All these proceedings excited his deepest interest.

The doctor then took his spreader, and cut the roll into five pieces, each of which he intended to divide into a dozen pills.

At this stage of the process, some one called the pharmacopoeist's attention to the hatchway.

The instant his back was turned, the monkey darted on the top of the medicine-chest, snapped up all the five masses of pill stuff, stowed them hastily away in his pouch, or bag, at the side of his mouth, scampered on deck, and leaped into the main rigging, preparatory to a leisurely feast upon his pilfered treasures.
The doctor's first feeling was that of anger at the abstraction of his medicines; but in the next instant, recollecting that unless immediate steps were taken, the poor animal must inevitably be poisoned, he rushed on deck, without coat or hat, and knife in hand, to the great surprise and scandal of the officer of the watch.
"Lay hold of the monkey, some of you!" roared the doctor to the people.

"Jump up in the rigging, and try to get out of his pouch a whole mess of my stuff he has run off with!" The men only laughed, as they fancied the doctor must be cracked.
"For any sake," cried the good-natured physician, "don't make a joke of this matter.