As he spoke a head came slowly into view. It was followed by a massive pair of hairy shoulders, and then a leg was thrown over the wall.
It was Bhag!
His tawny hair was white with dust, his face was powdered grotesquely. All these things Michael noticed. Then, as the creature put out his hand to steady himself, Michael saw that each wrist was encircled by the half of a broken pair of handcuffs!
CHAPTER XXIX
BHAG’S RETURN
The girl screamed and gripped Michael’s arm.
“What is that?” she asked. “Is it the Thing that came to my—my room?”
Michael put her aside gently, and ran toward the tower. As he did so, Bhag took a leap and dropped on the ground. For a moment he stood, his knuckles on the ground, his malignant face turned in the direction of the man. And then he sniffed, and, with that queer twittering noise of his, went ambling across the downs and disappeared over a nearby crest.
Michael raced in pursuit. By the time he came into view, the great ape was a quarter of a mile away, running at top speed, and always keeping close to the hedges that divided the fields he had to cross. Pursuit was useless, and the detective went slowly back to the alarmed company.
“It is only an orang-outang belonging to Sir Gregory, and perfectly harmless,” he said. “He has been missing from the house for two or three days.”
“He must have been hiding in the tower,” said Knebworth, and Michael nodded. “Well, I’m darned glad he didn’t choose to come out at the moment I was shooting,” said the director, mopping his forehead. “You didn’t see anything of him, Adele?”