"I tried it on the chimpanzee—and it worked! At first, he looked as if he knew quite well what it meant, but wouldn't bother to reply. So I repeated it twice! He hesitated. Then he got up, came over to me and commenced tugging at my sleeve and making peculiar little noises in the back of his throat. Most astonishing thing I've ever seen, George. The keeper—quite an intelligent fellow—was flabbergasted. Said he'd never seen anything like it before."
"You mean you actually went in the cage?"
"Yes! . . . I also gave the 'alarm' signal—and what do you think the brute did!"
"Heaven above knows!"
"Rushed into the corner of the cage and hid himself under the straw. . . ."
I was impressed. Whatever other little weaknesses Gran'pa had, he never lied, and never exaggerated.
Already, I was beginning to feel sorry for these Monarchs of the African Forests. What chance had the poor wretches against a man like this, with all the resources of civilization behind him? And yet . . .
"Granting all these possibilities," I said. "Supposing we do get to Gaboon with our aeroplanes and our monkey-language system in full working order. And supposing we do actually capture a few hundred of the brutes alive. What then? You can't bring them back to headquarters by aeroplane. . . ."
"Why not?"
"Oh . . . I don't know! It sounds so utterly damned silly."