"Hold hard," he said, "there's no hurry, no hurry in the world. Let us
think this thing out."

"No hurry!" snorted the Professor, "and that infernal gorilla waltzing
round up there with a live baby?" The Professor's tragic manner would
have been the making of a cheap melodrama.

"Did you ever know Ammonia drop anything he'd once taken a good grip of?
The youngster's safe for a while. It strike me we can make a hit out of
this. How will it read in the Wangaroo 'Guardian': 'Child stolen by a
gorilla. Rescue by Professor Thunder's famous Missing Link'?"

Professor Thunder stopped with a gasp. "Holy Joseph!" he said, "that's a
noble thought, my boy. Can it be done?"

"You get out there and keep the crowd from overexerting itself. Leave the
rest to me."

Professor Thunder dashed out by the front door. There was already a large
and vociferous crowd in the road, staring up at the gorilla,
gesticulating and yelling, and people were coming running from all
directions. On the side of the road stood Kit See, weeping, and
brandishing his arms helplessly in the face of this grand calamity.
Aloft, on the top of one of the chimneys, about three feet above the
roof, sat the gorilla. In one of his hind claws he held the baby's
clothing, and the youngster dangled, apparently disregarded by Ammonia,
who, despite the terrors of the situation, cut a most ridiculous figure,
for he was composedly sucking the milk from the baby's bottle, keeping
his vindictive eyes on the crowd the while.