Half of the pupils immediately scattered. Most of the girls fled screaming, and some of the boys followed them. Miss Mason stood up, undecided what to do. 125
“Get a pole and kill him!” shouted Tim Roon, from a safe position behind the bookcase. “Mash him ’fore he has a chance to fight.”
“Don’t be silly,” snapped Bobby. “A monkey can’t hurt you. Let’s catch it.”
Now, no one had any experience, in catching a monkey, and they were willing to let Bobby go about it as he saw fit.
“One of you hold open the door,” he decided after a minute’s thought. “Meg, you stand there and hold out your dress. I’ll go in and chase him out to you. Are you afraid? ’Cause I’ll stand to catch him and you can chase him out if you’d rather. Only your dress will help.”
Meg said she wasn’t afraid and took her place in the doorway. Palmer Davis volunteered to hold the door back, and the others stood as far away as they could.
“Look out! Here he comes!” shouted Bobby suddenly.
Meg spread out her skirts. A small, black ball hurled itself through the door, rolled between Meg’s feet and jumped to a desk. Like a flash the monkey ran lightly over the desk tops, 126 down the aisle, reached the desk where Miss Mason’s hat lay, and seized it in one paw. She made a frantic grab for it, but missed. With a derisive chuckle and some remark in monkey talk that no one could understand, the monkey gained the open window and scampered down the fire-escape.
“My best, new hat! Run after him!” wailed Miss Mason.
The nine o’clock bell had rung five minutes before, but no one thought of that. The entire school knew that one of the circus monkeys had been found in Miss Mason’s room, and there was no question of holding assembly till it was driven out or captured.