ays the boy and the ape lay up while the former recovered
from the painful wounds inflicted by the sharp thorns. The great
anthropoid licked the wounds of his human friend, nor, aside from this,
did they receive other treatment, but they soon healed, for healthy
flesh quickly replaces itself.

When the lad felt fit again the two continued their journey toward the
coast, and once more the boy's mind was filled with pleasurable
anticipation.

And at last the much dreamed of moment came. They were passing through
a tangled forest when the boy's sharp eyes discovered from the lower
branches through which he was traveling an old but well-marked spoor--a
spoor that set his heart to leaping--the spoor of man, of white men,
for among the prints of naked feet were the well defined outlines of
European made boots. The trail, which marked the passage of a
good-sized company, pointed north at right angles to the course the boy
and the ape were taking toward the coast.

Doubtless these white men knew the nearest coast settlement. They
might even be headed for it now. At any rate it would be worth while
overtaking them if even only for the pleasure of meeting again
creatures of his own kind. The lad was all excitement; palpitant with
eagerness to be off in pursuit. Akut demurred. He wanted nothing of
men. To him the lad was a fellow ape, for he was the son of the king
of apes. He tried to dissuade the boy, telling him that soon they
should come upon a tribe of their own folk where some day when he was
older the boy should be king as his father had before him. But Jack
was obdurate. He insisted that he wanted to see white men again. He
wanted to send a message to his parents. Akut listened and as he
listened the intuition of the beast suggested the truth to him--the boy
was planning to return to his own kind.

The thought filled the old ape with sorrow. He loved the boy as he had
loved the father, with the loyalty and faithfulness of a hound for its
master. In his ape brain and his ape heart he had nursed the hope that
he and the lad would never be separated. He saw all his fondly
cherished plans fading away, and yet he remained loyal to the lad and
to his wishes. Though disconsolate he gave in to the boy's
determination to pursue the safari of the white men, accompanying him
upon what he believed would be their last journey together.

The spoor was but a couple of days old when the two discovered it,
which mea