"Well, old fellow, I suppose I'd better get along back to my followers," remarked my friend, as he rose from his ledge and took my hand in a warm grip. "Might be missed if I stayed away too long. Guess you're in the same boat yourself. Good-bye, old pal! See you again soon!"
How soon he was to see me, and under what distressing circumstances, was a matter still beyond my knowing.
Yet, as I started off again through the black recesses, the sight of a shadowy shape and of a faint swaying light startled me once more like a silent warning.
CHAPTER XXXII
Toppling Thrones
According to our agreement, the Dictator of Zu and I lost no time about negotiating for peace. Our messages, true to the native custom, were phrased in the most pompous and ponderous language, conveying the impression that we disdained words of under six syllables; yet we were not so ruled by formality that we lost sight of our object. Within about thirty "wakes," we had come to the stage of arranging an armistice; and Clay and I, meeting with great bluster and ceremony at the border line of the two countries, but giving no sign of mutual recognition except for an occasional sly wink, duly affixed our signatures to the document which officially ended the war between Wu and Zu.
All this, however, was not quite so easy as it may sound. Both of us were splashing in stormy waters—more stormy, perhaps, than either of us realized. I was unable to keep close track of events in Zu, for the waves were dashing so threateningly over my own head that I had no time for outside affairs. But I was soon to learn how closely Clay's experience paralleled mine.
Never had any of my acts aroused such opposition as the attempt to establish peace. Even the move to tax the First and Second Classes had been less tempestuously received; the Blare and the Screamer openly condemned me as "capitulating to the enemy," and were not silenced even by my threat to suspend their publication; the people rose in mass demonstrations, shouting "Down with Zu! Down with Zu!" I was the recipient of innumerable petitions which warned against "Peace without victory!" and protested that "No honorable settlement is possible until the enemy turnover is double our own."
At the same time, insidious propaganda was being passed by word of mouth through every pit and gallery of the land. "What is to become of the munition makers if we end the war?" it was asked. "They will lose heavily on their investments." ... "Yes, and a million men will be thrown out of work," it was added ... "Have we none of the ancient hardihood of our fathers?" others would cry. "Do we pusillanimously dread to be turned over?" ... "Let us not surrender until Nullnull is wholly ours!" still others would shout. "We must make the world safe for the First Class!" And, mingled with these cries, there were exclamations about "The lofty ideals of the battle caves!" "The triumph of thoughtlessness!" and "The turnover to end turnovers!" until the people were in such a frenzy that nothing I said was able to reach them.