“Yes, sir. Surely the time has come,'' he answered. But that was all he said, and he turned and went out of the shabby back sitting- room at once. It was as if he felt it were wiser to go before he lost power over himself and said more.
Marco made his way to the meeting-place of the Squad, to which The Rat had in the past given the name of the Barracks. The Rat was sitting among his followers, and he had been reading the morning paper to them, the one which contained the account of the battle of Melzarr. The Squad had become the Secret Party, and each member of it was thrilled with the spirit of dark plot and adventure. They all whispered when they spoke.
“This is not the Barracks now,'' The Rat said. “It is a subterranean cavern. Under the floor of it thousands of swords and guns are buried, and it is piled to the roof with them.
There is only a small place left for us to sit and plot in. We crawl in through a hole, and the hole is hidden by bushes.''
To the rest of the boys this was only an exciting game, but Marco knew that to The Rat it was more. Though The Rat knew none of the things he knew, he saw that the whole story seemed to him a real thing. The struggles of Samavia, as he had heard and read of them in the newspapers, had taken possession of him. His passion for soldiering and warfare and his curiously mature brain had led him into following every detail he could lay hold of. He had listened to all he had heard with remarkable results. He remembered things older people forgot after they had mentioned them. He forgot nothing. He had drawn on the flagstones a map of Samavia which Marco saw was actually correct, and he had made a rough sketch of Melzarr and the battle which had had such disastrous results.
“The Maranovitch had possession of Melzarr,'' he explained with feverish eagerness. “And the Iarovitch attacked them from here,'' pointing with his finger. “That was a mistake. Ishould have attacked them from a place where they would not have been expecting it. They expected attack on their fortifications, and they were ready to defend them. I believe the enemy could have stolen up in the night and rushed in here,'' pointing again.
Marco thought he was right. The Rat had argued it all out, and had studied Melzarr as he might have studied a puzzle or an arithmetical problem. He was very clever, and as sharp as his queer face looked.
“I believe you would make a good general if you were grown up,'' said Marco. “I'd like to show your maps to my father and ask him if he doesn't think your stratagem would have been a good one.''
“Does he know much about Samavia?'' asked The Rat.
“He has to read the newspapers because he writes things,'' Marco answered. “And every one is thinking about the war. No one can help it.''
The Rat drew a dingy, folded paper out of his pocket and looked it over with an air of reflection.
“I'll make a clean one,'' he said. “I'd like a grown-up man to look at it and see if it's all right. My father was more than half- drunk when I was drawing this, so I couldn't ask him questions. He'll kill himself before long. He had a sort of fit last night.''
“Tell us, Rat, wot you an' Marco'll 'ave ter do. Let's 'ear wot you've made up,'' suggested Cad. He drew closer, and so did the rest of the circle, hugging their knees with their arms.
“This is what we shall have to do,'' began The Rat, in the hollow whisper of a Secret Party. “THE HOUR HAS COME. To all the Secret Ones in Samavia, and to the friends of the Secret Party in every country, the sign must be carried. It must be carried by some one who could not be suspected. Who would suspect two boys--and one of them a cripple? The best thing of all for us is that I am a cripple. Who would suspect a cripple?
When my father is drunk and beats me, he does it because I won't go out and beg in the streets and bring him the money I get. He says that people will nearly always give money to a cripple. Iwon't be a beggar for him--the swine-- but I will be one for Samavia and the Lost Prince. Marco shall pretend to be my brother and take care of me. I say,'' speaking to Marco with a sudden change of voice, “can you sing anything? It doesn't matter how you do it.''
“Yes, I can sing,'' Marco replied.
