Something to be Proud Of

Chapter 20: Monkey Hanging Rock

In former times, when war and strife

The French invasion threaten’d life

An’ all was armed to the knife

The Fisherman hung the monkey O !

The Fishermen with courage high,

Seized on the monkey for a French spy;

“Hang him!” says one; “he’s to die”

They did and they hung the monkey Oh!

They tried every means to make him speak

And tortured the monkey till loud he did speak;

Says yen “that’s French” says another “its Greek”

For the fishermen had got druncky oh!

- The Legend of Hartlepool, England.

Zeke and Sam were put on trial for attempted murder. Thus far, Man-Apes were more or less ‘put-down’ if they attacked humans, but the political winds were changing. Man-Apes were not fully pets, nor humans. The theory of the case was that Zeke was another one of Sam’s henchmen… or a Pet. The Jury could buy either theory.

Carluccio was an extraordinarily sympathetic witness. His left eye ostentatiously bandaged, complete with off-yellow, iodine stains. More disturbing, however, was the strange green-grey discoloration of his skin, with greenish spokes radiating from his eye along the veins. The doctors assured all this was a temporary condition, caused by the soup stain.

Sam got off with 18 months in jail, leaving Alberto to run The Ranch, Incorporated.

The execution of Zeke was a sell-out crowd. The State officials were pleased at the take (executions being a very profitable source of government revenues). What they hadn’t expected was the riot. It was not that Sam was the most popular man in the county: many thought he needed to be taken down a notch, but a man (probably a veteran, given his fatigues) and a zipper scar across his forehead, burst out in tears and charged the gallows. That man, Corporal Lance Bingham, was pulled from the stage by none the Yellow Reverend and Old Thor, who took him into their flock.