“What is the matter, Max?” I asked.

“It is all in vain,” he replied despairingly; “I thought I would be able to create order out of chaos and reconstruct society.  But that dream is past.”

“What has happened?” I asked.

“I went this morning to Prince Cabano’s palace to get Caesar to help me.  He had held high carnival all night and was beastly drunk, in bed.  Then I went out to counsel with the mob.  But another calamity had happened.  Last night the vice-president—­the Jew—­fled, in one of the Demons, carrying away one hundred million dollars that had been left in his charge.”

“Where did he go?” I asked.

“No one knows.  He took several of his trusted followers, of his own nation, with him.  It is rumored that he has gone to Judea; that he proposes to make himself king in Jerusalem, and, with his vast wealth, re-establish the glories of Solomon, and revive the ancient splendors of the Jewish race, in the midst of the ruins of the world.”

“What effect has his flight had on the mob?” I asked.

“A terrible effect.  They are wild with suspicions and full of rumors.  They gathered, in a vast concourse, around the Cabano palace, to prevent Caesar leaving them, like the cripple.  They believe that he, too, has another hundred millions hidden in the cellars of the palace.  They clamored for him to appear.  The tumult of the mob was frightful.

“I rose to address them from the steps of the palace.  I told them they need not fear that Caesar would leave them—­he was dead drunk, asleep in bed.  If they feared treachery, let them appoint a committee to search the palace for treasure.  But—­I went on—­there was a great danger before them which they had not thought of.  They must establish some kind of government that they would all obey.  If they did not they would soon be starving.  I explained to them that this vast city, of ten million inhabitants, had been fed by thousands of carloads of food which were brought in, every day, from the outside world.  Now the cars had ceased to run, The mob had eaten up all the food in the shops, and tomorrow they would begin to feel the pangs of starvation.  And I tried to make them understand what it meant for ten million people to be starving together.

“They became very quiet.  One man cried out: 

“‘What would you have us do?’

“’You must establish a provisional government.  You must select one man to whose orders you will all submit.  Then you must appoint a board of counselors to assist him.  Then the men among you who are engineers and conductors of trains of cars and of air-lines must reassume their old places; and they must go forth into the country and exchange the spoils you have gathered for cattle and flour and vegetables, and all other things necessary for life.’

“‘He wants to make himself a king,’ growled one ruffian.

“‘Yes,’ said another, ‘and set us all at work again.’