Fathers and sons -- Fiction; People with disabilities -- Fiction; Princes -- Fiction; Refugees -- Fiction
Then--exactly as had happened on the day of their return from their
journey--there arose in the road outside the sound of newsboys shouting.
This time the outcry seemed even more excited than before. The boys were
running and yelling and there seemed more of them than usual. And above
all other words was heard "Samavia! Samavia!" But to-day The Rat did not
rush to the door at the first cry. He stood still--for several seconds
they all three stood still--listening. Afterwards each one remembered
and told the others that he had stood still because some strange, strong
feeling held him _waiting_ as if to hear some great thing.
* * * * *
It was Lazarus who went out of the room first and The Rat and Marco
followed him.
One of the upstairs lodgers had run down in haste and opened the door to
buy newspapers and ask questions. The newsboys were wild with excitement
and danced about as they shouted. The piece of news they were yelling
had evidently a popular quality.
The lodger bought two papers and was handing out coppers to a lad who
was talking loud and fast.
"Here's a go!" he was saying. "A Secret Party's risen up and taken
Samavia! 'Twixt night and mornin' they done it! That there Lost Prince
descendant 'as turned up, an' they've _crowned_ him--'twixt night and
mornin' they done it! Clapt 'is crown on 'is 'ead, so's they'd lose no
time." And off he bolted, shouting, "'Cendant of Lost Prince! 'Cendant
of Lost Prince made King of Samavia!"
It was then that Lazarus, forgetting even ceremony, bolted also. He
bolted back to the sitting-room, rushed in, and the door fell to behind
him.
Marco and The Rat found it shut when, having secured a newspaper, they
went down the passage. At the closed door, Marco stopped. He did not
turn the handle. From the inside of the room there came the sound of big
convulsive sobs and passionate Samavian words of prayer and worshipping
gratitude.
"Let us wait," Marco said, trembling a little. "He will not want any one
to see him. Let us wait."
His black pits of eyes looked immense, and he stood at his tallest, but
he was trembling slightly from head to foot. The Rat had begun to shake,
as if from an ague. His face was scarcely human in its fierce unboyish
emotion.
"Marco! Marco!" his whisper was a cry. "That was what he went
for--_because he knew_!"
"Yes," answered Marco, "that was what he went for." And his voice was
unsteady, as his body was.
Presently the sobs inside the room choked themselves back suddenly.
Lazarus had remembered. They had guessed he had been leaning against the
wall during his outburst. Now it was evident that he stood upright,
probably shocked at the forgetfulness of his frenzy.
So Marco turned the handle of the door and went into the room. He shut
the door behind him, and they all three stood together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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