That showed the man’s bad taste; but it told me something more. Since the morning, his manner towards the Guv’nor had altered. People say I am cruel when I play with a mouse, forgetting that I must practice every tricky twist and sidelong spring or I shall not be able to kill mice at all. However that may be, I can recognize the trait when I see it in others, and Schwartz looked and talked like a man who has another man under his thumb. Although her father may speak sharply to Minkie at times, he very strongly resents such a liberty being taken by an outsider. Perhaps he thought Schwartz regarded [Pg 80]the allusion to a monkey as a personal matter. At any rate, when the parrot told Evangeline to go and boil her head there was a laugh, and the incident passed. [Pg 80] Of course, I knew Minkie far too well to believe that she meant to let Schwartz say what he liked, but I did not expect her to drop such a bombshell on the table as she produced after the pudding appeared. “Talking of monkeys, Mr. Schwartz,” she said when there was a pause in the conversation, “are there many in West Africa?” “Swarms,” he replied, rather snappy, because he noticed that Minkie gave his name the German sound, which is funnier than our English way of saying it. “Do they worship them?” “No, they eat them.” “Then why should they make one of their most powerful ju-jus like a monkey?” I imagine that for a moment Schwartz really forgot where he was. His eyes bulged forward, his face grew red, and big veins stood out on his forehead. “What—do you—know about it?” he [Pg 81]gasped, glaring at her as though he wanted to run round the table and wring her neck. [Pg 81] “Nothing,” she answered meekly. “That is why I am asking you.” “But you have some motive. Such a question is impossible coming from a child. Who told you anything of a ju-ju resembling a monkey?” Schwartz was almost shouting now, and the Old Man gave Mam an imploring glance. Mam tried to press Minkie’s toes under the table, but Minkie just tucked her legs beneath her chair out of harm’s way, and not a soul could catch
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