REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
19 
and when the keepers got there he was like the proverbial cat on hot 
bricks. He had placed the saucepans in a strategic position, and at once 
he snatched them up and flung them when his would-be captors appeared. 
Taking advantage of their momentary retreat, he escaped into the bed- 
room, jumped over the bed, and, getting between the bedstead and the 
wall, he cleverly used it as a barricade. As soon as Mr, Wilkie and a 
keeper entered the bedroom after him, he was prepared with his 
defences. Each time a lasso was lifted, he fired his ammunition. The 
pillows, bolster, blankets, sheets, went flying, and the mattress quickly 
followed. Then he turned his attention to the washstand, and every 
separate article on that went the way of the bedclothes. Mr. Wilkie 
and the keeper — who were all the tiny bedroom would accommodate — 
were not enjoying themselves as much as Jacko. He had an admiring 
crowd watching him, while they suffered from the outspoken comments 
of a derisive one, for the tanners, armed with their scraping knives, 
were standing four-deep outside the window, hugely enjoying the progress 
of the fight. They cheered the monkey every time he made a palpable 
hit, and sent up a special roar when the contents of the water jug, aimed 
only too accurately, soused Mr. Wilkie. Jacko knew as well as the 
men that he was the popular favorite, and he enjoyed to the full the 
boo-hoos that greeted every ineffective throw of the lasso. By the time 
the washstand had followed its furniture he had smashed everything 
within his reach, and showed signs of exhaustion. Then he was caught, 
and, as an extra precaution, both lassos were put about his neck. 
Captured, but unconquered, Jacko proudly walked away from the 
scene of his triumph, between the two men. Before they had gone far, 
he measured his strength against them. Then he found that, where he 
might have beaten one lasso, he was no match for two, for in whichever 
direction he attempted to pull, he was bound to feel the strangling grip 
of one. So he yielded to the inevitable, and, like a small boy between 
two constables, he marched dejectedly, but unresistingly, home. As a 
reward for this escapade, he spent the remainder of his life behind bars. 
The Zoological Society repaired the damage to the old woman’s 
furniture — indeed, replaced it with new — but nothing could make her 
forget the awful shock she got when she thought Mephistopheles had 
decided to pay her a morning call. 
TIT FOR TAT. 
Pete the baboon and a fine pair of albino dingoes have been next 
door neighbors for several years at the Melbourne Zoo, but that by no 
means signifies that they have been the best of friends for the same 
