They heard a rustling sound behind them, and saw, close by, a newspaper blown towards them by the light summer breeze.
Bob put out his hand and caught it. "It's to-day's paper," he said.
"I haven't looked at mine to-day."
He read it almost mechanically. Neither dreamed that this paper, carelessly dropped by a man who had come to see the famous rock, contained news on which depended not only the future of their own lives, but which altered the destinies of nations, and which turned a great part of Europe into a shambles.
CHAPTER III
This is what he read:
TERRIBLE TRAGEDY IN BOSNIA.
ASSASSINATION OF THE HEIR PRESUMPTIVE TO THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN THRONE.
BOMB THROWN INTO THE CAR OF THE ARCHDUKE FERDINAND AND HIS CONSORT, THE DUCHESS OF HOHENBERG.
OVERWHELMING INDIGNATION IN VIENNA. GRIEF OF THE AGED EMPEROR.
These were the staring headlines which riveted the gaze of both, and for the moment made them silent.