Lord Morgan's Cannon Read Online Free

Ring Master took a direct approach, wondering out loud how much Lord Morgan would pay to see such a performance?
    Lord Morgan chortled, said Edward. Scientists didn’t pay to study animals, even those in a circus, he told the Ring Master. But he was sure the two men could come to some accommodation. For example, he might be able to write up his findings and share them with people he knew across Europe and America. Even experts in Russia might read his report, he suggested. And that would put Whyte and Wingate’s Big Top on a map of the globe.
    The Ring Master shrugged, playing cards after all. So Lord Morgan upped his offer. He was writing a very big book on animals, he said, a very important book that could turn Whyte and Wingate’s exotic creatures into global celebrities.
    If the Ring Master could put on a show, and let him study it, Lord Morgan could, in return, make the Ring Master’s circus famous.
    “That’s why tonight is so important,” tweeted Bessie. “Oh it’s going to be such fun. I’ll do a twirl and fade, and sing one of my favourite songs.”
    “I’m going to try a new routine with the clowns,” announced Doris.
    “Well I’ll get better marks than you all,” said Edward, gesticulating frantically. “I’m going to juggle two fire sticks at once. That’s one more than any monkey has ever juggled. Ever! In all of history!”
    “So that’s why the Ring Master got angry with the whip,” shrugged Bear, though no one listened.
    Edward hadn’t finished. Like all clever monkeys, he knew how to tell a good story, and how to save the best of it till last.
    “There’s even more at stake,” he announced.
    Instead of continuing, he sat back upon Doris’s shoulders, suddenly uninterested. He placed a small hand inside his waistcoat pocket and pulled out a single peanut. He cracked its shell, and shoved it into his face, bits of nut falling about Doris’s neck. Even the hedgehog, who hadn’t seen a monkey before, couldn’t tell if he was doing it for show, or if that was what monkeys did.
    “What could be bigger?” said Bessie, eyeing Edward suspiciously.
    She landed, hopped along Doris and ate a nutty crumb.
    “A cannon,” said Edward, fiddling with the shell, looking inside it, turning it upside down.
    “A cannon?” asked Doris.
    “A big gun,” said the anteater. “I saw one in the port of Montevideo. On an old galleon. Passed it on the way here. They fire cannonballs.”
    “I know what a cannon is,” said Doris, indignant.
    She moved her bulk, causing Edward to hold on tight as Bessie took flight.
    “I’ve seen many a man fired out of a cannon,” she continued. “There was a red cannon that had big red wheels,” she started. “But the net that came with it was quite small. Then there was the cannon that fired water. And the toy cannon that fired the Italian dwarf.”
    “Yes but this is a giant cannon,” declared Edward. “Before Lord Morgan left, he stood in the field in front of the leopard’s cage. He winked at the old cat, and proudly announced his name, to make sure all of us heard it again. He said he was working on building a giant cannon, that could only be operated by the cleverest animals in the whole world. He was forging the cannon back at his castle. And if we put on a big enough show, he would give the cannon to the circus. It would be ours, and it would show that animals can be trained to do anything. Of course, I’m going to light the fuse,” said Edward, as the other animals, including the anteater, started to shiver with excitement.
    “That does sound like quite a cannon,” said Doris.
    “We’ve got to get that cannon,” said Bessie.
    “If I get fired from a cannon, I’ll be put on a poster,” said the young, giant anteater, now standing within his cage.
    “We have to make tonight the biggest and best performance of our lives,” they all said in unison.
    Meanwhile, across the way, in his own cage next to the water butt, the old leopard lay