said the monkey coolly.

"Say Jack, if that's your name," said Stan, smiling.

"_Tchack_!"

"Oh, very well! Tchack! I say, though, who'd ever think that there was so much strength in that skinny arm? What do you want? You can't be hungry. Want to shake hands?"

"_Tchack_!" said the monkey quietly, and it strained out its fingers as far as it could, while its fellow-prisoner could see that it was clinging to the upright bar with the hand-like feet.

"Want to shake hands?" said Stan. "Now, I wonder whether monkeys have sense enough to know the difference between friends and enemies. Dogs do, of course, but you look a risky one. I've no tail for you to grab, but you might get hold of me and give me an uncomfortable grip. You might drag my hand through and bite and tear it horribly. Perhaps, though, I'm as strong as you are, if it came to a tussle. Yet I don't know; you are wonderfully powerful for such a little chap."

"_Tchack_!"

"Does that mean shake hands? Well, I'm just in the humour to risk it.

Perhaps you do know I'm friendly, after all, for you don't look so fierce as you did."

Stan took a step or two nearer, bringing himself so close that he had only to raise his hand to take that of the fierce-looking little animal; while it was now light enough for him to see every twitch and wrinkling of its restless forehead as its eyes searched his keenly. Then he waited, occupying the time in calculating his chances.

"If I do let him grip my hand," he said to himself, "and he tries to drag it between the bars, I have only to plant a foot against the bars and hold back. He can't get at me to bite unless I let him drag my hand right through, and I'm not going to be such a coward as to shrink. I've been kind to the little brute, and fed him. All animals are ready to be friends with those who feed them, so here goes."

But here did not go, for another thought struck the lad, and he gave utterance to it.

"What nonsense!" he said. "I'd better think of making my escape instead of trying experiments with monkeys. I might give him a little more to eat, though. Perhaps that's what he wants after all."

Stan stood blinking his eyes at the monkey, and the monkey blinked its eyes at him.

"Hungry?" he said aloud.