"Dangerous, yes! But you didn't say treacherous!"
"Is it any worse," I asked, "than our dressing up as lady gorillas and gassing our innocent admirers?"
"Er . . . put that way, perhaps not. Still, we must be very careful. . . ."
"I always am!" I observed, thinking of the air of indifference displayed by Gran'pa when I had once been chased by a snake in the jungle.
"Don't goad me, George! It was perfectly natural to try if the little fellow was amenable to ordinary human kindness?"
Stringer had joined us by now and expressed the opinion that all gorillas, especially male, were absolutely untamable and that it was a waste of time to appeal to their better nature, because they had none.
"We shall see. . . ." said Gran'pa mysteriously.
Unfortunately, we didn't; for the next day Little Willie performed the same gymnastic feat on Oakley. The only difference was that, instead of procuring a piece of cloth as a reward, he removed a small portion of Oakley's flesh.
So much for a newly-captured baby gorilla as a possible pet.
As a decoy, however, Little Willie was much more promising, and a week or so after his compulsory enlistment in the services of the aged we took him out to his native jungle again.