Stan Lynn Part 21

"_Tchack_!" was the reply.

"Not much of a conversationalist for a fellow-prisoner," said Stan, laughing; and stooping quickly, he caught up the two chopsticks, dug a portion of the rice from the pot, and held it out. "Here you are," he said.

The twitching of the animal's face was wonderfully quick, and its eyes twinkled as it stared at its new companion, but for a few minutes it made no offer to take the rice.

"Aren't you hungry?" cried Stan.

"_Tchack_!" was the reply, as the hand moved delicately, a couple of fingers pinching off a few grains, which were raised to the animal's nostrils, snuffed at, and then crumbled so that they fell to the floor, while the hand remained outstretched.

"Not hungry? What does it mean, then--a trap?"

There was no reply, and after pitching back the chopsticks into the pot, Stan looked the animal full in the eyes, stood well on the alert, quite ready to plant his right foot against one of the bamboo bars, and then very slowly let his hand go down till it lay in the long, narrow, outstretched palm.

It was the crucial moment then, and hard work to keep from s.n.a.t.c.hing it away, for the long, thin fingers closed over it gently but tightly. But that was all. The animal breathed heavily--it sounded like a sigh--but there was no sharp flas.h.i.+ng of the keen brown eyes, only a softened look as they blinked gently; and the fierce little beast just held on as if it enjoyed having company and being talked to, for, perhaps oddly enough, the satisfied feeling began to be mutual, and in what followed the English lad seemed as if he were taking his fellow-prisoner into his confidence in an apologetic way.

"Seems stupid to make friends with a savage monkey," he said slowly; and as he spoke he began to softly manipulate the long, thin fingers. "I don't see why. A fellow would not be long in taking up with a strange dog if he were locked up alone as I am. He'd be precious glad of the chance, and you seem ever so much more intelligent than a dog. Like that?"

"That" was a gentle pressure of the hand; but there was no reply, so Stan went on talking gently:

"I wish you were a dog, old chap--our dog, so that I could write a note, tie it to your collar, and send you off with it to the _hong_. As a monkey, you must have more gumption than a dog; but if I did tear a leaf out of my pocket-book, write a message on it, and then tie it to your neck, do you know what you'd do?--No, you don't.--Well, I'll tell you.

You'd take it and pick it all into little pieces, and perhaps chew them up. That's about what you'd do; but I dare say I could teach you in time.

"Well," continued Stan after a short pause, "I don't believe you mean to bite. Let's see if I can't make you feel that you can trust me."

It was venturesome, and Stan half-expected to see the hand s.n.a.t.c.hed away, for he did see the eyes open more widely and begin to flash; but he went on with what he purposed doing, slowly and quietly raising his left hand, noticing that he was carefully watched, till it was just beneath the one he held. Then he supported it with his left hand, and began to stroke it gently with his right, smoothing the long, hairy fingers; and as this went on there was another soft, long-drawn sigh, and the animal's eyes nearly closed.

"There!" said Stan suddenly; "that's lesson the first. Now I'm going to see if there is a way out of this horrible dog-hole."

He released the hand, and walked quickly away along the front bars, peering through into the yard, but seeing nothing but blank wall, and then crossed to the door, to stand listening.

But he had not been there many seconds before the monkey uttered an uneasy whine, bounded up the bars of the part.i.tion, sprang across to those at right angles, bounded back again higher up, and then, with wonderful activity, lowered itself down, clung fast, and thrust a hand through again.

"Oh, but I can't keep on with that game!" said Stan cheerily. "Here, I'll take hold again for a minute. Then I must sit down and think. No; I'll try if I can eat some of that horrible rice."

He went boldly up to the part.i.tion this time, and without hesitation took hold of the monkey's hand, saw that it was supporting itself by clutching the bars with its feet, and the next moment two hands were thrust through, ready to be patted and held, a long-drawn sigh of satisfaction being uttered; and as Stan gazed in the intelligent brown eyes, he was ready to declare that the animal smiled.

"Well, it hasn't taken long to get to be friends with you, old chap," he said. "There! that will do. I'm going to have my breakfast now."

Dropping the two hands, he stepped back to the two pots; and as soon as his fellow-prisoner was released it began to bound about the great cage with marvellous agility, snuffling, panting, and snorting, and ending by leaping at the part.i.tion, clutching the bars, and holding on, while it watched in perfect silence as Stan took a hearty draught of the water and then sat down with the rice-pot between his knees and began to eat the tasteless, unsatisfactory mess.

A few minutes later, when the prisoner looked up, his wild companion in adversity was out of sight--but not out of hearing, for from somewhere, apparently at the top, a peculiar tearing and crackling sound began.

Sometimes it was a mere gnawing such as might have been made by a rat; then there would be a pause, followed by a sharp crack as a piece of cane was being ripped off. But Stan could see nothing, and coming to the conclusion that the monkey was amusing itself by tearing at some piece of board, he went on with his wretched breakfast, paying no heed till a couple of loud cracks came in succession, followed by quick footsteps and the unfastening of the door.

At the first sound of steps the noise ceased; and as the door was flung open and a couple of soldiers stepped hurriedly in, the prisoner looked up from his mess of rice to find that they were looking at him curiously, then round the place, till, apparently satisfied by seeing how peacefully their charge was employed, they drew back and shut the door, when silence once more reigned.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"THE UPROAR WAS TREMENDOUS."

That day pa.s.sed wearily away, but there were a couple more visits from the jailers, who looked at the prisoner curiously before going back.

At the second visit they brought more rice and water--nothing more--and to all Stan's questions about Wing, the mandarin, and the merchant to whom he had sent a message, there was nothing but a dull, stolid, exasperating stare, and then once more he was left.

Twice over there was the cracking and tearing sound as if the monkey was working away at the wood, but with darkness all was silent within the gate-tower. Plenty of sounds arose from outside, but the prison was evidently right at the back, and the trampling and voices heard from time to time seemed far away.

That night sleep was long in coming, for Stan had much thinking to do, and he carefully examined his prison while the monkey clung to the bars asleep. As far as he could make out, there was not much prospect of escape. By working hard Stan felt that he could perhaps have succeeded in getting through into the monkey's part.i.tion, but nothing would apparently be gained by that, and he sank into a moody fit, full of discontent at his ill-fortune, wis.h.i.+ng that he had refused to come up the country, and that he had stayed with father and uncle; ending by working himself up into a low, despondent state, from which he was released by sleep.

Three days dragged their slow course along without change. Plenty of soldiers came in with the jailers to stare at him, and from time to time parties of men and women were admitted to the narrow yard, where they divided themselves between staring at him and the monkey, till the lad grew at times half-maddened.

"Oh," he groaned to himself, "the miserable, conceited brutes! To be treated like a curiosity! I believe they look upon me as no better than that monkey. Well," he added mockingly, "it's only fair. I don't look upon them as being as good. Poor wretch! How every one teases and ill-uses it! I wish he'd do one of the miserable cowardly wretches some harm."

But as time went on in a horribly monotonous state of imprisonment, Stan noted that, in spite of the way in which the soldiery prodded and struck at the poor beast with their spear-shafts, it seemed less vicious. When he and the monkey were free from interruption, its great delight was to come to the bars of the cage and thrust out its long, thin arm, while if Stan would take its hand it was perfectly still and happy.

What it was doing up by the top of the bamboos Stan could not make out, but from the beautifully white, sharp state of its two great rows of teeth, the lad came to the conclusion that it was following the example of carnivorous animals and sharpening and cleaning them upon the woodwork; but after that hurried visit from the men when Stan first heard the cracking and splintering noise, they came no more save at regular times, when they made sure that he was safe, and treated all his attempts to make himself understood as if he were some lower-cla.s.s animal kept for show.

And during the next two days this seemed to be more and more the case, for the soldiers kept on ushering in common-looking country-people, till at one time the yard was nearly full of gaping spectators, for whose delectation the monkey would be sent bounding about its cage, flying up the bars in front to avoid the shaft of some spear thrust in brutally, but, in spite of rapid strokes, rarely striking it. For the active little creature made prodigious leaps, or swung itself from side to side by its long, thin, muscular arms; and as often as not it scrambled up the part.i.tion bamboos to take refuge in the corner farthest from the front, to hold on in full view of Stan, keeping itself in position close to the roof by clinging with both arms round a couple of the bamboos, its head being thrust away in the extreme angle.

There it would stick, well out of reach of the soldier who played showman, till the spectators were turned out of the yard, when it would suddenly s.n.a.t.c.h its head out of its nook, turning it sharply to look down and listen, keeping quite motionless and on the _qui vive_ to hide itself ostrich fas.h.i.+on if there was another sound; but if not, it would hold on by the two bamboos with all four hands and shake them savagely, making them rattle again, snarling and chattering savagely at its fellow-prisoner, and snapping its sharp ivory trap-jaws as if to show how it would bite if it had a chance, before uttering its favourite cry, _tchack_!

"Poor old chap!" Stan always said. "I should like to see you get loose among them."

No sooner had he spoken than the quaint-looking little creature loosened its hold slightly and slid down the two bars, to squat at the bottom and thrust one hand into Stan's compartment, reaching in as far as possible for it to be taken, when it held on tightly, drooping its head as if enjoying the sympathy shown for it. But not for long. Suddenly drawing its hand back, it began to trot like a dog about its cage, to keep on picking up, examining, and smelling the sc.r.a.ps of food and fruit that had been thrown in by the people, stopping to eat some tempting piece, before scrambling up the bars again to the corner nearest the front, where the cracking and tearing noise went on again in the part of the cage beyond the reach of Stan's eyes.

There had been more visitors than usual, with a fresh jailer to play the part of showman, and while some of the people stood gaping stupidly at Stan, the monkey was hunted about till those who watched it were tired, when it took refuge out of reach, refusing to come down.

Upon this the party s.h.i.+fted their attention to Stan, joining the rest in their miserably stupid, gaping stare, which exasperated the lad into imitating the monkey's tactics and turning his back in the far corner, but of course on the floor.

Instead of doing good, Stan found it result in harm, for a most irritating form of annoyance began, the people beginning to take aim and pelt him with oranges, bananas, and pieces of bread-cake; all of which the prisoner, who was simmering with wrath, ignored, declining to make a spectacle of himself, and remaining quite motionless till he felt a heavy dig in his back.

This made him turn sharply, to find that his fresh custodian was reaching in as far as he could, holding his spear by the extreme end of the shaft, and poking at him with his cheek close against the bars and one hand extended to the full extent of his arm.

"Beast!" growled Stan, with a jerk forward, as he flung out his arm; and the next moment, as much to his own surprise as to that of his jailer, he had caught hold of the spear-head and jerked the weapon out of the man's hand.

The little crowd uttered a yell of delight and excitement, while the soldier burst forth into a torrent of bad--Chinese--language, leaping about, shaking his fist at the prisoner, and evidently threatening what he would do if the spear was not handed back on the instant.

But this last affront had made Stan regularly boil over, and a fresh yell came in chorus from the crowd as they saw him swing the spear round to make a thrust at the owner, who shrieked aloud as he darted back, while the swift drawing of the spear-shaft across the bamboos made every one in the yard utter a yell of dismay and begin tumbling one over the other to reach the yard door; an example followed by the gallant warrior, whose speed was hastened, and who began thumping the backs of those who hindered, when Stan thrust the spear out between the front bars and gave him a few digs in the back.

The uproar was tremendous, and increased by the excitement of the monkey, who, upon seeing his friend armed with the instrument used for torturing him, began to bound about, leaping at and shaking the bars, and chattering savagely, till the last of the occupants of the yard had escaped by the door, which was banged to.

Then, seeing that Stan had drawn in the spear again to stand upon his guard, the monkey stopped short too, watching him, and, like his companion, gazing hard at the inner door, beyond which there was a fierce buzz of voices, the shuffling of feet, and other sounds which announced the coming of more soldiers to disarm the prisoner. But Stan felt in no humour for being disarmed. There was something invigorating in feeling possessed of a weapon, and at the first indications of the prison door being opened he stepped back, drove the head with a thud into the wood, s.n.a.t.c.hed it back, and then, after a step to the rear, he brought the stout elastic shaft across the door with an echoing bang, which had the double effect of silencing and putting to flight the braves in the pa.s.sage and making the monkey shriek, chatter, and rattle the bars in a way that helped the retreat.

"Hah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Stan as he stood with the spear-head lowered ready to make a thrust at the first man who appeared. "Let them come. I don't care now."

This was a fact, for the lad had grown reckless, and determined to attack, extra nerved as he was by the thought that if he made a bold charge with the spear the Chinese soldiers would turn tail, and if he followed them up he might in the confusion escape.

But he neither charged nor escaped, for the simple reason that the door was not unfastened; and after waiting for some time Stan came to the conclusion that the Chinese braves would not attack, but would probably try to starve him into a state of submission--thoughts which became strengthened later on.