The Missing Link

manager of this "colossal amusement enterprise," as the streamers eloquently phrased it, preferred to secure a shop in the

fully papered with screaming posters depicting the more popular attractions, he reckoned that he could always lure a given number of people i

. However, business was so good on the first afternoon and evening that he resolved to extend his Wangaroo season into the following week. This involved a day of idleness, an unemployed S

tic and realistic representative of the missing link, and toyed in the reputation he was rapidly making for himself in the show business; but fo

, night after night, week after week, and month after month, was too exacting; he bore the strain with consummat

business next door. The place had originally been one shop, but Kit See, with the frugality of his race, had

people, cunning enough to realise that if you cannot dominate it is wisest to be docile. He had a good stock, a

artition, and amused himself with his eyes glued to the slit w

y Nickie's habit, when in a playful humour, of teasing the gorilla by ostentatiously devou

ile Mahdi had his eye to the wall, the gorilla would cling to the bars of his cage, pushing

ble Ammonia goin' this

g Ske

"that beast will have to learn decency and good conduc

ad turn one o' th

Chow next door is a luxurious heathen. He's got all sorts of lovely preserved fruits in beautiful juices, and cakes, and ginger floating in its own grav

, it's agin the rules t' talk t' me of things t' eat. It makes me fat." Poor

on just at the back of my cage. Curious, is it not? Well, I found an old rusty key in the crack under the wall, and it fits the lock of that d

ldn't dare t' eat 'em. If I did the boss would fin

nese brandy wouldn't entirel

ansference that night, and nearly went mad in his cage, springing about wildly, clinging to the bars, squealing and certainly blaspheming in his peculiar monkey gibberish, and Nichola

ing the mysterious place from which the Missing Link drew such delectable supplies kept him at th

wall, and finding the cage of the Missing Link right up against it, and the formidable monster sleep

y, the latter the favourite resort of the elite and fashion of Wangaroo on Sundays. Mat's skeleton proportions were disguised in a long overcoat

etables and dumplings. There was soup before and pudding after, and in a burst of gratitude the Missing Link proposed the health of the Egyptian Mystic which was being drunk with enthusiasm in Chinese brandy, when sud

creamed the Chinaman at

m quick! Monkey h

yelled the

house-top si'." Kit pointed to the

a minute. "It's Ammonia," he cried, wild with excitement. "

, the Professor turned to f

no hurry, no hurry in the world

waltzing round up there with a live baby?" The Professor's t

e for a while. It strike me we can make a hit out of this. How will it read in the Wangaroo

. "Holy Joseph!" he said, "that's a n

the crowd from overexerting

Kit See, weeping, and brandishing his arms helplessly in the face of this grand calamity. Aloft, on the top of one of the chimneys, about three feet above the roof, sat the gorilla. In one of his hind claws he held the baby's clothing, and th

rritate him, and all will be well." He dragged to the ground a heroic Cousin Jack mi

and a yell four firemen came tearing down the road with a hose-reel. Some excited individual had, rung the fire-bell. The firemen attached the hose to a plug, and came on, h

sided, a fresh outburst was provoked by the appearance of another huge monkey, the great bulk of which came up slowly over the left ridge. The second monkey, which w

di, the Missing Link, will save the che-e-ild! Mahdi, the animal that approaches

es. His flat, ugly face was thrust towards the Missing Link. He grimaced horribly. With his eyes always on Mahdi, the gorilla slowly lowered the baby to the roof and let it go. The roof was shaped like a

f the Missing Link he stopped as if shot, let go his hold, and rolled do

long the roof and down the sloping verandah, and lowered the son and heir of Kit See into P

f the rescue, and in a leading article the editor pointed out that the humanitarian action of the

ng men wanted to interview Mahdi; a section of the people of Wangaroo were even talking of having the Missing Link adorned with the Humane Society's medal, and another section prepared an illum

e morning after the rescue, as the Missing Link sat in his cage munching

ever without that little weapon, and I think, Matthew really think that we shall teach the gorilla proper respect for the superior animals before we have done with