"I'd eat me 'at! Look at 'im!" Roar upon roar beat the air, as Alfred told us in his dumb, animal-like way exactly what he would do if he had only a chance. "Quite so!" said Gran'pa. "Let's get out of here!" Ten minutes later arrangements had been made for the safe custody of the animal up to and including the following Wednesday, when we hoped to have Gran'pa ready to receive a couple of Alfred's glands. It was indeed a great day's work, and when we left that home of brute barbarism I couldn't help patting the old man's back. "Satisfied?" I asked. He answered with the deepest emotion. "George!" he said. "I'm not a greedy man. All I ask for is about a quarter of that brute's energy. Then I'll be happy!" CHAPTER IV THE AVENUE HAS A SURPRISE After the hastily-arranged purchase of Alfred, the gorilla, we called next day to see Dr. Croft, the surgeon, who had been chosen to bring about the strange union of man and part monkey. I had expected to see a man of anything from forty-five to sixty, but we were greeted, instead, by a mere youngster of about twenty-five or six. I introduced myself and Gran'pa and got down to business at once. "We've procured a gorilla," I said. "A fine, strapping brute of phenomenal strength and activity. If only a tenth of its energy is due to its glands, then we've found a little gold-mine." "That's good! But I would like to examine Mr. Hadley before actually committing myself to this--undertaking. Ninety-five is a great age. He may not be able to stand the operation." Dr. Croft became eminently practical. So did Gran'pa. Without the least trace of mock modesty, the latter quickly divested himself of the whole of his clothes, and stood before us in the same state of nudity as when he had first appeared on earth nearly a century ago. And, when one comes to think of it, such a procedure was quite right and proper, for here was Gran'pa about to start out into the great world again, to be re-born, re-juvenated, re-vitalized, and what could be more fitting than his entering on this new birth in the usual unclad way? The simplicity of his action moved me almost to tears. Before the throne of surgical wisdom he was no longer a dictatorial, obstinate old man, but just an obedient child awaiting the pleasure of its master. The doctor gazed at him for a while in evident admiration. "I must congratulate you, sir," he said. "I wouldn't have believed such a physique possible at your age." Gran'pa lost his head a little. He commenced strutting around the room, erect, and as proud as Punch! His long white beard and grayish hair looked peculiarly unreal, and his hands and face showed the wrinkled signs of age, but the rest of his figure startled one by its quaint boyishness. Certainly, there was no elasticity in his step and no youthful swing in his carriage, but, in spite of that, he gave one the distinct impression of being a boy--dressed up in mask and wig and beard--emulating the antics of an old man!