"I can half guess!" I said.
"Has it only just dawned on you?" he cried.
I bowed my head, ashamed of my previous dulness.
"You're going to hypnotize them!" I gasped.
Gran'pa was in excellent form and as merry as a youth of twenty. It was absurd to think that he was nearly a hundred.
"In common parlance, George, we intend putting the 'fluence' on 'em. Calling them, staring them into submission, and then suddenly commanding them. It's the old story of the lion-tamer and the lions, with this difference. Instead of having to deal with the lower and less intelligent order of animals, we have the great advantage of applying the same method to brutes which are second only to men. What the politician does to the crowd, the tub-thumper to the mob, the religious revivalist to the sinner—we shall do to the apes. Man-mind against monkey-mind. It's brains that count, my boy! Brains! . . ."
"Did it work at the Zoo?" I asked.
"Partly. But what can one expect there? The poor wretches are half stupefied. There isn't a really wild, alert animal in the place. Their minds are drugged with captivity and monotony and unnatural food. A test like this is of little value until we try it under normal conditions."
We had dinner and, at Gran'pa's instigation, Stringer gave the order.
It was astounding to see the masterful way he glanced round the room, beckoned the appropriate waiter to our table and sent him rushing away again.