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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.
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.
A perfectly similar appendage, "a most delicate tube or ribbon," was found by Darwin in free-swimming pupae of Lepas australis on the last joints of the "prehensile antennae."
Now in three species of Lepas, in Dichelaspis Warwickii and in Scalpellum Peronii, Darwin saw, on tearing recently-affixed animals from their point or support, that a long narrow band issued from the same point of the antennae; its end was torn away, and in Dichelaspis, judging from its ragged appearance, it had attached itself firmly to the support.
We had heard that Hamat had sailed for Jedda with a shipload of pilgrims and were therefore expecting him back soon; but we had decided not to give up Lepas. He had become a sort of necessity about the house. Next door to us, lived a high official of the English service. He was a sour, cross old man and did not like pets.
I saw my landlady come in, a buxom, florid dame, always good-humored, who had missed her calling in life. She was a Fleming, who ought to have seen the light in a picture by Teniers. "'Well, monsieur, said she, 'Monsieur Regnault has no doubt been giving you his history of la Grande Breteche? "'Yes, Madame Lepas. "'And what did he tell you?
"I repeated in a few words the creepy and sinister story of Madame de Merret. At each sentence my hostess put her head forward, looking at me with an innkeeper's keen scrutiny, a happy compromise between the instinct of a police constable, the astuteness of a spy, and the cunning of a dealer. "'My good Madame Lepas, said I as I ended, 'you seem to know more about it. Heh?
He went so far as to make up with the monkeys in the trees, and once or twice I caught him condescending to have a game of leap-frog with them. I made up my mind that he had determined to turn over a new leaf, but the syce shook his head knowingly and said: "Lepas all the time thinking. He thinks bad things." And so it proved. One night the mistress gave a very big dinner party.
It was not long before they caught the true culprit, and gave him such a beating that he was quiet and subdued for days. But Lepas was a lovable little fellow with all his mischief.
Recognizing Lepas, he did not kill him, but took him by his leathern girdle and soused him in his bath-tub, until he was so near dead that it took him hours to crawl home. Lepas went around with a sad, injured expression on his wrinkled little face, for days. Not even a mangosteen sprinkled with sugar could awaken his enthusiasm.
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