Gaston Leroux

“ General Captain, who was too stupid to notice his master's bad temper, went on jabbering like a parrot:
"I hear that beads are much worn by the monkeys." At this word, Balaoo pushed two fingers into his nostrils and sat up on his hind-quarters, a bad sign.
"A parakeet in the Cours Belzunce at Marseilles told me that, on the Equator, the macaques" — O fool of a General Captain, to use that name before Balaoo! — "have hairs behind their ears and rings and bracelets of yellow gold on their feet and necklaces of rare pearls round their necks." ”

“ Balaoo retorted:
"I saw them kill the process server; and they did not eat the process-server."
"Yes, but they kill us, here, in the forest; and they do it to eat us."
"You flatter yourself," said Balaoo, shrugging his shoulders. "The Three Brothers never eat fox. Men don't eat fox. You are not even good to eat for those who eat everything, which is far from saying that the Three Brothers won't kill you, for they don't like chatterers and windbags." ”

“ As did not insist, knowing that he would not get the better of Balaoo, remembering the proverb:
"A traveller may lie with authority."
As understood all that Balaoo said to him, because the pithecanthrope took care, when talking to animals, to drop the language of men which he had learnt from Coriolis and Madeleine. He never waited to be asked, but always, very amiably, put himself on an equality with them, as between beast and beast, and communication was at once restored between animal instincts. ”

“ True enough, I kill; but I kill because I'm annoyed and I never kill to eat: I call that disgusting; and you can take it straight from me."
"Then you don't like those who kill to eat," said As. "If so, why do you like the Three Brothers, who kill to eat?" ”

“ They thought that I was there."
"People who lead the life which you do must be prepared for everything," replied Balaoo, sententiously, without making any promise. And he thought it his duty to add, "There are good and bad sides to forest life. And now, As, old chap, let me get to sleep."
"It's easy to sleep," said As, who understood that he was being shown the door, "when one is the friend of men and has an easy conscience, like yourself. By the way, Balaoo, there's a man hanging from the first tree on the left on the Riom Road ”

“ The Empress' gown puzzled the hall-porter. He wanted to know if Balaoo had brought the garment for his own use and if he should soon see his master walking about in that fine white dress. He turned it with his beak and managed to tear a bit of lace from it, for which he got a box on the ear.
"You needn't be angry," he said, hurrying out of reach. "I am sure it would suit you beautifully. You ought to have a necklace of beads to go with it, like Mlle. Franchet."
Balaoo was filled with concentrated fury at the idea that anyone could conceive him decked out like that old faggot of a Mlle. ”

“ And Madeleine would not be pleased. She would send him packing, with his Empress' gown. And that would make two bothers instead of one. Sorrowfully, he moved away from the little door at the end of the garden and made for the open country.
So there he stood, on the edge of the forest, with the Empress' gown under his arm. Hearing a noise in the distance, from the Rue Neuve, he said to himself that they must have discovered his theft and that Mme. Boche and Mme. Mûre were rousing the whole village in order to tell the story of that strange event. . . . ”