its opera-goers.

"The military band plays in the Feldherrn-halle at midday. When
something very good is being played, sometimes people stop their
carriages so that they can listen. We will go there," said Marco.

"It's a chance," said The Rat. "We mustn't lose anything like a
chance."

The day was brilliant and sunny, the people passing through the streets
looked comfortable and homely, the mixture of old streets and modern
ones, of ancient corners and shops and houses of the day was
picturesque and cheerful. The Rat swinging through the crowd on his
crutches was full of interest and exhilaration. He had begun to grow,
and the change in his face and expression which had begun in London had
become more noticeable. He had been given his "place," and a work to
do which entitled him to hold it.

No one could have suspected them of carrying a strange and vital secret
with them as they strolled along together. They seemed only two
ordinary boys who looked in at shop windows and talked over their
contents, and who loitered with upturned faces in the Marien-Platz
before the ornate Gothic Rathaus to hear the eleven o'clock chimes play
and see the painted figures of the King and Queen watch from their
balcony the passing before them of the automatic tournament procession
with its trumpeters and tilting knights. When the show was over and
the automatic cock broke forth into his lusty farewell crow, they
laughed just as any other boys would have laughed. Sometimes it would
have been easy for The Rat to forget that there was anything graver in
the world than the new places and new wonders he was seeing, as if he
were a wandering minstrel in a story.

But in Samavia bloody battles were being fought, and bloody plans were
being wrought out, and in anguished anxiety the Secret Party and the
Forgers of the Sword waited breathlessly for the Sign for which they
had waited so long. And inside the lining of Marco's coat was hidden
the sketched face, as the two unnoticed lads made their way to the
Feldherrn-halle to hear the band play and see who might chance to be
among the audience.

Because the day was sunny, and also because the band was playing a
specially fine programme, the crowd in the square was larger than
usual. Several vehicles had stopped, and among them were one or two
which were not merely hired cabs but were the carriages of private
persons.

One of them had evidently arrived early, as it was drawn up in