he was scarcely a match for two men, who, as noted horse-thieves,
were experts in the use of the lasso, and in a short time the monkey was
ignominiously driven from his perch on a rafter, tied up in Donald's
pillow-case, and swung over the shoulder of one of the men. Then the
robbers wished Donald a grim good-night, and marched off with their
'purse.' As they were going out of the door Donald called after them,
'Good-night, ye blackguards, and mark my words, if ye lay a hand on that
monkey ye'll regret it as long as ye live!' This made the men a little
frightened, for although they did not like to confess it to one another,
there was something about Gum that was 'not canny.' Anyhow, whether it
was fear of the monkey, or of their own consciences, instead of killing
Gum as soon as they left the house they carried it all the way home with
them, discussing which of them was to kill it, and how it was to be
done.

CHAPTER VII

When the thieves reached home, after a hasty breakfast, they continued
the discussion as to how the purse was to be opened and the nugget
secured. Unfortunately for them the monkey had struggled out of the
pillow-case, as soon as it reached the house, and the robbers' children
at once seized upon it, and claimed it as their pet. When they were told
it would have to be killed, the youngest child, a little girl so lovely
that even a bad father could not help loving her, burst into tears, and,
putting her arms round the robber's neck, prayed and entreated him to
spare its life, and let her play with it. Now, wicked as this man was,
this child had a mysterious influence over him, and though he was
resolved to kill Gum, and that immediately, he determined that she
should not see it done, nor even know that he had done it. Besides this,
it would never do to let the people in the valley know that they had
killed the monkey, for Donald would surely go in search of it; so after
consulting together for some time, the robbers decided on a plan for
killing Gum without anybody being any the wiser. They knew that if they
shot it, or drowned it, or slew it with a knife, the children would be
angry, and the story would certainly be told to their playmates and
passed on in time to Donald's family. So a very diabolical scheme was
hatched. The only way they could think of for killing Gum without any
one seeing, or without either of them being actually present at the
death, was to _blow it up with gunpowder_. Th