"Well, I'm . . . er . . . poor little brute!" exclaimed Gran'pa. "Are you going to claim it?" I asked. He hesitated a moment, but, brief as his contemplation of the matter was, I think that he immediately realized the impossibility of an old man of ninety-five calling at a police station for a monkey--particularly at a time like the present. Naturally, his secret would be guessed at once. "No!" he said, with quiet dignity. "I shan't want it in any case, now. They'll probably send it to the Dogs' Home at Battersea, or Scotland Yard--or the Zoo. Let them! . . . Er . . . as I was going to say, George, about that sixty-year-old convict, the Americans are a very go-ahead race. I should like _you_ to pop over to the States some day. . . ." Already, he was beginning to look into the rosy future! "We _must_ travel," he went on, pensively. "I'm getting bored. I've always wanted to see the world, but when I was younger I hadn't the money; and when I grew older I hadn't the necessary health and vitality. Life is full of anomalies like that, George." "It is," I agreed, ruefully. "But this business will do away with such difficulties. There's a big future before us." I responded to that last word. It had a generous sound about it and awoke ambitions I had buried over a dozen years ago, when an unkind fate had allowed me to pass into the soul-destroying ranks of the Civil Service. Ugh! How I had vegetated since that ghastly day on which the list of "successful" candidates had been published! How the spirit of adventure had been slowly suffocated! How flabby-minded I had become! How mellow! But now at last there was a door opening. My red-tape-bound soul stirred in its prison and peered out at a strip of sunlit country where free men made of life a joyous adventure. "You're a great man, Gran'pa," I said. "You make me feel quite old beside you." He dug me good-humoredly in the ribs. "There are times, George, when I have thought you were rather a stick-in-the-mud. But I've put it down to your job, and the fact that you are British." "I wish my brains had fizzled out in the examination room and I'd run away to sea." "Ah! That's the spirit. You'll be useless on this new job I shall have for you, unless you're full of fire. It'll require courage, initiative and plenty of _go_. There's only one member of the whole family who has those qualities at present." I waited for what I thought would be the inevitable reference to himself. But it didn't come. "You can't guess who it is, George?" "No----!" "It's Molly, of course. It was she who first put me on to this gland business. That, if you like, required courage and initiative. There's a great future before Molly. She's being lost in England, and I hope when the time comes that she'll join us in the venture."