Lord Morgan's Cannon

by J. M. Walker

  He was turned and brought face to face with Lord Morgan, dressed in a cotton nightshirt.

  “Well, well,” said Lord Morgan, leaning in, hair and beard shaggy and unkempt.

  Edward’s mind whirred as his body fought. He couldn’t focus and was unsure if he was still dreaming. He felt Lord Morgan’s hands tighten around his ribcage and he clawed at the man’s skin. He was then transported high above the table. His legs dangled above the leather straps and collars and the wallet holding the scalpel as the professor spoke to him.

  “Now where did you come from?” asked Lord Morgan.

  The human grinned, showing a line of teeth as white as Doris’s tushes. He turned Edward left then right, twisting him in his hands.

  “You’re a New World monkey aren’t you?” he said, examining Edward’s tail. “Maybe a tamarin? I’ve been hoping to get something as exotic as you.”

  Edward began to settle. He knew he couldn’t fight his way out, so he pushed against Lord Morgan’s fists, kneading them with his own, probing for a weakness in his grasp.

  “No, your hair is too short,” Lord Morgan said, addressing Edward directly.

  Lord Morgan stank of tobacco smoke, a smell that frequently lingered on the Ring Master’s shirts. Edward also detected the familiar odour of stale alcohol in his breath.

  “You’re a capuchin. But which kind?”

  Then suddenly, Lord Morgan stretched out his arms, holding Edward at a greater distance.

  “And why are you wearing a hat and waistcoat?”

  The human carried the small one-foot-tall monkey across the room to the tall cage. Lord Morgan reset his fingers around Edward and passing him into one hand, he flicked open the door of the cage. He pushed his arm carrying Edward deep inside and dropped Edward close to the cage’s floor. Edward landed on his rump, bruising it. He screeched as Lord Morgan slammed the door of the cage shut, locking it. Edward sat there, dazed, looking up at his captor, who stared down at him.

  Lord Morgan pushed back and flattened his brown hair, then walked out of the room, announcing he was off to eat some eggs for breakfast. Edward ran to the bars of the cage. Each was silver and cold to the touch, running straight and true up to a domed silver roof. Metal wires circled the cage, binding the bars together. Edward took a bar in each hand. He shook them. He pushed one arm through the gap between and managed to get his shoulder out. He pushed his feet into the hard floor, driving himself on, but then his head met the bars, and wouldn’t pass through. He turned his head, so his ears didn’t catch, but this time his nose did. He realised the gap between the bars was just smaller than the width of his skull, with his little hat on top. He climbed up the bars easily and pushed at the roof, which didn’t move. He tried the front of the cage and the back nearest the wall. He then attempted the door.

  He spotted the hinges, noticing the door opened a little when he pushed it. He slowed down his actions, examining them, looking for a cause and effect. He pushed again and realised that a bolt rested across the outside of the door and that the bolt might be within his reach. He moved across the cage and reached his arm through and around the bars, fishing for the feel of the bolt. Just as he felt the bolt in his grasp, the door to the room swung open. In marched Lord Morgan, now wearing a shirt, trousers and braces.

  “I’ve got it!” cheered Lord Morgan. “You’re the pin monkey from that circus! The one that almost burned it down!”

  He crossed the room to the cage and peered in at Edward, who had moved away, cowering on the floor.

  “My god, you’re a monkey that’s escaped the circus. I’ll have to keep you a while.”

  And with that, Lord Morgan took out a small padlock and key from his pocket. He ran it through a hole in the bolt and snapped it shut. He returned the key to his pocket, condemning Edward to the cage.

  Doris arose first, her rumblings and grumblings waking Bear and Bessie in the middle of the maze. She kicked out with all four legs, struggling to right her frame. Bear quickly unfurled his tail and danced away as Doris made it on to her knees. Befuddled, she flapped her ears. She scooped a little dirt from the ground and blew it in a cloud over her back. As the grains fell about them, Doris noticed Edward was missing.

  The three animals agreed that Edward must be somewhere in the maze. So they set off to find him. It took a few moments for Bear to locate the exit from the circle and a few moments more for Doris to make it around the first corner of neatly planted hedgerow. After that the animals found it quite easy to walk in a line down each path, until they faced a choice of where to go next. And they found it quite easy to take whichever path smelled the prettiest. Turning round in the tight confines of the maze was impossible for Doris, but then she saw no need to go backwards. Edward must be somewhere up ahead, they reasoned.

  The animals forgot to count how many times they had turned left and right and then right and left. The path didn’t change, nor did the view. Round each corner was another path and another corner. Every so often, there was a choice of paths.

  Bessie tired of it first. She was used to moving in all directions, whenever she wanted. Up and down, left and right. She felt refreshed by the new day and took to the air, flying high above the maze. As she climbed she saw the tall conifers in the garden and the side of the big grey house. She glimpsed the track where she’d seen the old leopard cornered by the humans. She spotted the conservatory attached to the house and Tony the terrier sitting outside, basking in the sunshine. She dropped her head and realised that Doris and Bear had just ambled back into the centre of the maze. Around them radiated a series of green circles, each acting as a fence trapping the elephant and giant anteater inside.

  Bessie twittered and tweeted at the top of her voice, but below they didn’t hear her. She tried some high-pitched chirps on the wing. Then a short yelp and a shriek. She even hissed at her friends, who by now had turned on themselves, and were pacing round the circle.

  Bessie’s sounds attracted the attentions of a herring gull flying overhead. Bemused by this little blue and white bird flitting beneath, the gull opened its long curved yellow beak. It arched its neck and mewed, a long single note drawing out from its throat, slicing the sky. It dipped one wing and dropped in height, cutting low and sharp towards the budgie. Bessie heard it. She fell silent and flapped. She flew hard and direct in a line to the dog on the lawn.

  Tony the terrier was woken by Bessie’s graceless landing on the grass. He pulled in his pot-belly and jumped to his elbows as ten feet away a huge gull landed too. The gull paced and Tony immediately charged it. The terrier snapped at the gull’s tail feathers and the bird took flight, landing further down the lawn, taunting the dog. Tony chased the bird again and saw it away from the garden. He returned to find Bessie shivering on the lawn.

  “The others are stuck. The others are stuck,” she said nervously.

  Tony understood. He’d grown up with the maze, losing himself within it many times as a pup. Awake now and excited, he scampered down to the entrance, Bessie flying behind, just above his tail. He jinked through the hedgerows, weaving a direct line to its heart. He burst into the centre of the maze to find Doris in a panic, running around the circle, just as Bear the anteater had done in the circus.

  Doris wasn’t an elephant of the savannah. She knew and understood the trees and was usually as happy hidden behind a bush as she was out in the open. But today a dread had begun to fill her huge heart. The moment she had woken, she had felt out of place. She missed the hay and the comforting sounds of the circus sparking into life. She even missed the pull of a chain attached to her ankle, which after all these years had become her reference point. Realising Edward was gone, she began to think of the others now absent from her life. The Ring Master and Jim the Strongman, the circus boys who washed her once a week, the clowns and the clairvoyant and the old, bitter leopard who had kept her company on the
road for so long.

  Though trapped in a maze, she had begun to fear the freedom now afforded her. Choosing to leave the maze felt like a choice too many. But staying meant they would never find the cannon and be able to return to the circus to save it. She didn’t know which way to turn, so she ran in a circle.

  Tony beckoned the animals to follow him. Bear trotted after the terrier as Bessie flapped in front of Doris’s face, encouraging her out of the maze. Tony weaved his way through the hedge, as the animals behind described how Edward was now missing, and Edward was an inquisitive monkey, one who sometimes thought of himself as a little human.

  The animals burst on to the lawn, Doris squashing its clipped blades of grass. Bessie alighted on Bear’s back and all four of them stood staring at the giant house, its conservatory beginning to catch the rising sun.

  “He’ll be in there,” twittered Bessie. “Edward will be in the house.”

  Doris immediately charged onwards, until she could see her reflection in the glass. She raised her trunk and stepped forward, probing the window pane with her lips, smearing it. Bear and Bessie joined her and the circus animals wondered at the leather chair and its buttons, and the small table alongside.

  “If the monkey is inside, I’ll find him,” snapped Tony.

  He went to the door of the conservatory. Standing on his hind legs, he slapped a paw upon the handle, flicking it and the door open. He darted inside and through the curtains.

  The terrier used his nose, immediately recognising the smell coming from Lord Morgan’s study. He pushed the door open and scampered over to the padlocked cage.

  “Come on,” he said to Edward, who was by now rocking on his buttocks at the base of the cage, murmuring a little tune in his head. “If you stay in there, he’ll find you. And then you’ll be in trouble.”

  Edward’s little hazel eyes moistened.

  “Why am I in a cage?” he asked Tony. “Monkeys live with the humans, not in cages.”

  “Everything here lives in a cage,” Tony replied. “Except for me.”

  “Well help me get out,” said Edward, as he jumped up, clamping on to the bars.

  “Can’t you get out yourself?” asked Tony, as Edward rattled the cage.

  “The cage is locked,” said Edward.

  “Oh it’s just one of his tests,” answered Tony, proudly. “He tests all the animals this way. He wants to see if you can get out.”

  Edward shook the bars now, becoming angry. He bared his teeth and bit on the metal. He ran his nails across the cage, making Tony’s ears shudder.

  “It’s easy to get out,” said Tony. “He used to test me all the time. He’d go out of the garden and shut the gate behind. Then he’d watch me from behind the bushes across the track. He wanted to find out if I could get past the gate.”

  “Let me out,” shouted Edward.

  “I worked it out. All you have to do is flick the latch with your nose. Up it flies and the gate opens. It’s easy really. It didn’t take me long to learn it. Just flick up the latch. He gave me a treat when I’d learned to do that.”

  “The latch doesn’t work,” said Edward, fumbling at it. “There is a lock across it I can’t open.”

  Tony’s ear caught the sound of approaching footsteps. Lord Morgan strode into the room. Dressed for the day, he threw a black jacket over a matching waistcoat. He approached the cage and towering over it, he addressed Tony the terrier.

  “So you’ve seen the monkey eh?” he said to his dog.

  Tony barked back at him, as he always did when spoken to.

  “Now how did he get past you and into the house? You’re not the best guard dog are you Tony?”

  Lord Morgan laughed and rubbed his dog’s chin.

  “What a couple of days it’s been,” he continued.

  He walked back to the desk and sat behind it, organising some papers.

  “First that debacle at the circus. And this morning I hear they caught a leopard out on the track last night. A leopard! How fabulous. How I would have liked to get my hands on that leopard.”

  He leaned back in his chair.

  “But they’ve taken the cat to the zoo. A shame really. They might let me examine it. But I won’t be able to study it properly there.”

  He scratched at his beard and watched Edward pick at the padlock.

  “Now this monkey, however. What a stroke of luck eh Tony? I’ve never experimented on a monkey before. Let’s try him in a puzzle box, to see if he does better than the rats.”

  Lord Morgan threw his body out of the chair and excitedly retrieved a square cage from underneath his long workbench. Made from wooden supports, three sides of the cage were covered with mesh. At the front was a door and next to the door a slit, next to a latch that kept the door closed. He pushed aside the leather collars and placed the box atop the bench. He took out a small key from his pocket and turned it in the padlock to Edward’s larger cage. He slid his arm in and grabbed Edward around the throat.

  Edward struggled to breathe as he was manhandled into the smaller box. Lord Morgan shut the door behind the monkey and dropped the latch. He walked back to his chair and reclined into it.

  “It takes a rat an hour to do this the first time,” he declared to Tony. “And with a suitable reward, and a lot of trial and error, it can learn how to get out within forty minutes. Now what about this monkey?”

  Edward had been listening. He was frightened and unsure whether to fear Lord Morgan, or try to please him. He thought about his predicament and saw only one way out. So he stood, tugged at his waistcoat and stuck his arm out through the slit. He grappled for the latch, as Lord Morgan jumped from his chair in surprise. Edward flicked up the latch and pushed at the door, which swung open. But he wasn’t quick enough. Lord Morgan reacted just in time. Before Edward could escape the professor crossed the room and slammed the door shut, almost catching the monkey’s arm.

  “My my,” said Lord Morgan. “I’m going to have to take this one down to the college. Set him some proper challenges there. He’s just what I need to finish my work.”

  He then raised a finger to his mouth.

  “Don’t tell anyone Tony. It’ll be our secret eh? I’ll return him to the circus in a week or two.”

  Lord Morgan kept hold of the puzzle box as he transferred the padlock to it. There was barely room for Edward to stand inside. Lord Morgan selected a piece of celery from the jar and pushed it through the mesh. Edward ignored it. Instead he pleaded with the dog.

  “Where am I going? Where is he taking me?”

  “To the college,” said Tony. “That’s where he does most of his work.”

  Edward tried to run around the cage, but he could only spin on his tail.

  “Why does he grab me like that?”

  “Because you’re not a dog,” said Tony, cocking his head so that one of his ears fell flat. “That’s how he holds the rats and cats, and the birds.”

  “Stop barking,” ordered Lord Morgan.

  He wagged a finger at his dog and left the room. Edward tried to think.

  “What is this college? Is he taking me there to work on his cannon?” said Edward.

  “Yes I think so,” answered Tony.

  Edward wasn’t so sure about finding the cannon now. His mind had become muddled, and his plan with it.

  “Tell the others they have to save me!” he screamed at the dog.

  Lord Morgan walked back in, a hat on his head, carrying a cane and black cape. He threw the cape over the cage with Edward inside, muffling the monkey’s cries. He flipped his cane under one arm and carried Edward from the room, leaving Tony the terrier bemused in the study. Lord Morgan walked down the hall to the front of the house and out up the path to the gate. In his arms, the night had fallen in on Edward’s world as the
monkey was bounced around in a wire box, a piece of celery hitting his knees in the dark.

  A black coach pulled by two shire horses arrived outside the gate. Lord Morgan handed the box to the driver, then stepped up to sit beside him. He took the cage and patted it, as the driver whipped the horses and coach on down the track and out of sight.

  The old leopard also awoke in a black box. Whenever they snared him at the circus, he’d only struggle for so long, saving his energy for the next inevitable battle with the Ring Master. But upon that tight track between the houses he couldn’t escape the net and the metal pitchforks stabbing at his ribs. Both men and cat had fought to the bitter end, writhing and twisting, working their muscles, grinding and flashing their teeth at the other, trying to use their body weight to gain any advantage. Trying to instil fear into the other species, trying to scare their opponent into submission. The leopard was sure he’d lost only because they had beaten him with their spears and sticks.

  He awoke and immediately smelled prey. He sniffed at the air in his box, catching a waft of antelope dung. He shook his head and yawned, stretching out his jaws and pulling back the folds of skin from his nose, passing the scent over his tongue and throat. He growled and twitched his ears, ascertaining from the acoustics that he was being held in a cage, with bars, covered by a cloth. He licked at the sides and tasted a drop of freshwater running down a smooth iron cylinder. He sat up still and waited. He could tell it was raining outside.

  Suddenly the cage filled with light. He turned his head to shield his battered head and tender eyes. He retreated until his tail hit the bars and he retreated some more, curling his body in on itself. For a moment the leopard had become small, like a frightened caracal. He heard men shouting, but different voices from those that had caught him. He saw two men circling the cage, wearing green overalls.