unknown island that had been his home, they would have concluded
that he had formerly been a pet of man; but that theory was not
tenable in the face of the isolation of his uninhabited island. He
seemed continually to be searching for someone, and during the first
days of the return voyage from the island he was often discovered
nosing about in various parts of the ship; but after he had seen
and examined each face of the ship's company, and explored every
corner of the vessel he lapsed into utter indifference of all about
him. Even the Russian elicited only casual interest when he brought
him food. At other times the ape appeared merely to tolerate him.
He never showed affection for him, or for anyone else upon the
Marjorie W., nor did he at any time evince any indication of the
savage temper that had marked his resentment of the attack of the
sailors upon him at the time that he had come among them.

Most of his time was spent in the eye of the ship scanning the
horizon ahead, as though he were endowed with sufficient reason to
know that the vessel was bound for some port where there would be
other human beings to undergo his searching scrutiny. All in all,
Ajax, as he had been dubbed, was considered the most remarkable
and intelligent ape that any one aboard the Marjorie W. ever had
seen. Nor was his intelligence the only remarkable attribute he
owned. His stature and physique were, for an ape, awe inspiring.
That he was old was quite evident, but if his age had impaired his
physical or mental powers in the slightest it was not apparent.

And so at length the Marjorie W. came to England, and there the
officers and the scientists, filled with compassion for the pitiful
wreck of a man they had rescued from the jungles, furnished Paulvitch
with funds and bid him and his Ajax Godspeed.