human
Ever since these new glands have been in full working order, he said,
gpt
I can't help feeling that others ought to be given an opportunity of regaining their youth. There must be hundreds of old men like myself who are still looking backwards in the way I used to: Ah! if only I had my life to live over again! It's the saddest, the most wistful cry in the world, George--that 'might-have-been!' You can't appreciate it at your age, with your eyes on the future. But picture yourself when you are seventy--seventy-five--eighty--always gazing backwards. There's no tragedy in life until you're old--and then it's the eternal tragedy of that might-have-been! I've lived through it all. I know. . . . The time I must have spent just sitting . . . and thinking. . . . Always the same refrain. Might have been! . . . Might have been! . . .
human
When I spoke of treasure hunting just now you probably thought of hidden chests of jewels and coins, of tattered and torn scraps of paper with complicated directions and cabalistic signs written on them--all that paraphernalia of fictitious adventure. . . . As if gold were the most important thing in life!
gpt
It's handy at times,
human
Would my fortune be of any value to me if I were dead?
gpt
No! . . . I believe that it serves no useful purpose in the next world.
human
So you come to the basic fact that the greatest 'treasure' I've found so far has been . . .
gpt
By Jove! I exclaimed.
human
You mean _Glands_!
gpt
I do! I'm going gland-hunting!
human
Yes . . . !
gpt
It's absurd! You couldn't get enough of them to do any good. You might shoot half-a-dozen in a whole year, and . . .
human
Who said 'shoot'? I want them _alive_, man, not dead!
gpt
Have you ever read anything about gorillas?
human
A great deal during the last few weeks. They're easily the most ferocious and terrifying beasts in the world. Du Chaillu says that the gorilla is the monarch of the African forest--that no other animal on earth dare face it when it is enraged. Practically every game hunter of any standing agrees on this point. Even a man armed with a modern gun runs grave risks in an encounter with a gorilla. If the bullet misses . . .
gpt
And yet you stand there, I said,
human
That's the whole charm of the thing. We have to devise some method, George, of not only getting them in large quantities, but of getting them alive and well. Every gorilla killed will represent the death sentence of some human being--the loss of a new lease of life. That's a terrible thought, George. It means a very great responsibility. . . .
gpt
Nonsense! People have been dying from old age ever since the world began.
human
So they have from lock-jaw, and consumption, and malaria, and a thousand other complaints.
gpt
That's no comparison. Death from old age is inevitable and . . .
human
Is it? What about me?
gpt
But sooner or later . . .
human
Yes! I expect I shall . . . sooner or later. But the chief thing is that I haven't yet. I _might_ have died of diphtheria nearly fifty years ago; but medical science saved me. I might have died of malaria once--but for quinine. Everyone who has reached my age--or only half of it--has probably been saved at least once in his life. But it's only a probability, George. In the majority of cases one cannot tell for certain. With these glands, however, it is different. I know that I've been rescued from death as surely as when a life buoy is thrown to a drowning man. When the liner sinks in mid-ocean it's the number of floatable commodities that determine the number of the saved. A man who destroyed a life buoy at such a moment would be guilty of murder. And that's precisely the attitude we must adopt towards this gorilla hunt. A gorilla shot dead in the heart of Africa is a man murdered somewhere at home. We _must_ catch them alive. . . .
gpt
I suppose it's possible, I said.
human
Otherwise, how did they get our friend Alfred--and the one in the Zoo?
gpt
Naturally it's been done before, but not on a big enough scale. I very much doubt if more than fifty or sixty of them have been captured alive during the last century. That's much too slow for us. We shall want them . . . in hundreds a month, at least. . . .
human
Sort of round them up, like rebels,
gpt
Flippantly put, he answered, dryly,
human
I don't quite understand the aeroplane part, I said.
gpt
Do you intend flying over the jungle and lassoing them--or, what?
human
Don't be feeble, George. The aeroplanes are merely for _getting_ there. Where it took weeks for other men to travel a hundred miles through the African jungle, we shall manage it in as many hours. We could leave Gaboon at eight in the morning, say . . .
gpt
Where on earth is Gaboon?
human
You'll find it on any map of Equatorial Africa, he answered quietly.
gpt
As I was saying, we could leave there at eight in the morning and be in the heart of the gorilla country by ten o'clock at the latest. I intend making Gaboon the headquarters.
human
We'll make New York our headquarters and motor over to West Point, Atlantic City and other spots of interest.
gpt
I've been to Garner's works for that, he said.
human
You must remember Garner. He was the explorer who for nearly four months lived in a wire cage in one of the African forests. He says that both the chimpanzee and the gorilla have a definite language of twenty words or more. They have vocal expressions for 'food,' 'good'--in a sort of 'Thank-you!' sense--'discomfort,' 'drink,' 'illness,' and even 'death.' Take this for instance.
gpt
That, he explained,