Page:Paine--J Archibauld McKaney collector of whiskers.djvu/175

  intelligent animal to talk the sign language to him, usin' its hands and feet with surprisin' fluency. That there double-ended monkey, Four-handed Jacob, is the only friend I've got in the world. I'm teachin him to conduct dialogues with himself and"

I was impolite enough to break into the rambling monotone of the shipwrecked parent. I told him that it had occurred to me that Lemuel Wilkins Island was waiting for his son Hank as its lawful and predestinated sovereign. Nor did I feel that I ought to stand in the way of such glittering advancement. Here was this fine fellow, Hank Wilkins, owner of the most superb Titian beard in the world, if I knew anything about whisker values. And in the Indian Ocean was a throne that belonged to him. And more than that, I hoped to be able to accompany him to Lemuel Wilkins Island. If Hank Wilkins had been shown the way to a throne by the revelation of his shipwrecked parent, then I had been privileged to discern a new and wonderful opportunity for extending my researches [157