If Philip’s surprise at this strange proceeding had been great, one can imagine how much it was intensified when he recognized in this pompous leader none other than the gigantic Goliah whom he had once owned and sold to Captain Seaworth!
CHAPTER XI.
AN ODD VILLAGE.
Philip Garland’s surprise at seeing this vast assembly of apes conducting themselves so thoroughly after the manner of human beings was indeed great; but to recognize in the leader of the party an article of merchandise which he had sold to Captain Seaworth was absolutely bewildering.
How had Goliah reached this particular island? Had he taught these companions of his to imitate man, or were they his instructors? In either case, how did it happen that among these animals there should be such a collection of weapons and clothing?
These questions Philip asked himself without being able to make any reply. He was in that mental condition when one’s will has no control over the body, and half-unconsciously he followed the procession as it left the open-air court-room, although in his mind there was a very-well-defined idea that by so doing he exposed himself to the most extreme danger.
In his stupefaction—perhaps fascination would be the better word—he advanced cautiously as if by instinct, keeping well in the rear of the party, gliding from tree-trunk to tree-trunk, and halting within the cover of the foliage whenever any of the apes showed an inclination to loiter.
It was during one of these forced halts, and while obliged to remain concealed a longer time than usual, that quite by accident he chanced to glance through the thicket on his right, thereby increasing surprise to the very verge of bewilderment.
He saw there, at a distance of thirty or forty yards from where he stood, a collection of small huts built in the fashion of hamlets such as one sees in Java. Around these loitered a number of apes, some few partially dressed in garments of European manufacture, and the remainder clad only as nature intended they should be; but nowhere could he perceive a human being.