News of this kind travels quickly.  The great mob which had assembled outside the Chamber of Deputies wended its way to the palace, where it stood awaiting some word of what action was to be taken.  The people knew that the answer would not be long coming.

Hal Paine and Chester Crawford were standing in the midst of this crowd when this story opens.  They had just left their mothers and Uncle John at their hotel, announcing that they would get the latest war news.  The two women had offered no objection, but Uncle John had instructed them: 

“Don’t be gone long, boys.  Remember we leave in the morning, and we expect you to do your share of the packing.”

So the two lads had strolled out and joined the crowd.

When they had decided to return to America, each lad had carefully packed his British uniform, so they were now in civilian clothes.  This was a matter of some regret to them, for they had been proud of their uniforms, and not without cause, and even as they walked along to-day Chester had remarked: 

“We should have our uniforms on, Hal.”

“Why?” demanded the latter.

“Well, just look at all these Italian officers.  It makes me feel lonesome to be without my uniform.”

Hal laughed.

“By Jove! it does at that,” he agreed.  “I can sympathize with the soldier who has such an absolute disgust for a civilian.  You know there is no love lost between them.”

“Right!  Well, I wish I had my uniform on.”

“It’s a good thing you haven’t, I guess.  That warlike spirit of yours might get us in trouble.  Every time I look at mine, I want to run back to the front instead of going home.”

“It is pretty tough,” agreed Chester.

“You bet it is.  But what else could we do?  We must please our mothers, you know.”

“I suppose you’re right.  But just the same, several times I have had a notion to disappear.”

“The same thought struck me, too; but we gave our promise, you know.”

Chester shrugged his shoulders.

“It can’t be helped now,” he said.

“Maybe we’ll have a little war of our own some day,” said Hal.  “Then they’ll have to let us fight.”

“That would be too good to be true,” was Chester’s reply.

It was just at the end of this conversation that the lads had joined the crowd before the palace, and Chester had made the remark that opens this story.

CHAPTER III.

The mob.

Hal sat up and passed his right hand gently over his head.

“Quite a bump,” he muttered to himself.  “What a fool I was not to have been prepared for that ruse.  Well, I’ll know better next time.”

The lad pulled himself to his feet and gazed in the direction in which the other had disappeared.  He made as if to move after him, and then changed his mind.