Fathers and sons -- Fiction; People with disabilities -- Fiction; Princes -- Fiction; Refugees -- Fiction
"Wonder if there's anything in it?" The Rat pondered. "It'd make a chap
careful if he believed it! Revenging yourself on a man would be like
holding him against a live wire to kill him and getting all the volts
through yourself."
A sudden anxiety revealed itself in his face.
"Does your father believe it?" he asked. "Does he?"
"He knows it is true," Marco said.
"I'll own up," The Rat decided after further reflection--"I'll own up
I'm glad that there isn't any one left that I've a grudge against. There
isn't any one--now."
Then he fell again into silence and did not speak until their journey
was at an end. As they arrived early in the day, they had plenty of time
to wander about the marvelous little old city. But through the wide
streets and through the narrow ones, under the archways into the market
gardens, across the bridge and into the square where the "glockenspiel"
played its old tinkling tune, everywhere the Citadel looked down and
always The Rat walked on in his dream.
They found the hair-dresser's shop in one of the narrow streets. There
were no grand shops there, and this particular shop was a modest one.
They walked past it once, and then went back. It was a shop so humble
that there was nothing remarkable in two common boys going into it to
have their hair cut. An old man came forward to receive them. He was
evidently glad of their modest patronage. He undertook to attend to The
Rat himself, but, having arranged him in a chair, he turned about and
called to some one in the back room.
"Heinrich," he said.
In the slit in Marco's sleeve was the sketch of the man with smooth
curled hair, who looked like a hair-dresser. They had found a corner in
which to take their final look at it before they turned back to come in.
Heinrich, who came forth from the small back room, had smooth curled
hair. He looked extremely like a hair-dresser. He had features like
those in the sketch--his nose and mouth and chin and figure were like
what Marco had drawn and committed to memory. But--
He gave Marco a chair and tied the professional white covering around
his neck. Marco leaned back and closed his eyes a moment.
"That is _not_ the man!" he was saying to himself. "He is _not_ the man."
How he knew he was not, he could not have explained, but he felt sure.
It was a strong conviction. But for the sudden feeling, nothing would
have been easier than to give the Sign. And if he could not give it now,
where was the one to whom it must be spoken, and what would be the
result if that one could not be found? And if there were two who were so
much alike, how could he be sure?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account