I'll
go in and begin to beg. The servant will think I'm a foreigner and
don't know what I'm doing. You can come after me to tell me to come
away, because you know better than I do that I shall be ordered out.
She may be a good-natured woman and listen to us--and you might get
near her."

"We might try it," Marco answered. "It might work. We will try it."

The Rat never failed to treat him as his leader. He had begged
Loristan to let him come with Marco as his servant, and his servant he
had been more than willing to be. When Loristan had said he should be
his aide-de-camp, he had felt his trust lifted to a military dignity
which uplifted him with it. As his aide-de-camp he must serve him,
watch him, obey his lightest wish, make everything easy for him.
Sometimes, Marco was troubled by the way in which he insisted on
serving him, this queer, once dictatorial and cantankerous lad who had
begun by throwing stones at him.

"You must not wait on me," he said to him. "I must wait upon myself."

The Rat rather flushed.

"He told me that he would let me come with you as your aide-de camp,"
he said. "It--it's part of the game. It makes things easier if we
keep up the game."

It would have attracted attention if they had spent too much time in
the vicinity of the big house. So it happened that the next afternoon
the great lady evidently drove out at an hour when they were not
watching for her. They were on their way to try if they could carry
out their plan, when, as they walked together along the Rue Royale, The
Rat suddenly touched Marco's elbow.

"The carriage stands before the shop with lace in the windows," he
whispered hurriedly.

Marco saw and recognized it at once. The owner had evidently gone into
the shop to buy something. This was a better chance than they had
hoped for, and, when they approached the carriage itself, they saw that
there was another point in their favor. Inside were no less than three
beautiful little Pekingese spaniels that looked exactly alike. They
were all trying to look out of the window and were pushing against each
other. They were so perfect and so pretty that few people passed by
without looking at them. What better excuse could two boys have for
lingering about a place?

They stopped and, standing a little distance away, began to look at and
discuss them and laugh at their excited little antics. Through the
shop-window Marco caught a glimpse of the great lady.

"