“Chatter!  Chatter!  Chat!  Bur-r-r-r!  Snip!” went Mappo.  That meant, in his language, that he would not think of biting the kind sailor who had fed and watered him.  But the sailor was careful.  Very slowly he put out his hand, and, reaching through the bars, he stroked Mappo’s soft fur.

“That’s a good chap!” said the sailor.  “I believe you are going to be nice after all.”

“Bur-r-r-r!  Wopp!” said Mappo.  That meant:  “Of course I am!”

In a few days the sailor and Mappo were good friends, and one afternoon the sailor opened the cage door and let the monkey out.  Then Mappo grew quite excited.  It was the first time he had been loose since he had been caught, and he was so glad to run about, and use his legs and tail, that, before he knew what he was doing, he had jumped right over the sailor’s head, and had scrambled up on the ship’s deck.

“Oh, a monkey’s loose!  One of the monkeys has gotten away!” cried the sailors.

“Never mind!  I’ll catch him!” said the one who had been kind to Mappo.

Mappo ran and leaped.  He saw something like a tall tree, only it had no branches on it.  But there were ropes and ladders fast to it, and, in an instant, Mappo had scrambled up them to the top of the tall thing.  It was the mast of the ship, but Mappo did not know that.

Away up to the top he went, and, curling his tail around a rope, there he sat.

“Make him come down!” cried the captain.  “I can’t have a monkey on top of my ship’s mast!  Somebody climb up after him and bring him down.”

“I’ll go,” said a sailor.

Now a sailor is a good climber, but not nearly so good as a monkey.  Mappo waited until the sailor was almost up to him, and then, quick as a flash, Mappo swung himself out of the way by another rope, and, just as he had done in the jungle, he went over to the top of another mast.

“There he goes!” cried the sailors on deck.

“Yes, I see he does,” said the sailor who had tried to catch Mappo.

“You had better come down,” spoke the man who had let Mappo out of the cage.  “I think he’ll come down for me.”  In his hand he held some lumps of sugar, of which Mappo was very fond.

“Come on down, old chap,” called the sailor.  “No one will hurt you.  Come and get the sugar.”

Now whether Mappo had had enough of being loose, or whether it was too cold for him up on the mast, I can’t say.  Perhaps he wanted the sugar, and, again, he might not have wanted to make trouble for his kind friend, the sailor, who had let him out.

Anyhow, Mappo came slowly down, and took some of the sugar from the sailor’s hand.  The sailor took hold of the collar around Mappo’s neck.

[Illustration:  Away up to the top he went, and, curling his tail around a rope, there he sat. (Page 71)]

“Now lock up that monkey!” cried the captain.  “And if he runs away again, we’ll whip him.”