y, and judicially
hanged. What had he done? He had killed the ship cat. It was a
deliberate murder, with no extenuating circumstances, and a rope, with a
noose, was swung over the yard-arm, and Tricky run up in the presence of
all the crew. This happened about eight bells, and at dusk Tricky was
still hanging there, very quiet and motionless. Next morning Tricky was
still there--as live as you are. Tricky was not hanged, he was only
hanging; and, as everybody knows, monkeys rather like hanging. In fact,
though Tricky was still up there, he had got his hands well round the
rope, and was on the whole fairly at home. The rope round a neck like
Tricky's was a mere boa.

[Illustration: NEXT MORNING TRICKY WAS STILL THERE]

The executioners were rather ashamed of themselves when they saw how
matters stood; but instead of softening them, this dangling mockery of a
dead monkey still further roused their wrath, and the boatswain was told
off to end the drama by tossing Tricky into the sea. The boatswain was
up the shrouds in a moment, and loosening the rope with one hand, and
catching the monkey by the tail with the other, he swung poor Tricky a
good yard over the ship's side into the Atlantic.

When the boatswain descended upon the deck he was greeted with a sudden
deluge of rain. It was only Tricky shaking the salt-water off. The
monkey had climbed up the stern rope, and reached the deck before him.
What would have happened next is hard to predict, but at this point the
Captain, attracted by the scream of laughter which greeted the drenching
of the boatswain, came up and was told the sequel to the hanging. Now
the Captain was a blunt, good-natured man, and he avowed that neither
man nor monkey who had ever been hanged on board his ship should ever be
put to death again. This was the law on shore, he said, and he would see
fair-play. So Tricky received another lease of life, and thus the ship
_Vulcan_ was kept in hot water for two months more.

[Illustration: IT WAS ONLY TRICKY SHAKING THE SALT-WATER OFF]

About the end of that period there came a crisis. The ship was nearing
port, and a heavy cleaning was in progress. Among other things the
ship's boats had to be painted. In an evil hour one of the men went
below to dinner, and left his paint-pot standing on the deck. If Tricky
had lost such a chance he would not have been a monkey at all. Needless
to say he rose to the occasion. That his supreme hour was come was quite
e