The Emperor is lonely and bored too, no
doubt, and this one has ways of making him forget his troubles. It's
been told me that now and then the two dress themselves roughly, like
common men, and go out into the city to see what it's like to rub
shoulders with the rest of the world. I daresay it's true. I should
like to try it myself once in a while, if I had to sit on a throne and
wear a crown."

The two boys followed the celebration to its end. They managed to get
near enough to see the entrance to the church where the service was
held and to get a view of the ceremonies at the banner-draped and
laurel-wreathed statue. They saw the man with the pale face several
times, but he was always so enclosed that it was not possible to get
within yards of him. It happened once, however, that he looked through
a temporary break in the crowding people and saw a dark strong-featured
and remarkably intent boy's face, whose vivid scrutiny of him caught
his eye. There was something in the fixedness of its attention which
caused him to look at it curiously for a few seconds, and Marco met his
gaze squarely.

"Look at me! Look at me!" the boy was saying to him mentally. "I have
a message for you. A message!"

The tired eyes in the pale face rested on him with a certain growing
light of interest and curiosity, but the crowding people moved and the
temporary break closed up, so that the two could see each other no
more. Marco and The Rat were pushed backward by those taller and
stronger than themselves until they were on the outskirts of the crowd.

"Let us go to the Hofburg," said Marco. "They will come back there,
and we shall see him again even if we can't get near."

To the Hofburg they made their way through the less crowded streets,
and there they waited as near to the great palace as they could get.
They were there when, the ceremonies at an end, the imperial carriages
returned, but, though they saw their man again, they were at some
distance from him and he did not see them.

Then followed four singular days. They were singular days because they
were full of tantalizing incidents. Nothing seemed easier than to hear
talk of, and see the Emperor's favorite, but nothing was more
impossible than to get near to him. He seemed rather a favorite with
the populace, and the common people of the shopkeeping or laboring
classes were given to talking freely of him--of where he was going and
what he was doing. To-night he