a good
position when the boys reached the corner. It was a big open carriage
and a grand one, luxuriously upholstered in green. The footman and
coachman wore green and silver liveries and seemed to know that people
were looking at them and their master.

He was a stout, genial-looking old aristocrat with a sly smile, though,
as he listened to the music, it almost forgot to be sly. In the
carriage with him were a young officer and a little boy, and they also
listened attentively. Standing near the carriage door were several
people who were plainly friends or acquaintances, as they occasionally
spoke to him. Marco touched The Rat's coat sleeve as the two boys
approached.

"It would not be easy to get near him," he said. "Let us go and stand
as close to the carriage as we can get without pushing. Perhaps we may
hear some one say something about where he is going after the music is
over."

Yes, there was no mistaking him. He was the right man. Each of them
knew by heart the creases on his stout face and the sweep of his gray
moustache. But there was nothing noticeable in a boy looking for a
moment at a piece of paper, and Marco sauntered a few steps to a bit of
space left bare by the crowd and took a last glance at his sketch. His
rule was to make sure at the final moment. The music was very good and
the group about the carriage was evidently enthusiastic. There was
talk and praise and comment, and the old aristocrat nodded his head
repeatedly in applause.

"The Chancellor is music mad," a looker-on near the boys said to
another. "At the opera every night unless serious affairs keep him
away! There you may see him nodding his old head and bursting his
gloves with applauding when a good thing is done. He ought to have led
an orchestra or played a 'cello. He is too big for first violin."

There was a group about the carriage to the last, when the music came
to an end and it drove away. There had been no possible opportunity of
passing close to it even had the presence of the young officer and the
boy not presented an insurmountable obstacle.

Marco and The Rat went on their way and passed by the Hof-Theater and
read the bills. "Tristan and Isolde" was to be presented at night and
a great singer would sing Isolde.

"He will go to hear that," both boys said at once. "He will be sure to
go."

It was decided between them that Marco should go on his quest alone
when night came. One boy who hung around