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The Lost Prince

F >> Francis Hodgson Burnett >> The Lost Prince




They were in the very midst of it, crowded together, leaning
over, stretching necks and breathing quickly with excitement,
when Marco lifted his head. Some mysterious impulse made him do
it in spite of himself.

``There's my father!'' he said.

The chalk dropped, everything dropped, even Samavia. The Rat was
up and on his crutches as if some magic force had swung him
there. How he gave the command, or if he gave it at all, not
even he himself knew. But the Squad stood at salute.

Loristan was standing at the opening of the archway as Marco had
stood that first day. He raised his right hand in return salute
and came forward.

``I was passing the end of the street and remembered the Barracks
was here,'' he explained. ``I thought I should like to look at
your men, Captain.''

He smiled, but it was not a smile which made his words really a
joke. He looked down at the chalk map drawn on the flagstones.

``You know that map well,'' he said. ``Even I can see that it is
Samavia. What is the Secret Party doing?''

``The messengers are trying to find a way in,'' answered Marco.

``We can get in there,'' said The Rat, pointing with a crutch.
``There's a forest where we could hide and find out things.''

``Reconnoiter,'' said Loristan, looking down. ``Yes. Two stray
boys could be very safe in a forest. It's a good game.''

That he should be there! That he should, in his own wonderful
way, have given them such a thing as this. That he should have
cared enough even to look up the Barracks, was what The Rat was
thinking. A batch of ragamuffins they were and nothing else, and
he standing looking at them with his fine smile. There was
something about him which made him seem even splendid. The Rat's
heart thumped with startled joy.

``Father,'' said Marco, ``will you watch The Rat drill us? I
want you to see how well it is done.''

``Captain, will you do me that honor?'' Loristan said to The Rat,
and to even these words he gave the right tone, neither jesting
nor too serious. Because it was so right a tone, The Rat's
pulses beat only with exultation. This god of his had looked at
his maps, he had talked of his plans, he had come to see the
soldiers who were his work! The Rat began his drill as if he had
been reviewing an army.

What Loristan saw done was wonderful in its mechanical exactness.

The Squad moved like the perfect parts of a perfect machine.
That they could so do it in such space, and that they should have
accomplished such precision, was an extraordinary testimonial to
the military efficiency and curious qualities of this one
hunchbacked, vagabond officer.

``That is magnificent!'' the spectator said, when it was over.
``It could not be better done. Allow me to congratulate you.''

He shook The Rat's hand as if it had been a man's, and, after he
had shaken it, he put his own hand lightly on the boy's shoulder
and let it rest there as he talked a few minutes to them all.

He kept his talk within the game, and his clear comprehension of
it added a flavor which even the dullest member of the Squad was
elated by. Sometimes you couldn't understand toffs when they
made a shy at being friendly, but you could understand him, and
he stirred up your spirits. He didn't make jokes with you,
either, as if a chap had to be kept grinning. After the few
minutes were over, he went away. Then they sat down again in
their circle and talked about him, because they could talk and
think about nothing else. They stared at Marco furtively,
feeling as if he were a creature of another world because he had
lived with this man. They stared at The Rat in a new way also.
The wonderful-looking hand had rested on his shoulder, and he had
been told that what he had done was magnificent.

``When you said you wished your father could have seen the
drill,'' said The Rat, ``you took my breath away. I'd never have
had the cheek to think of it myself--and I'd never have dared to
let you ask him, even if you wanted to do it. And he came
himself! It struck me dumb.''

``If he came,'' said Marco, ``it was because he wanted to see
it.''

When they had finished talking, it was time for Marco and The Rat
to go on their way. Loristan had given The Rat an errand. At a
certain hour he was to present himself at a certain shop and
receive a package.

``Let him do it alone,'' Loristan said to Marco. ``He will be
better pleased. His desire is to feel that he is trusted to do
things alone.''

So they parted at a street corner, Marco to walk back to No. 7
Philibert Place, The Rat to execute his commission. Marco turned
into one of the better streets, through which he often passed on
his way home. It was not a fashionable quarter, but it contained
some respectable houses in whose windows here and there were to
be seen neat cards bearing the word ``Apartments,'' which meant
that the owner of the house would let to lodgers his drawing-room
or sitting-room suite.

As Marco walked up the street, he saw some one come out of the
door of one of the houses and walk quickly and lightly down the
pavement. It was a young woman wearing an elegant though quiet
dress, and a hat which looked as if it had been bought in Paris
or Vienna. She had, in fact, a slightly foreign air, and it was
this, indeed, which made Marco look at her long enough to see
that she was also a graceful and lovely person. He wondered what
her nationality was. Even at some yards' distance he could see
that she had long dark eyes and a curved mouth which seemed to be
smiling to itself. He thought she might be Spanish or Italian.

He was trying to decide which of the two countries she belonged
to, as she drew near to him, but quite suddenly the curved mouth
ceased smiling as her foot seemed to catch in a break in the
pavement, and she so lost her balance that she would have fallen
if he had not leaped forward and caught her.

She was light and slender, and he was a strong lad and managed to
steady her. An expression of sharp momentary anguish crossed her
face.

``I hope you are not hurt,'' Marco said.

She bit her lip and clutched his shoulder very hard with her slim
hand.

``I have twisted my ankle,'' she answered. ``I am afraid I have
twisted it badly. Thank you for saving me. I should have had a
bad fall.''

Her long, dark eyes were very sweet and grateful. She tried to
smile, but there was such distress under the effort that Marco
was afraid she must have hurt herself very much.

``Can you stand on your foot at all?'' he asked.

``I can stand a little now,'' she said, ``but I might not be able
to stand in a few minutes. I must get back to the house while I
can bear to touch the ground with it. I am so sorry. I am
afraid I shall have to ask you to go with me. Fortunately it is
only a few yards away.''

``Yes,'' Marco answered. ``I saw you come out of the house. If
you will lean on my shoulder, I can soon help you back. I am
glad to do it. Shall we try now?''

She had a gentle and soft manner which would have appealed to any
boy. Her voice was musical and her enunciation exquisite.

Whether she was Spanish or Italian, it was easy to imagine her a
person who did not always live in London lodgings, even of the
better class.

``If you please,'' she answered him. ``It is very kind of you.
You are very strong, I see. But I am glad to have only a few
steps to go.''

She rested on his shoulder as well as on her umbrella, but it was
plain that every movement gave her intense pain. She caught her
lip with her teeth, and Marco thought she turned white. He could
not help liking her. She was so lovely and gracious and brave.
He could not bear to see the suffering in her face.

``I am so sorry!'' he said, as he helped her, and his boy's voice
had something of the wonderful sympathetic tone of Loristan's.
The beautiful lady herself remarked it, and thought how unlike it
was to the ordinary boy-voice.

``I have a latch-key,'' she said, when they stood on the low
step.

She found the latch-key in her purse and opened the door. Marco
helped her into the entrance-hall. She sat down at once in a
chair near the hat-stand. The place was quite plain and
old-fashioned inside.

``Shall I ring the front-door bell to call some one?'' Marco
inquired.

``I am afraid that the servants are out,'' she answered. ``They
had a holiday. Will you kindly close the door? I shall be
obliged to ask you to help me into the sitting-room at the end of
the hall. I shall find all I want there--if you will kindly hand
me a few things. Some one may come in presently--perhaps one of
the other lodgers --and, even if I am alone for an hour or so, it
will not really matter.''

``Perhaps I can find the landlady,'' Marco suggested. The
beautiful person smiled.

``She has gone to her sister's wedding. That is why I was going
out to spend the day myself. I arranged the plan to accommodate
her. How good you are! I shall be quite comfortable directly,
really. I can get to my easy-chair in the sitting-room now I
have rested a little.''

Marco helped her to her feet, and her sharp, involuntary
exclamation of pain made him wince internally. Perhaps it was a
worse sprain than she knew.

The house was of the early-Victorian London order. A ``front
lobby'' with a dining-room on the right hand, and a ``back
lobby,'' after the foot of the stairs was passed, out of which
opened the basement kitchen staircase and a sitting-room looking
out on a gloomy flagged back yard inclosed by high walls. The
sitting-room was rather gloomy itself, but there were a few
luxurious things among the ordinary furnishings. There was an
easy-chair with a small table near it, and on the table were a
silver lamp and some rather elegant trifles. Marco helped his
charge to the easy-chair and put a cushion from the sofa under
her foot. He did it very gently, and, as he rose after doing it,
he saw that the long, soft dark eyes were looking at him in a
curious way.

``I must go away now,'' he said, ``but I do not like to leave
you. May I go for a doctor?''

``How dear you are!'' she exclaimed. ``But I do not want one,
thank you. I know exactly what to do for a sprained ankle. And
perhaps mine is not really a sprain. I am going to take off my
shoe and see.''

``May I help you?'' Marco asked, and he kneeled down again and
carefully unfastened her shoe and withdrew it from her foot. It
was a slender and delicate foot in a silk stocking, and she bent
and gently touched and rubbed it.

``No,'' she said, when she raised herself, ``I do not think it is
a sprain. Now that the shoe is off and the foot rests on the
cushion, it is much more comfortable, much more. Thank you,
thank you. If you had not been passing I might have had a
dangerous fall.''

``I am very glad to have been able to help you,'' Marco answered,
with an air of relief. ``Now I must go, if you think you will be
all right.''

``Don't go yet,'' she said, holding out her hand. ``I should
like to know you a little better, if I may. I am so grateful. I
should like to talk to you. You have such beautiful manners for
a boy,'' she

ended, with a pretty, kind laugh, ``and I believe I know where
you got them from.''

``You are very kind to me,'' Marco answered, wondering if he did
not redden a little. ``But I must go because my father will--''

``Your father would let you stay and talk to me,'' she said, with
even a prettier kindliness than before. ``It is from him you
have inherited your beautiful manner. He was once a friend of
mine. I hope he is my friend still, though perhaps he has
forgotten me.''

All that Marco had ever learned and all that he had ever trained
himself to remember, quickly rushed back upon him now, because he
had a clear and rapidly working brain, and had not lived the
ordinary boy's life. Here was a beautiful lady of whom he knew
nothing at all but that she had twisted her foot in the street
and he had helped her back into her house. If silence was still
the order, it was not for him to know things or ask questions or
answer them. She might be the loveliest lady in the world and
his father her dearest friend, but, even if this were so, he
could best serve them both by obeying her friend's commands with
all courtesy, and forgetting no instruction he had given.

``I do not think my father ever forgets any one,'' he answered.

``No, I am sure he does not,'' she said softly. ``Has he been to
Samavia during the last three years?''

Marco paused a moment.

``Perhaps I am not the boy you think I am,'' he said. ``My
father has never been to Samavia.''

``He has not? But--you are Marco Loristan?''

``Yes. That is my name.''

Suddenly she leaned forward and her long lovely eyes filled with
fire.

``Then you are a Samavian, and you know of the disasters
overwhelming us. You know all the hideousness and barbarity of
what is being done. Your father's son must know it all!''

``Every one knows it,'' said Marco.

``But it is your country--your own! Your blood must burn in your
veins!''

Marco stood quite still and looked at her. His eyes told whether
his blood burned or not, but he did not speak. His look was
answer enough, since he did not wish to say anything.

``What does your father think? I am a Samavian myself, and I
think night and day. What does he think of the rumor about the
descendant of the Lost Prince? Does he believe it?''

Marco was thinking very rapidly. Her beautiful face was glowing
with emotion, her beautiful voice trembled. That she should be a
Samavian, and love Samavia, and pour her feeling forth even to a
boy, was deeply moving to him. But howsoever one was moved, one
must remember that silence was still the order. When one was
very young, one must remember orders first of all.

``It might be only a newspaper story,'' he said. ``He says one
cannot trust such things. If you know him, you know he is very
calm.''

``Has he taught you to be calm too?'' she said pathetically.
``You are only a boy. Boys are not calm. Neither are women when
their hearts are wrung. Oh, my Samavia! Oh, my poor little
country! My brave, tortured country!'' and with a sudden sob she
covered her face with her hands.

A great lump mounted to Marco's throat. Boys could not cry, but
he knew what she meant when he said her heart was wrung.

When she lifted her head, the tears in her eyes made them softer
than ever.

``If I were a million Samavians instead of one woman, I should
know what to do!'' she cried. ``If your father were a million
Samavians, he would know, too. He would find Ivor's descendant,
if he is on the earth, and he would end all this horror!''

``Who would not end it if they could?'' cried Marco, quite
fiercely.

``But men like your father, men who are Samavians, must think
night and day about it as I do,'' she impetuously insisted.
``You see, I cannot help pouring my thoughts out even to a
boy--because he is a Samavian. Only Samavians care. Samavia
seems so little and unimportant to other people. They don't even
seem to know that the blood she is pouring forth pours from human
veins and beating human hearts. Men like your father must think,
and plan, and feel that they must--must find a way. Even a
woman feels it. Even a boy must. Stefan Loristan cannot be
sitting quietly at home, knowing that Samavian hearts are being
shot through and Samavian blood poured forth. He cannot think
and say NOTHING!''

Marco started in spite of himself. He felt as if his father had
been struck in the face. How dare she say such words! Big as he
was, suddenly he looked bigger, and the beautiful lady saw that
he did.

``He is my father,'' he said slowly.

She was a clever, beautiful person, and saw that she had made a
great mistake.

``You must forgive me,'' she exclaimed. ``I used the wrong words
because I was excited. That is the way with women. You must see
that I meant that I knew he was giving his heart and strength,
his whole being, to Samavia, even though he must stay in
London.''

She started and turned her head to listen to the sound of some
one using the latch-key and opening the front door. The some one
came in with the heavy step of a man.

``It is one of the lodgers,'' she said. ``I think it is the one
who lives in the third floor sitting-room.''

``Then you won't be alone when I go,'' said Marco. ``I am glad
some one has come. I will say good-morning. May I tell my
father your name?''

``Tell me that you are not angry with me for expressing myself so
awkwardly,'' she said.

``You couldn't have meant it. I know that,'' Marco answered
boyishly. ``You couldn't.''

``No, I couldn't,'' she repeated, with the same emphasis on the
words.

She took a card from a silver case on the table and gave it to
him.

``Your father will remember my name,'' she said. ``I hope he
will let me see him and tell him how you took care of me.''

She shook his hand warmly and let him go. But just as he reached
the door she spoke again.

``Oh, may I ask you to do one thing more before you leave me?''
she said suddenly. ``I hope you won't mind. Will you run
up-stairs into the drawing-room and bring me the purple book from
the small table? I shall not mind being alone if I have
something to read.''

``A purple book? On a small table?'' said Marco.

``Between the two long windows,'' she smiled back at him.

The drawing-room of such houses as these is always to be reached
by one short flight of stairs.

Marco ran up lightly.



XIV

MARCO DOES NOT ANSWER

By the time he turned the corner of the stairs, the beautiful
lady had risen from her seat in the back room and walked into the
dining-room at the front. A heavily-built, dark-bearded man was
standing inside the door as if waiting for her.

``I could do nothing with him,'' she said at once, in her soft
voice, speaking quite prettily and gently, as if what she said
was the most natural thing in the world. ``I managed the little
trick of the sprained foot really well, and got him into the
house. He is an amiable boy with perfect manners, and I thought
it might be easy to surprise him into saying more than he knew he
was saying. You can generally do that with children and young
things. But he either knows nothing or has been trained to hold
his tongue. He's not stupid, and he's of a high spirit. I made
a pathetic little scene about Samavia, because I saw he could be
worked up. It did work him up. I tried him with the Lost Prince
rumor; but, if there is truth in it, he does not or will not
know. I tried to make him lose his temper and betray something
in defending his father, whom he thinks a god, by the way. But I
made a mistake. I saw that. It's a pity. Boys can sometimes be
made to tell anything.'' She spoke very quickly under her
breath. The man spoke quickly too.

``Where is he?'' he asked.

``I sent him up to the drawing-room to look for a book. He will
look for a few minutes. Listen. He's an innocent boy. He sees
me only as a gentle angel. Nothing will SHAKE him so much as to
hear me tell him the truth suddenly. It will be such a shock to
him that perhaps you can do something with him then. He may lose
his hold on himself. He's only a boy.''

``You're right,'' said the bearded man. ``And when he finds out
he is not free to go, it may alarm him and we may get something
worth while.''

``If we could find out what is true, or what Loristan thinks is
true, we should have a clue to work from,'' she said.

``We have not much time,'' the man whispered. ``We are ordered
to Bosnia at once. Before midnight we must be on the way.''

``Let us go into the other room. He is coming.''

When Marco entered the room, the heavily-built man with the
pointed dark beard was standing by the easy-chair.

``I am sorry I could not find the book,'' he apologized. ``I
looked on all the tables.''

``I shall be obliged to go and search for it myself,'' said the
Lovely Person.

She rose from her chair and stood up smiling. And at her first
movement Marco saw that she was not disabled in the least.

``Your foot!'' he exclaimed. ``It's better?''

``It wasn't hurt,'' she answered, in her softly pretty voice and
with her softly pretty smile. ``I only made you think so.''

It was part of her plan to spare him nothing of shock in her
sudden transformation. Marco felt his breath leave him for a
moment.

``I made you believe I was hurt because I wanted you to come into
the house with me,'' she added. ``I wished to find out certain
things I am sure you know.''

``They were things about Samavia,'' said the man. ``Your father
knows them, and you must know something of them at least. It is
necessary that we should hear what you can tell us. We shall not
allow you to leave the house until you have answered certain
questions I shall ask you.''

Then Marco began to understand. He had heard his father speak of
political spies, men and women who were paid to trace the people
that certain governments or political parties desired to have
followed and observed. He knew it was their work to search out
secrets, to disguise themselves and live among innocent people as
if they were merely ordinary neighbors.

They must be spies who were paid to follow his father because he
was a Samavian and a patriot. He did not know that they had
taken the house two months before, and had accomplished several
things during their apparently innocent stay in it. They had
discovered Loristan and had learned to know his outgoings and
incomings, and also the outgoings and incomings of Lazarus,
Marco, and The Rat. But they meant, if possible, to learn other
things. If the boy could be startled and terrified into
unconscious revelations, it might prove well worth their while to
have played this bit of melodrama before they locked the front
door behind them and hastily crossed the Channel, leaving their
landlord to discover for himself that the house had been vacated.

In Marco's mind strange things were happening. They were spies!
But that was not all. The Lovely Person had been right when she
said that he would receive a shock. His strong young chest
swelled. In all his life, he had never come face to face with
black treachery before. He could not grasp it. This gentle and
friendly being with the grateful soft voice and grateful soft
eyes had betrayed--BETRAYED him! It seemed impossible to believe
it, and yet the smile on herm curved mouth told him that it was
true. When he had sprung to help her, she had been playing a
trick! When he had been sorry for her pain and had winced at the
sound of her low exclamation, she had been deliberately laying a
trap to harm him. For a few seconds he was stunned--perhaps, if
he had not been his father's son, he might have been stunned
only. But he was more. When the first seconds had passed, there
arose slowly within him a sense of something like high, remote
disdain. It grew in his deep boy's eyes as he gazed directly
into the pupils of the long soft dark ones. His body felt as if
it were growing taller.

``You are very clever,'' he said slowly. Then, after a second's
pause, he added, ``I was too young to know that there was any one
so--clever--in the world.''

The Lovely Person laughed, but she did not laugh easily. She
spoke to her companion.

``A grand seigneur!'' she said. ``As one looks at him, one half
believes it is true.''

The man with the beard was looking very angry. His eyes were
savage and his dark skin reddened. Marco thought that he looked
at him as if he hated him, and was made fierce by the mere sight
of him, for some mysterious reason.

``Two days before you left Moscow,'' he said, ``three men came to
see your father. They looked like peasants. They talked to him
for more than an hour. They brought with them a roll of
parchment. Is that not true?''

``I know nothing,'' said Marco.

``Before you went to Moscow, you were in Budapest. You went
there from Vienna. You were there for three months, and your
father saw many people. Some of them came in the middle of the
night.''

``I know nothing,'' said Marco.

``You have spent your life in traveling from one country to
another,'' persisted the man. ``You know the European languages
as if you were a courier, or the portier in a Viennese hotel. Do
you not?''

Marco did not answer.

The Lovely Person began to speak to the man rapidly in Russian.

``A spy and an adventurer Stefan Loristan has always been and
always will be,'' she said. ``We know what he is. The police in
every capital in Europe know him as a sharper and a vagabond, as
well as a spy. And yet, with all his cleverness, he does not
seem to have money. What did he do with the bribe the
Maranovitch gave him for betraying what he knew of the old
fortress? The boy doesn't even suspect him. Perhaps it's true
that he knows nothing. Or perhaps it is true that he has been so
ill-treated and flogged from his babyhood that he dare not speak.
There is a cowed look in his eyes in spite of his childish
swagger. He's been both starved and beaten.''

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