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 meant that the slow-moving caravan was but a few hours
distant from them whose trained and agile muscles could carry their
bodies swiftly through the branches above the tangled undergrowth
which had impeded the progress of the laden carriers of the white
men.
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