“So it is in Mervo, Mr. Pugh.”
“Tchah!”
“What say?” said the walrus.
“I said ‘Tchah!’ Colonel.”
“Why?” said the walrus.
“Because His Highness quibbled.”
The walrus nodded approvingly.
“His Highness did nothing of the sort,” said John. “Gambling is forbidden in Mervo for the same reason that it is forbidden in England, because it demoralizes the people.”
“This is absurd, sir. Gambling has been permitted in Mervo for nearly a year.”
“But not by me, Mr. Pugh. The Republic certainly granted Mr. Scobell a concession. But, when I came to the throne, it became necessary for him to get a concession from me. I refused it. Hence the closed doors.”
Mr. Archer-Cleeve once more. “But—” He paused. “Forgotten what I was going to say,” he said to the room at large.
Herr von Mandelbaum made some remark at the back of his throat, but was ignored.
John spoke again.
“If you were a prince, Mr. Pugh, would you find it pleasant to be in the pay of a gambling hell?”
“That is neither here nor—”
“On the contrary, it is, very much. I happen to have some self-respect. I’ve only just found it out, it’s true, but it’s there all right. I don’t want to be a prince—take it from me, it’s a much overrated profession—but if I’ve got to be one, I’ll specialize. I won’t combine it with being a bunco steerer on the side. As long as I am on the throne, this high-toned crap-shooting will continue a back number.”
“What say?” said the walrus.
“I said that, while I am on the throne here, people who feel it necessary to chant ‘Come, little seven!’ must do it elsewhere.”
“I don’t understand you,” said Mr. Pugh. “Your remarks are absolutely unintelligible.”
“Never mind. My actions speak for themselves. It doesn’t matter how I describe it—what it comes to is that the Casino is closed. You can follow that? Mervo is no longer running wide open. The lid is on.”
“Then let me tell you, sir—” Mr. Pugh brought a bony fist down with a thump on the table—”that you are playing with fire. Understand me, sir, we are not here to threaten. We are a peaceful deputation of visitors. But I have observed your people, sir. I have watched them narrowly. And let me tell you that you are walking on a volcano. Already there are signs of grave discontent.”
“Already!” cried John. “Already’s good. I guess they call it going some in this infernal country if they can keep awake long enough to take action within a year after a thing has happened. I don’t know if you have any influence with the populace, Mr. Pugh—you seem a pretty warm and important sort of person—but, if you have, do please ask them as a favor to me to get a move on. It’s no good saying that I’m walking on a volcano. I’m from Missouri. I want to be shown. Let’s see this volcano. Bring it out and make it trot around.”
“You may jest—”
“Who’s jesting? I’m not. It’s a mighty serious thing for me. I want to get away. The only thing that’s keeping me in this forsaken place is this delay. These people are obviously going to fire me sooner or later. Why on earth can’t they do it at once?”
“What say?” said the walrus.
“You may well ask, Colonel,” said Mr. Pugh, staring amazed at John. “His Highness appears completely to have lost his senses.”
The walrus looked at John as if expecting some demonstration of practical insanity, but, finding him outwardly calm, closed his eyes and nodded heavily again.
“I must say, don’t you know,” said Mr. Archer-Cleeve, “it beats me, what?”
The entire deputation seemed to consider that John’s last speech needed footnotes.
John was in no mood to supply them. His patience was exhausted.
“I guess we’ll call this conference finished,” he said. “You’ve been told all you came to find out,—my reason for closing the Casino. If it doesn’t strike you as a satisfactory reason, that’s up to you. Do what you like about it. The one thing you may take as a solid fact—and you can spread it around the town as much as ever you please—is that it is closed, and is not going to be reopened while I’m ruler here.”
The deputation then withdrew, reluctantly.
On the following morning there came a note from Mr. Scobell. It was brief. “Come on down before the shooting begins,” it ran. John tore it up.
It was on the same evening that definite hostilities may be said to have begun.
Between the Palace and the market-place there was a narrow street of flagged stone, which was busy during the early part of the day but deserted after sundown. Along this street, at about seven o’clock, John was strolling with a cigarette, when he was aware of a man crouching, with his back toward him. So absorbed was the man in something which he was writing on the stones that he did not hear John’s approach, and the latter, coming up from behind was enabled to see over his shoulder. In large letters of chalk he read the words:
John’s knowledge of French was not profound, but he could understand this, and it annoyed him.
