The Professor strode up and down with all a heavy villain’s impressiveness and orated.  His eloquence was drowned by a great hullabaloo at the next corner, and with a rattle and a yell four firemen came tearing down the road with a hose-reel.  Some excited individual had, rung the fire-bell.  The firemen attached the hose to a plug, and came on, hydrant in hand.  It required all the Professor’s energies, supplemented by the frenzied protestations of Kit See, to prevent them turning a full stream of water on the gorilla.

The crowd was now a large one, gathered far out on the road, where a good view of the roof was obtainable, and when the excitement occasioned by the fire men had subsided, a fresh outburst was provoked by the appearance of another huge monkey, the great bulk of which came up slowly over the left ridge.  The second monkey, which was much larger than the gorilla, sat upon the apex of the roof, jabbered at Ammonia, and the gorilla turned towards him, baring his teeth in a hideous grin of malice.

“Keep still!” yelled Professor Thunder.  “Keep quiet, for the love of heaven!  Mahdi, the Missing Link, will save the che—­e—­ild!  Mahdi, the animal that approaches nearest to man, captured by me in the dark jungles of Darkest Africa.  Observe.”

The gorilla seemed animated with an implacable hatred for the larger monkey.  The shades of night were falling, but the people in the street could divine this enmity from Ammonia’s attitude and his gestures.  His flat, ugly face was thrust towards the Missing Link.  He grimaced horribly.  With his eyes always on Mahdi, the gorilla slowly lowered the baby to the roof and let it go.  The roof was shaped like an M, and the child rolled harmlessly into the gutter between the ridges.  For a moment Ammonia faced the Missing Link, his venomous little eyes luminous as those of a cat, and then he ran along the ridge.

A cry broke from the crowd, but when Ammonia was within couple of feet of the Missing Link he stopped as if shot, let go his hold, and rolled down the roof, and lay in the gutter beside the child, limp and inanimate.

Mahdi clambered down the ridge, took up the baby, and, nursing it gently on one arm, came along the roof and down the sloping verandah, and lowered the son and heir of Kit See into Professor Thunder’s arms amidst a storm of cheering such as had never been heard at Wangaroo.

Nickie had predicted rightly.  The Wangaroo “Guardian” next morning contained a thrilling account of the rescue, and in a leading article the editor pointed out that the humanitarian action of the Missing Link was proof that it approached nearer to the standard of man than any other known animal.

The enthusiasm provoked by Mahdi’s action brought a tremendous rush of business.  In fact, the attention excited threatened to lead to an exposure of Professor Thunder’s daring imposition.  Leading men wanted to interview Mahdi; a section of the people of Wangaroo were even talking of having the Missing Link adorned with the Humane Society’s medal, and another section prepared an illuminated address.  Eventually the great showman left the town in something of a hurry to escape notoriety that promised to be dangerous, but he had done a record six-days’ business, and was content.