Then he dropped back to the all-fours position, and repeated the standing up process.
Then at length, he pointed to the Hairy One, to the position under the limb above which the fruit swung, and backed slowly to where Marla stood, fascination in her eyes.
The Hairy One remained immobile. There seemed no flicker of comprehension in his flat, black eyes. Then suddenly, for the quickest flash of an instant, he came almost erect, his arms half upraised!
Then he dropped back, as though exhausted and baffled by the effort.
"He did it!" Ronal exclaimed. "He can understand!"
Ronal went through the weird pantomime again, but although the Hairy One stood once again and even accomplished two staggering steps forward, he dropped back once more without having reached the fruit.
"We had better go back," Marla said. "He—it—I don't think you should've, Ronal."
"No harm done. But before we give up my little experiment—"
Ronal reached up, plucked the fruit and in one fluid motion tossed it to the Hairy One. And deftly, it was caught!
And as quickly thrown forcefully to the ground!