is method had another
advantage, which neither of the men liked to confess weighed with them,
but in reality it was this more than anything else that made them think
of the gunpowder. At the bottom of their hearts these men were cowards,
and after the strange threat which Donald had uttered as they were
leaving his house, they were secretly afraid 'to lay a hand' upon Gum. A
monkey was a very mysterious creature. They had never had anything to do
with one before. Gum's face had a curious human look, and to murder it
in cold blood was almost like murdering a man. So the gunpowder idea
seemed the very solution that was needed, and they set about their
preparations at once. While one of the men remained at the kitchen fire
with the family to allay suspicion, the other, after pocketing a little
can of miners' blasting-powder, a couple of feet of fuse, and a piece of
string, strolled out to the wood behind the cabin on the pretence of
giving the monkey a walk. As soon as a low thicket screened the pair
from view, the robber tied the monkey to the trunk of a tree. Then he
lashed the can of gunpowder tightly to the monkey's tail, passed one end
of the fuse into it through a small hole, struck a match, and lighted
the other end. As soon as he saw the fuse was fairly lit, and the red
fire slowly creeping upwards, he ran back as fast as he could to the
house. Meantime the other man had got a concertina from the shelf, and
was playing with all his might to drown the sound of the explosion. When
the executioner arrived, out of breath though he was, he joined noisily
in the dance which the children had set up the moment the concertina
began to play, and presently such a stamping and shouting was going on
in the cottage that the sound of an earthquake would have been quenched.
Suddenly an awful interruption occurred. Through the open door the
monkey bounded in, and taking up its place in the midst of the circle
joined in the dance. From its neck dangled a piece of string, burnt at
the point; but what made the children shriek with laughter was a small
tin can tied to its tail, which clattered about with every turn of the
body, and strange to say, had a sort of little tail of its own which
appeared to be on fire, for little puffs of smoke were coming from it,
and a red colour glowed at the tip. The moment the robbers caught sight
of this apparition there was a yell of fear which paralysed the children
into rigid statues. The men's faces