so that it could not escape, and joined the others. They had filled the nets and were ready to return.
Directly I joined them we started.
Arriving at the opening of the passage that led into the big cave, we found the white female and several others waiting for us.
She had evidently been anxious about me, for directly she saw me she looked pleased, and, throwing her arms round me, kissed me.
Then she told me that since our departure a young one had been born, who was just like those who had lived, ages and ages before.
She insisted on my going to see it.
I did so, and found it with its mother; the father, who was like a baboon with the exception of having shorter arms, and being able to stand upright, was sitting on a rock near them, regarding the little beast with a look of pity in his deep-set eyes.
The young one, though only a few hours old, was already moving about near its mother on all fours, and had a long tail.
The white female wept. "This is what they will all be like soon," she said.
"You must live with me, and we will rear a new generation more like yourself. Our young ones shall breed with those amongst us who are most like me, and we will be saved from the awful fate of having
