“The infuriated ape, in the meantime, had awaited the gallant middy’s approach, until perceiving he held a glittering dirk between his teeth, he began to chatter and scream, and toss and twirl the screaming infant about, until each moment seemed to be its last. “The sight was sickening, for no one knew how to catch the ape. “He might at any moment, in his fury, have dashed the infant’s brains out against the mast. “No one dared to fire, for the same shot might have killed the child. “Besides, if the ape had been wounded, he would then have surely killed the babe for revenge. “Gallant Ned had nearly got up the rigging, when the ape clasped the baby more firmly, and, running along the yard to the opposite side of the top, sprang up a rope, and thence to the topmast back-stay. “Up this it ran to the topmast cross-trees, where it again quietly seated itself and resumed its work of scratching the baby’s head, and pulling its clothes to pieces. “The cries of the child were now ear-piercing and heartrending. “For several minutes I stood watching the gallant young middy follow Jacko the ape from one piece of rigging to another, the ape all the while seeming only to exert such speed as was necessary to elude its pursuer, and pausing whenever the latter appeared to be weary of the exciting chase. “All on deck were breathless with excitement. “At last, by manœuvring thus, the mischievous animal, which looked now more ferocious than ever, succeeded in enticing the gallant young middy as high as the royal mast-head. “Springing suddenly from place to place, the chattering ape climbed the sky-sail pole, and, to the horror of every one, was actually tying, and did tie, the child on the main truck, a small circular piece of wood on the loftiest mast, and at a height from the deck so great that it made one dizzy to think of it. “A shout of horror ran through all the crew. “The ape had succeeded in tying the child with its own clothes on to the highest point of the tallest mast, and there it was, swaying to and fro, and in danger each second of falling off and being crushed to atoms. “The cries of the mother were heartrending. “Having done this amount of mischief, Jacko ran nimbly down to the fore-top gallant mast-head, thence down the rigging to the fore-top, when, leaping on the fore-yard, it ran out to the yard-arm, and there began capering about, chattering, screeching, and making the most hideous noises. “The young middy was completely tired out with chasing Jacko, to save the child; but, unwilling to return to the deck while the child was in such unearthly danger, he took deliberate aim at the ape, and shot it in the head. “The infuriated monster was only wounded, but with a scream it rushed at the brave middy, and there, in the rigging, took place one of the most awful fights man ever witnessed! “The excitement on board was now something awful and intense.