Part 62 (1/2)

”No--just like Jingalo; that is what makes it strong. If I were foolish, if I were only going there to make money, I should try to get some treaty, some concession, some sort of trade-monopoly--rubber, or gum, or n.i.g.g.e.rs' blood, it is all the same thing--I should try to get that from the Brazils or the Bolivias or whoever thinks that it is theirs to sell.

I am not such a fool: I do not want to trade, if I have got the people.

They are strong, they can run, they live clean lives--n.o.body has spoiled them; they do not want to be rich; they are still a wonderful people; they know a leader when they have found him. And when they gave me these dragons that I have on me, then I became their King. That is my secret.

Now!”

”But if I were to tell people _that_----”

”Pooh! They would not believe you. 'Mad,' that is what they would say.

'Don't marry that man, he is mad!' And besides I am not King as we talk of kings here in Europe; they would not pay taxes to me or anybody, but I can show them what to do. That country on the map may 'belong' to anybody--the United States may write 'Monroe'--one of their big 'bow-wows' that was--they may write 'Monroe' all round the coasts of South America and at every port that they like to stick in their noses; but they cannot get there to say that the people living on that land shall not become great and strong in their own way, without any one else to say about it. To those men outside I shall only look like a trader what is too stupid to trade with them; but all my trade will be among my own people. That country can live on itself; there, that is my secret!

It wants nothing, nothing from outside at all; and the people want nothing either. They have great high plateaux where they can live cool; and they have all the brains and the blood that they want to make themselves a great nation. I have drilled them; ah, but not German fas.h.i.+on, no! They are much too splendid for that. Every man is an army to himself. They do not fear, for in their religion it is forbidden them. But if you can think of Bersaglieri--which are the best troops in Europe--able to climb like monkeys, to swim like fish, to go along the ground like snakes, and to get all by different ways to the same place in the dark with their eyes shut, though they have never been there before--for that is how it seems--well, that is what my army is going to be like. I have ten thousand of them drilled already; in a year I shall have them armed; and I tell you that at six hundred miles from the nearest coast n.o.body will be able to beat them.”

”No, perhaps not with armies,” said Charlotte; ”but what about civilization itself--all the evil part of it, I mean? How are you going to keep that out?”

”Civilization will find us a bad bargain,” said the Prince, ”we shall not trade: that is to be our law. I have told them how dreadful civilization has become, and they are afraid of it; they will not touch it with a pair of tongs. Traders may come to us; they shall get nothing, and we shall get nothing from them. Only the King, with those that he has for his Council, shall choose what is to bring in from outside; and that will not be for trade at all.

”Well, now you know! And it is to be Queen of that country, but never to wear any crown, that I ask if you are going to marry me?”

”It would be rather a big adventure, would it not?” said Charlotte.

”Of course! I thought that is what you like.”

”Yes, so it is. But what about papa? I don't know what he would say if he knew.”

”Do you always tell him what you do, beforehand, to see if he shall approve?”

”I've not done lately,” said Charlotte. And then she saw that a suitable moment for her own confession had arrived. She had very small hope of shocking him now; but she did her best.

”Do you know that I have been in prison?” she said.

”No. Who was it that put you there--your papa?”

”I put myself.”

”Did you get the keys?”

”I made them arrest me.”

”How?”

”I took a policeman's helmet from him, and ran away with it. At least that is what he said afterwards: I don't know whether it was true.”

”Beautiful!” exclaimed the Prince in ravished tone. He did not turn a hair; it was merely as though he were listening to some fairy tale.

”But very likely it was!” persisted Charlotte, anxious for the worst to be believed; and then she gave him a full account of the whole thing.

”And what for did you do it?” he inquired when she had finished.

”Because they had told me that you were coming, and I had promised not to run away.”