was always so penitent after each misadventure!
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. Even the monkeys in the trees knew better than to
go into his “compound,” or inclosure.
But Lepas started off on a voyage of discovery one day, and not only invaded his
compound, but actually entered his house. The official caught him in the act of
hiding his shaving-set between the palm thatch of the roof and the cheese-cloth
ceiling. 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.
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. The high official from next
door was there. So were several other high officials of Singapore, the general
commanding her Majesty’s troops, and the foreign consuls and members of
Legislative Council.
It was a hot night, and the punkah-wallah outside kept the punkah, or
mechanical fan, switching back and forth over our heads with a rapidity that
made us fear its ropes would break, as very often happened.
Suddenly there was a crash, and a champagne glass struck squarely in the high