The Lost Prince (20 page)

‘The old Buddhist said –’ began Marco.

‘Look here!’ broke in The Rat. ‘Tell me the whole story. I want to hear it.’

It was because Loristan had heard it, and listened and believed, that The Rat had taken fire. His imagination seized upon the idea, as it would have seized on some theory of necromancy proved true and workable.

With his elbows on the table and his hands in his hair, he leaned forward, twisting a lock with restless fingers. His breath quickened.

‘Tell it,’ he said, ‘I want to hear it all!’

‘I shall have to tell it in my own words,’ Marco said.
‘And it won’t be as wonderful as it was when my father told it to me. This is what I remember: my father had gone through much pain and trouble. A great load was upon him, and he had been told he was going to die before his work was done. He had gone to India, because a man he was obliged to speak to had gone there to hunt, and no one knew when he would return. My father followed him for months from one wild place to another, and, when he found him, the man would not hear or believe what he had come so far to say. Then he had jungle-fever and almost died. Once the natives left him for dead in a bungalow in the forest, and he heard the jackals howling round him all the night. Through all the hours he was only alive enough to be conscious of two things – all the rest of him seemed gone from his body: his thought knew that his work was unfinished – and his body heard the jackals howl!’

‘Was the work for Samavia?’ The Rat put in quickly. ‘If he had died that night, the descendant of the Lost Prince never would have been found – never!’ The Rat bit his lip so hard that a drop of blood started from it.

‘When he was slowly coming alive again, a native, who had gone back and stayed to wait upon him, told him that near the summit of a mountain, about fifty miles away, there was a ledge which jutted out into space and hung over the valley, which was thousands of feet below. On the ledge there was a hut in which there lived an ancient Buddhist, who was a holy man, as they called him, and who had been there during time which had not been measured. They said that their grandparents and great-grandparents had known of him, though
very few persons had ever seen him. It was told that the most savage beast was tame before him. They said that a man-eating tiger would stop to salute him, and that a thirsty lioness would bring her whelps to drink at the spring near his hut.’

‘That was a lie,’ said The Rat promptly.

Marco neither laughed nor frowned.

‘How do we
know
?’ he said. ‘It was a native’s story, and it might be anything. My father neither said it was true nor false. He listened to all that was told him by natives. They said that the holy man was the brother of the stars. He knew all things past and to come, and could heal the sick. But most people, especially those who had sinful thoughts, were afraid to go near him.’

‘I’d like to have seen –’ The Rat pondered aloud, but he did not finish.

‘Before my father was well, he had made up his mind to travel to the ledge if he could. He felt as if he must go. He thought that if he were going to die, the hermit might tell him some wise thing to do for Samavia.’

‘He might have given him a message to leave to the Secret Ones,’ said The Rat.

‘He was so weak when he set out on his journey that he wondered if he would reach the end of it. Part of the way he travelled by bullock cart, and part, he was carried by natives. But at last the bearers came to a place more than halfway up the mountain, and would go no further. Then they went back and left him to climb the rest of the way himself. They had travelled slowly and he had got more strength, but he was weak yet. The forest was more wonderful than anything he had ever seen. There
were tropical trees with foliage like lace, and some with huge leaves, and some of them seemed to reach the sky. Sometimes he could barely see gleams of blue through them. And vines swung down from their high branches, and caught each other, and matted together; and there were hot scents, and strange flowers, and dazzling birds darting about, and thick moss, and little cascades bursting out. The path grew narrower and steeper, and the flower scents and the sultriness made it like walking in a hothouse. He heard rustlings in the undergrowth, which might have been made by any kind of wild animal; once he stepped across a deadly snake without seeing it. But it was asleep and did not hurt him. He knew the natives had been convinced that he would not reach the ledge; but for some strange reason he believed he should. He stopped and rested many times, and he drank some milk he had brought in a canteen. The higher he climbed, the more wonderful everything was, and a strange feeling began to fill him. He said his body stopped being tired and began to feel very light. And his load lifted itself from his heart, as if it were not his load any more but belonged to something stronger. Even Samavia seemed to be safe. As he went higher and higher, and looked down the abyss at the world below, it appeared as if it were not real but only a dream he had wakened from – only a dream.’

The Rat moved restlessly.

‘Perhaps he was light-headed with the fever,’ he suggested.

‘The fever had left him, and the weakness had left him,’ Marco answered. ‘It seemed as if he had never really been ill at all – as if no one could be ill, because
things like that were only dreams, just as the world was.’

‘I wish I’d been with him! Perhaps I could have thrown these away – down into the abyss!’ And The Rat shook his crutches which rested against the table. ‘I feel as if I was climbing, too. Go on.’

Marco had become more absorbed than The Rat. He had lost himself in the memory of the story.

‘I felt that I was climbing, when he told me,’ he said. ‘I felt as if I were breathing in the hot flower-scents and pushing aside the big leaves and giant ferns. There had been a rain, and they were wet and shining with big drops, like jewels, that showered over him as he thrust his way through and under them. And the stillness and the height – the stillness and the height! I can’t make it real to you as he made it to me! I can’t! I was there. He took me. And it was so high – and so still – and so beautiful that I could scarcely bear it.’

But the truth was, that with some vivid boy-touch he had carried his hearer far. The Rat was deadly quiet. Even his eyes had not moved. He spoke almost as if he were in a sort of trance. ‘It’s real,’ he said. ‘I’m there now. As high as you – go on – go on. I want to climb higher.’

And Marco, understanding, went on.

‘The day was over and the stars were out when he reached the place where the ledge was. He said he thought that during the last part of the climb he never looked on the earth at all. The stars were so immense that he could not look away from them. They seemed to be drawing him up. And all overhead was like violet velvet, and they hung there like great lamps of radiance.
Can you see them? You must see them. My father saw them all night long. They were part of the wonder.’

‘I see them,’ The Rat answered, still in his trance-like voice and without stirring, and Marco knew he did.

‘And there, with the huge stars watching it, was the hut on the ledge. And there was no one there. The door was open. And outside it was a low bench and table of stone. And on the table was a meal of dates and rice, waiting. Not far from the hut was a deep spring, which ran away in a clear brook. My father drank and bathed his face there. Then he went out on the ledge, and sat down and waited, with his face turned up to the stars. He did not lie down, and he thought he saw the stars all the time he waited. He was sure he did not sleep. He did not know how long he sat there alone. But at last he drew his eyes from the stars, as if he had been commanded to do it. And he was not alone any more. A yard or so away from him sat the holy man. He knew it was the hermit because his eyes were different from any human eyes he had ever beheld. They were as still as the night was, and as deep as the shadows covering the world thousands of feet below, and they had a far, far look, and a strange light was in them.’

‘What did he say?’ asked The Rat hoarsely.

‘He only said, “Rise, my son. I awaited thee. Go and eat the food I prepared for thee, and then we will speak together.” He didn’t move or speak again until my father had eaten the meal. He only sat on the moss and let his eyes rest on the shadows over the abyss. When my father went back, he made a gesture which meant that he should sit near him.

‘Then he sat still for several minutes, and let his eyes rest on my father, until he felt as if the light in them were set in the midst of his own body and his soul. Then he said, “I cannot tell thee all thou wouldst know. That I may not do.” He had a wonderful gentle voice, like a deep soft bell. “But the work will be done. Thy life and thy son’s life will set it on its way.”

‘They sat through the whole night together. And the stars hung quite near, as if they listened. And there were sounds in the bushes of stealthy, padding feet which wandered about as if the owners of them listened too. And the wonderful, low, peaceful voice of the holy man went on and on, telling of wonders which seemed like miracles but which were to him only the “working of the Law”.’

‘What is the Law?’ The Rat broke in.

‘There were two my father wrote down, and I learned them. The first was the law of The One. I’ll try to say that,’ and he covered his eyes and waited through a moment of silence.

It seemed to The Rat as if the room held an extraordinary stillness.

‘Listen!’ came next. ‘This is it: There are a myriad worlds. There is but One Thought out of which they grew. Its Law is Order which cannot swerve. Its creatures are free to choose. Only they can create Disorder, which in itself is Pain and Woe and Hate and Fear. These they alone can bring forth. The Great One is a Golden Light. It is not remote but near. Hold thyself within its glow and thou wilt behold all things clearly. First, with all thy breathing being, know one thing! That thine own thought – when so thou standest – is one with That which thought the Worlds!’

‘What?’ gasped The Rat. ‘
My
thought – the things I think!’

‘Your thoughts – boys’ thoughts – anybody’s thoughts.’

‘You’re giving me the jim-jams!’

‘He said it,’ answered Marco. ‘And it was then he spoke about the broken Link – and about the greatest books in the world –that in all their different ways, they were only saying over and over again one thing thousands of times. Just this thing – “Hate not, Fear not, Love.” And he said that was Order. And when it was disturbed, suffering came – poverty and misery and catastrophe and wars.’

‘Wars!’ The Rat said sharply. ‘The World couldn’t do without war – and armies and defences! What about Samavia?’

‘My father asked him that. And this is what he answered. I learned that too. Let me think again,’ and he waited as he had waited before. Then he lifted his head. ‘Listen! This is it: Out of the blackness of Disorder and its outpouring of human misery, there will arise the Order which is Peace. When Man learns that he is one with the Thought which itself creates all beauty, all power, all splendour, and all repose, he will not fear that his brother can rob him of his heart’s desire. He will stand in the Light and draw to himself his own.’

‘Draw to himself?’ The Rat said. ‘Draw what he wants? I don’t believe it!’

‘Nobody does,’ said Marco. ‘We don’t know. He said we stood in the dark of the night – without stars – and did not know that the broken chain swung just above us.’

‘I don’t believe it!’ said The Rat. ‘It’s too big!’

Marco did not say whether he believed it or not. He only went on speaking.

‘My father listened until he felt as if he had stopped breathing. Just at the stillest of the stillness the Buddhist stopped speaking. And there was a rustling of the undergrowth a few yards away, as if something big was pushing its way through – and there was the soft pad of feet. The Buddhist turned his head and my father heard him say softly: ‘Come forth, Sister.’

‘And a huge leopardess with two cubs walked out on to the ledge and came to him and threw herself down with a heavy lunge near his feet.’

‘Your father saw that!’ cried out The Rat. ‘You mean the old fellow knew something that made wild beasts afraid to touch him or anyone near him?’

‘Not afraid. They knew he was their brother, and that he was one with the Law. He had lived so long with the Great Thought that all darkness and fear had left him forever. He had mended the Chain.’

The Rat had reached deep waters. He leaned forward – his hands burrowing in his hair, his face scowling and twisted, his eyes boring into space. He had climbed to the ledge at the mountain top; he had seen the luminous immensity of the stars, and he had looked down into the shadows filling the world thousands of feet below. Was there some remote deep in him from whose darkness a slow light was rising? All that Loristan had said he knew must be true. But the rest of it –?

Marco got up and came over to him. He looked like his father again.

‘If the descendant of the Lost Prince is brought back to rule Samavia, he will teach his people the Law of the One. It was for that the holy man taught my father until the dawn came.’

‘Who will – who will teach the Lost Prince – the new King –when he is found?’ The Rat cried. ‘Who will teach him?’

‘The hermit said my father would. He said he would also teach his son – and that son would teach his son – and he would teach his. And through such as they were, the whole world would come to know the Order and the Law.’

Never had The Rat looked so strange and fierce a thing. A whole world at peace! No tactics – no battles – no slaughtered heroes – no clash of arms, and fame! It made him feel sick. And yet – something set his chest heaving.

‘And your father would teach him that – when he was found! So that he could teach his sons. Your father
believes
in it?’

‘Yes,’ Marco answered. He said nothing but ‘Yes.’ The Rat threw himself forward on the table, face downward.

‘Then,’ he said, ‘he must make me believe it. He must teach me – if he can.’

They heard a clumping step upon the staircase, and, when it reached the landing, it stopped at their door. Then there was a solid knock.