er of his attackers,
leaping hither and thither with the agility of a small monkey.

The fight had been witnessed by the captain and mate who were just
landing from the Marjorie W., and Paulvitch saw these two now running
forward with drawn revolvers while the two sailors who had brought them
ashore trailed at their heels. The ape stood looking about him at the
havoc he had wrought, but whether he was awaiting a renewal of the
attack or was deliberating which of his foes he should exterminate
first Paulvitch could not guess. What he could guess, however, was
that the moment the two officers came within firing distance of the
beast they would put an end to him in short order unless something were
done and done quickly to prevent. The ape had made no move to attack
the Russian but even so the man was none too sure of what might happen
were he to interfere with the savage beast, now thoroughly aroused to
bestial rage, and with the smell of new spilled blood fresh in its
nostrils. For an instant he hesitated, and then again there rose
before him the dreams of affluence which this great anthropoid would
doubtless turn to realities once Paulvitch had landed him safely in
some great metropolis like London.

The captain was shouting to him now to stand aside that he might have a
shot at the animal; but instead Paulvitch shuffled to the ape's side,
and though the man's hair quivered at its roots he mastered his fear
and laid hold of the ape's arm.

"Come!" he commanded, and tugged to pull the beast from among the
sailors, many of whom were now sitting up in wide eyed fright or
crawling away from their conqueror upon hands and knees.

Slowly the ape permitted itself to be led to one side, nor did it show
the slightest indication of a desire to harm the Russian. The captain
came to a halt a few paces from the odd pair.

"Get aside, Sabrov!" he commanded. "I'll put that brute where he won't
chew up any more able seamen."

"It wasn't his fault, captain," pleaded Paulvitch. "Please don't shoot
him. The men started it--they attacked him first. You see, he's
perfectly gentle--and he's mine--he's mine--he's mine! I won't let you
kill him," he concluded, as his half-wrecked mentality pictured anew
the pleasure that money would buy in London--money that he could not
hope to possess without some such windfall as the ape represented.

The captain lowered his weapon. "The men started it, did they?" he
repeated. "How about