"Yes—what of it?" I demanded.
"Oh, Your Excellency—Your Abysmal Excellency, the most wonderful news!" ejaculated my visitor, as by degrees he regained his breath. "The most marvelous, most miraculous news!"
"What news? Out with it!"
Still panting, and with chest powerfully heaving, the man paused for a moment, the better to regain control of himself.
"Your Abysmal Excellency," he resumed, in a less excited manner, although with his tense emotion still manifest, "I have just been in Zu! I have seen what none of our countrymen have seen! The news is still censored. But I know that I speak truth. There has been a revolution in Zu!"
"A revolution?" I cried, leaping to my feet, while my caller's excitement began to take fire in me.
"Indeed, Your Excellency, a great revolution! The people have risen up and driven Oono Yuno, the old Dictator, from the throne. It was not because of the war, Your Excellency. They say he did not give them the right capsules to eat. And now they have a new Dictator."
"New Dictator? Who may he be?"
"I wish I knew, Your Excellency. Nobody seems to know. He calls himself Rah the Righteous. He is said to have the strangest looks of any man in the world."
"What does he look like?" I demanded, growing more interested each moment.