ial from next door, at whom they all
seemed to be aimed, but more often they fell upon the table, among
the glass and dishes. In a moment everything was in wild confusion,
and the mistress's beautifully decorated table looked as though a
bomb had exploded on it.

The Chinese "boys" made a rush for the end of the room, and there,
up on the sideboard, among the glass, pelting his enemy, the high
official, as fast as he could throw, was Lepas.

A finger bowl struck the butler full in the face, and gave the monkey
time to make his escape out into the darkness through the wide-open
doors.

We saw nothing more of Lepas for a week or more; we had, indeed, about
given him up, wondering as to his whereabouts, when one afternoon, as I
was taking my usual post-tiffin siesta on the cool side of the great,
wide-spreading veranda, I heard a timid whistle, and looked up to see
Lepas seated on the railing, as sad and humble as any truant schoolboy.

His hair was matted and faded and his face was dirty. His form had
lost some of the plumpness that had come to it with good living,
but there was the same wicked twinkle in his eyes, and the same
hypocritical deceit in his bearing as of old.

I reached out my hand to take him, but he hopped a few feet away and
began to beg with his teeth.

"Lepas," I said, "you have a bad heart. I wash my hands of you. When
Hamat comes back you can go to him and be an ordinary, low caste
monkey. Now go! I never want to see you again!"

Lepas puckered up his lips and whistled mournfully for a few moments,
but seeing no sign of forgiveness in my face he jumped down and began
to turn handsprings and dance with the most demure grace.

I took no notice of him, and after a few vain efforts to attract
my attention, he hopped dejectedly off the veranda across the lawn,
and disappeared among the timboso trees and rubber-vines.

Two weeks later Hamat returned from Mecca. He paid me a visit in
state--white robe and green turban. I shook hands and called him by
his new title of nobility, Tuan Hadji, but he did not refer to Lepas.

Before many minutes he commenced to look wistfully about. I pointed
to the trees back of the house. He went out under them and called
two or three times.

There was a great chattering among the rubber-vines, and in a moment
down came Lepas and sprang to his old master's shoulder as happy as
a lover.

I never saw Lepas but once again, and that was one evening on the ocean
espla