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+Project Gutenberg Etext The Lady of the Shroud, by Bram Stoker
+#4 in our series by Bram Stoker
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+Title: The Lady of the Shroud
+
+Author: Bram Stoker
+
+Release Date: February, 2002  [Etext #3095]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this file first posted = 12/26/00]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Project Gutenberg Etext The Lady of the Shroud, by Bram Stoker
+******This file should be named ldsrd10.txt or ldsrd10.zip****
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+
+
+THE LADY OF THE SHROUD
+
+by Bram Stoker
+
+
+
+
+FROM "THE JOURNAL OF OCCULTISM"
+MID-JANUARY, 1907.
+
+
+
+A strange story comes from the Adriatic.  It appears that on the
+night of the 9th, as the Italia Steamship Company's vessel
+"Victorine" was passing a little before midnight the point known as
+"the Spear of Ivan," on the coast of the Blue Mountains, the
+attention of the Captain, then on the bridge, was called by the look-
+out man to a tiny floating light close inshore.  It is the custom of
+some South-going ships to run close to the Spear of Ivan in fine
+weather, as the water is deep, and there is no settled current; also
+there are no outlying rocks.  Indeed, some years ago the local
+steamers had become accustomed to hug the shore here so closely that
+an intimation was sent from Lloyd's that any mischance under the
+circumstances would not be included in ordinary sea risks.  Captain
+Mirolani is one of those who insist on a wholesome distance from the
+promontory being kept; but on his attention having been called to the
+circumstance reported, he thought it well to investigate it, as it
+might be some case of personal distress.  Accordingly, he had the
+engines slowed down, and edged cautiously in towards shore.  He was
+joined on the bridge by two of his officers, Signori Falamano and
+Destilia, and by one passenger on board, Mr. Peter Caulfield, whose
+reports of Spiritual Phenomena in remote places are well known to the
+readers of "The Journal of Occultism."  The following account of the
+strange occurrence written by him, and attested by the signatures of
+Captain Mirolani and the other gentleman named, has been sent to us.
+
+" . . . It was eleven minutes before twelve midnight on Saturday, the
+9th day of January, 1907, when I saw the strange sight off the
+headland known as the Spear of Ivan on the coast of the Land of the
+Blue Mountains.  It was a fine night, and I stood right on the bows
+of the ship, where there was nothing to obstruct my view.  We were
+some distance from the Spear of Ivan, passing from northern to
+southern point of the wide bay into which it projects.  Captain
+Mirolani, the Master, is a very careful seaman, and gives on his
+journeys a wide berth to the bay which is tabooed by Lloyd's.  But
+when he saw in the moonlight, though far off, a tiny white figure of
+a woman drifting on some strange current in a small boat, on the prow
+of which rested a faint light (to me it looked like a corpse-
+candle!), he thought it might be some person in distress, and began
+to cautiously edge towards it.  Two of his officers were with him on
+the bridge--Signori Falamano and Destilia.  All these three, as well
+as myself, saw It.  The rest of the crew and passengers were below.
+As we got close the true inwardness of It became apparent to me; but
+the mariners did not seem to realize till the very last.  This is,
+after all, not strange, for none of them had either knowledge or
+experience in Occult matters, whereas for over thirty years I have
+made a special study of this subject, and have gone to and fro over
+the earth investigating to the nth all records of Spiritual
+Phenomena.  As I could see from their movements that the officers did
+not comprehend that which was so apparent to myself, I took care not
+to enlighten them, lest such should result in the changing of the
+vessel's course before I should be near enough to make accurate
+observation.  All turned out as I wished--at least, nearly so--as
+shall be seen.  Being in the bow, I had, of course, a better view
+than from the bridge.   Presently I made out that the boat, which had
+all along seemed to be of a queer shape, was none other than a
+Coffin, and that the woman standing up in it was clothed in a shroud.
+Her back was towards us, and she had evidently not heard our
+approach.  As we were creeping along slowly, the engines were almost
+noiseless, and there was hardly a ripple as our fore-foot cut the
+dark water.  Suddenly there was a wild cry from the bridge--Italians
+are certainly very excitable; hoarse commands were given to the
+Quartermaster at the wheel; the engine-room bell clanged.  On the
+instant, as it seemed, the ship's head began to swing round to
+starboard; full steam ahead was in action, and before one could
+understand, the Apparition was fading in the distance.  The last
+thing I saw was the flash of a white face with dark, burning eyes as
+the figure sank down into the coffin--just as mist or smoke
+disappears under a breeze."
+
+
+
+BOOK I:  THE WILL OF ROGER MELTON
+
+
+
+THE READING OF THE WILL OF ROGER MELTON AND ALL THAT FOLLOWED
+
+Record made by Ernest Roger Halbard Melton, law-student of the Inner
+Temple, eldest son of Ernest Halbard Melton, eldest son of Ernest
+Melton, elder brother of the said Roger Melton and his next of kin.
+
+I consider it at least useful--perhaps necessary--to have a complete
+and accurate record of all pertaining to the Will of my late grand-
+uncle Roger Melton.
+
+To which end let me put down the various members of his family, and
+explain some of their occupations and idiosyncrasies.  My father,
+Ernest Halbard Melton, was the only son of Ernest Melton, eldest son
+of Sir Geoffrey Halbard Melton of Humcroft, in the shire of Salop, a
+Justice of the Peace, and at one time Sheriff.  My great-grandfather,
+Sir Geoffrey, had inherited a small estate from his father, Roger
+Melton.  In his time, by the way, the name was spelled Milton; but my
+great-great-grandfather changed the spelling to the later form, as he
+was a practical man not given to sentiment, and feared lest he should
+in the public eye be confused with others belonging to the family of
+a Radical person called Milton, who wrote poetry and was some sort of
+official in the time of Cromwell, whilst we are Conservatives.  The
+same practical spirit which originated the change in the spelling of
+the family name inclined him to go into business.  So he became,
+whilst still young, a tanner and leather-dresser.  He utilized for
+the purpose the ponds and streams, and also the oak-woods on his
+estate--Torraby in Suffolk.  He made a fine business, and accumulated
+a considerable fortune, with a part of which he purchased the
+Shropshire estate, which he entailed, and to which I am therefore
+heir-apparent.
+
+Sir Geoffrey had, in addition to my grandfather, three sons and a
+daughter, the latter being born twenty years after her youngest
+brother.  These sons were:  Geoffrey, who died without issue, having
+been killed in the Indian Mutiny at Meerut in 1857, at which he took
+up a sword, though a civilian, to fight for his life; Roger (to whom
+I shall refer presently); and John--the latter, like Geoffrey, dying
+unmarried.  Out of Sir Geoffrey's family of five, therefore, only
+three have to be considered:  My grandfather, who had three children,
+two of whom, a son and a daughter, died young, leaving only my
+father, Roger and Patience.  Patience, who was born in 1858, married
+an Irishman of the name of Sellenger--which was the usual way of
+pronouncing the name of St. Leger, or, as they spelled it, Sent
+Leger--restored by later generations to the still older form.  He was
+a reckless, dare-devil sort of fellow, then a Captain in the Lancers,
+a man not without the quality of bravery--he won the Victoria Cross
+at the Battle of Amoaful in the Ashantee Campaign.  But I fear he
+lacked the seriousness and steadfast strenuous purpose which my
+father always says marks the character of our own family.  He ran
+through nearly all of his patrimony--never a very large one; and had
+it not been for my grand-aunt's little fortune, his days, had he
+lived, must have ended in comparative poverty.  Comparative, not
+actual; for the Meltons, who are persons of considerable pride, would
+not have tolerated a poverty-stricken branch of the family.  We don't
+think much of that lot--any of us.
+
+Fortunately, my great-aunt Patience had only one child, and the
+premature decease of Captain St. Leger (as I prefer to call the name)
+did not allow of the possibility of her having more.  She did not
+marry again, though my grandmother tried several times to arrange an
+alliance for her.  She was, I am told, always a stiff, uppish person,
+who would not yield herself to the wisdom of her superiors.  Her own
+child was a son, who seemed to take his character rather from his
+father's family than from my own.  He was a wastrel and a rolling
+stone, always in scrapes at school, and always wanting to do
+ridiculous things.  My father, as Head of the House and his own
+senior by eighteen years, tried often to admonish him; but his
+perversity of spirit and his truculence were such that he had to
+desist.  Indeed, I have heard my father say that he sometimes
+threatened his life.  A desperate character he was, and almost devoid
+of reverence.  No one, not even my father, had any influence--good
+influence, of course, I mean--over him, except his mother, who was of
+my family; and also a woman who lived with her--a sort of governess--
+aunt, he called her.  The way of it was this:  Captain St. Leger had
+a younger brother, who made an improvident marriage with a Scotch
+girl when they were both very young.  They had nothing to live on
+except what the reckless Lancer gave them, for he had next to nothing
+himself, and she was "bare"--which is, I understand, the indelicate
+Scottish way of expressing lack of fortune.  She was, however, I
+understand, of an old and somewhat good family, though broken in
+fortune--to use an expression which, however, could hardly be used
+precisely in regard to a family or a person who never had fortune to
+be broken in!  It was so far well that the MacKelpies--that was the
+maiden name of Mrs. St. Leger--were reputable--so far as fighting was
+concerned.  It would have been too humiliating to have allied to our
+family, even on the distaff side, a family both poor and of no
+account.  Fighting alone does not make a family, I think.  Soldiers
+are not everything, though they think they are.  We have had in our
+family men who fought; but I never heard of any of them who fought
+because they WANTED to.  Mrs. St. Leger had a sister; fortunately
+there were only those two children in the family, or else they would
+all have had to be supported by the money of my family.
+
+Mr. St. Leger, who was only a subaltern, was killed at Maiwand; and
+his wife was left a beggar.  Fortunately, however, she died--her
+sister spread a story that it was from the shock and grief--before
+the child which she expected was born.  This all happened when my
+cousin--or, rather, my father's cousin, my first-cousin-once-removed,
+to be accurate--was still a very small child.  His mother then sent
+for Miss MacKelpie, her brother-in-law's sister-in-law, to come and
+live with her, which she did--beggars can't be choosers; and she
+helped to bring up young St. Leger.
+
+I remember once my father giving me a sovereign for making a witty
+remark about her.  I was quite a boy then, not more than thirteen;
+but our family were always clever from the very beginning of life,
+and father was telling me about the St. Leger family.  My family
+hadn't, of course, seen anything of them since Captain St. Leger
+died--the circle to which we belong don't care for poor relations--
+and was explaining where Miss MacKelpie came in.  She must have been
+a sort of nursery governess, for Mrs. St. Leger once told him that
+she helped her to educate the child.
+
+"Then, father," I said, "if she helped to educate the child she ought
+to have been called Miss MacSkelpie!"
+
+When my first-cousin-once-removed, Rupert, was twelve years old, his
+mother died, and he was in the dolefuls about it for more than a
+year.  Miss MacKelpie kept on living with him all the same.  Catch
+her quitting!  That sort don't go into the poor-house when they can
+keep out!  My father, being Head of the Family, was, of course, one
+of the trustees, and his uncle Roger, brother of the testator,
+another.  The third was General MacKelpie, a poverty-stricken Scotch
+laird who had a lot of valueless land at Croom, in Ross-shire.  I
+remember father gave me a new ten-pound note when I interrupted him
+whilst he was telling me of the incident of young St. Leger's
+improvidence by remarking that he was in error as to the land.  From
+what I had heard of MacKelpie's estate, it was productive of one
+thing; when he asked me "What?" I answered "Mortgages!"  Father, I
+knew, had bought, not long before, a lot of them at what a college
+friend of mine from Chicago used to call "cut-throat" price.  When I
+remonstrated with my father for buying them at all, and so injuring
+the family estate which I was to inherit, he gave me an answer, the
+astuteness of which I have never forgotten.
+
+"I did it so that I might keep my hand on the bold General, in case
+he should ever prove troublesome.  And if the worst should ever come
+to the worst, Croom is a good country for grouse and stags!"  My
+father can see as far as most men!
+
+When my cousin--I shall call him cousin henceforth in this record,
+lest it might seem to any unkind person who might hereafter read it
+that I wished to taunt Rupert St. Leger with his somewhat obscure
+position, in reiterating his real distance in kinship with my family-
+-when my cousin, Rupert St. Leger, wished to commit a certain idiotic
+act of financial folly, he approached my father on the subject,
+arriving at our estate, Humcroft, at an inconvenient time, without
+permission, not having had even the decent courtesy to say he was
+coming.  I was then a little chap of six years old, but I could not
+help noticing his mean appearance.  He was all dusty and dishevelled.
+When my father saw him--I came into the study with him--he said in a
+horrified voice:
+
+"Good God!"  He was further shocked when the boy brusquely
+acknowledged, in reply to my father's greeting, that he had travelled
+third class.  Of course, none of my family ever go anything but first
+class; even the servants go second.  My father was really angry when
+he said he had walked up from the station.
+
+"A nice spectacle for my tenants and my tradesmen!  To see my--my--a
+kinsman of my house, howsoever remote, trudging like a tramp on the
+road to my estate!  Why, my avenue is two miles and a perch!  No
+wonder you are filthy and insolent!"  Rupert--really, I cannot call
+him cousin here--was exceedingly impertinent to my father.
+
+"I walked, sir, because I had no money; but I assure you I did not
+mean to be insolent.  I simply came here because I wished to ask your
+advice and assistance, not because you are an important person, and
+have a long avenue--as I know to my cost--but simply because you are
+one of my trustees."
+
+"YOUR trustees, sirrah!" said my father, interrupting him.  "Your
+trustees?"
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," he said, quite quietly.  "I meant the
+trustees of my dear mother's will."
+
+"And what, may I ask you," said father, "do you want in the way of
+advice from one of the trustees of your dear mother's will?"  Rupert
+got very red, and was going to say something rude--I knew it from his
+look--but he stopped, and said in the same gentle way:
+
+"I want your advice, sir, as to the best way of doing something which
+I wish to do, and, as I am under age, cannot do myself.  It must be
+done through the trustees of my mother's will."
+
+"And the assistance for which you wish?" said father, putting his
+hand in his pocket.  I know what that action means when I am talking
+to him.
+
+"The assistance I want," said Rupert, getting redder than ever, "is
+from my--the trustee also.  To carry out what I want to do."
+
+"And what may that be?" asked my father.  "I would like, sir, to make
+over to my Aunt Janet--"  My father interrupted him by asking--he had
+evidently remembered my jest:
+
+"Miss MacSkelpie?"  Rupert got still redder, and I turned away; I
+didn't quite wish that he should see me laughing.  He went on
+quietly:
+
+"MACKELPIE, sir!  Miss Janet MacKelpie, my aunt, who has always been
+so kind to me, and whom my mother loved--I want to have made over to
+her the money which my dear mother left to me."  Father doubtless
+wished to have the matter take a less serious turn, for Rupert's eyes
+were all shiny with tears which had not fallen; so after a little
+pause he said, with indignation, which I knew was simulated:
+
+"Have you forgotten your mother so soon, Rupert, that you wish to
+give away the very last gift which she bestowed on you?"  Rupert was
+sitting, but he jumped up and stood opposite my father with his fist
+clenched.  He was quite pale now, and his eyes looked so fierce that
+I thought he would do my father an injury.  He spoke in a voice which
+did not seem like his own, it was so strong and deep.
+
+"Sir!" he roared out.  I suppose, if I was a writer, which, thank
+God, I am not--I have no need to follow a menial occupation--I would
+call it "thundered."  "Thundered" is a longer word than "roared," and
+would, of course, help to gain the penny which a writer gets for a
+line.  Father got pale too, and stood quite still.  Rupert looked at
+him steadily for quite half a minute--it seemed longer at the time--
+and suddenly smiled and said, as he sat down again:
+
+"Sorry.  But, of course, you don't understand such things."  Then he
+went on talking before father had time to say a word.
+
+"Let us get back to business.  As you do not seem to follow me, let
+me explain that it is BECAUSE I do not forget that I wish to do this.
+I remember my dear mother's wish to make Aunt Janet happy, and would
+like to do as she did."
+
+"AUNT Janet?" said father, very properly sneering at his ignorance.
+"She is not your aunt.  Why, even her sister, who was married to your
+uncle, was only your aunt by courtesy."  I could not help feeling
+that Rupert meant to be rude to my father, though his words were
+quite polite.  If I had been as much bigger than him as he was than
+me, I should have flown at him; but he was a very big boy for his
+age.  I am myself rather thin.  Mother says thinness is an "appanage
+of birth."
+
+"My Aunt Janet, sir, is an aunt by love.  Courtesy is a small word to
+use in connection with such devotion as she has given to us.  But I
+needn't trouble you with such things, sir.  I take it that my
+relations on the side of my own house do not affect you.  I am a Sent
+Leger!"  Father looked quite taken aback.  He sat quite still before
+he spoke.
+
+"Well, Mr. St. Leger, I shall think over the matter for a while, and
+shall presently let you know my decision.  In the meantime, would you
+like something to eat?  I take it that as you must have started very
+early, you have not had any breakfast?"  Rupert smiled quite
+genially:
+
+"That is true, sir.  I haven't broken bread since dinner last night,
+and I am ravenously hungry."  Father rang the bell, and told the
+footman who answered it to send the housekeeper.  When she came,
+father said to her:
+
+"Mrs. Martindale, take this boy to your room and give him some
+breakfast."  Rupert stood very still for some seconds.  His face had
+got red again after his paleness.  Then he bowed to my father, and
+followed Mrs. Martindale, who had moved to the door.
+
+Nearly an hour afterwards my father sent a servant to tell him to
+come to the study.  My mother was there, too, and I had gone back
+with her.  The man came back and said:
+
+"Mrs. Martindale, sir, wishes to know, with her respectful service,
+if she may have a word with you."  Before father could reply mother
+told him to bring her.  The housekeeper could not have been far off--
+that kind are generally near a keyhole--for she came at once.  When
+she came in, she stood at the door curtseying and looking pale.
+Father said:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I thought, sir and ma'am, that I had better come and tell you about
+Master Sent Leger.  I would have come at once, but I feared to
+disturb you."
+
+"Well?"  Father had a stern way with servants.  When I'm head of the
+family I'll tread them under my feet.  That's the way to get real
+devotion from servants!
+
+"If you please, sir, I took the young gentleman into my room and
+ordered a nice breakfast for him, for I could see he was half
+famished--a growing boy like him, and so tall!  Presently it came
+along.  It was a good breakfast, too!  The very smell of it made even
+me hungry.  There were eggs and frizzled ham, and grilled kidneys,
+and coffee, and buttered toast, and bloater-paste--"
+
+"That will do as to the menu," said mother.  "Go on!"
+
+"When it was all ready, and the maid had gone, I put a chair to the
+table and said, 'Now, sir, your breakfast is ready!'  He stood up and
+said, 'Thank you, madam; you are very kind!' and he bowed to me quite
+nicely, just as if I was a lady, ma'am!"
+
+"Go on," said mother.
+
+"Then, sir, he held out his hand and said, 'Good-bye, and thank you,'
+and he took up his cap.
+
+"'But aren't you going to have any breakfast, sir?' I says.
+
+"'No, thank you, madam,' he said; 'I couldn't eat here . . . in this
+house, I mean!'  Well, ma'am, he looked so lonely that I felt my
+heart melting, and I ventured to ask him if there was any mortal
+thing I could do for him.  'Do tell me, dear,' I ventured to say.  'I
+am an old woman, and you, sir, are only a boy, though it's a fine man
+you will be--like your dear, splendid father, which I remember so
+well, and gentle like your poor dear mother.'
+
+"'You're a dear!' he says; and with that I took up his hand and
+kissed it, for I remember his poor dear mother so well, that was dead
+only a year.  Well, with that he turned his head away, and when I
+took him by the shoulders and turned him round--he is only a young
+boy, ma'am, for all he is so big--I saw that the tears were rolling
+down his cheeks.  With that I laid his head on my breast--I've had
+children of my own, ma'am, as you know, though they're all gone.  He
+came willing enough, and sobbed for a little bit.  Then he
+straightened himself up, and I stood respectfully beside him.
+
+"'Tell Mr. Melton,' he said, 'that I shall not trouble him about the
+trustee business.'
+
+"'But won't you tell him yourself, sir, when you see him?' I says.
+
+"'I shall not see him again,' he says; 'I am going back now!'
+
+"Well, ma'am, I knew he'd had no breakfast, though he was hungry, and
+that he would walk as he come, so I ventured to say:  'If you won't
+take it a liberty, sir, may I do anything to make your going easier?
+Have you sufficient money, sir?  If not, may I give, or lend, you
+some?  I shall be very proud if you will allow me to.'
+
+"'Yes,' he says quite hearty.  'If you will, you might lend me a
+shilling, as I have no money.  I shall not forget it.'  He said, as
+he took the coin:  'I shall return the amount, though I never can the
+kindness.  I shall keep the coin.'  He took the shilling, sir--he
+wouldn't take any more--and then he said good-bye.  At the door he
+turned and walked back to me, and put his arms round me like a real
+boy does, and gave me a hug, and says he:
+
+"'Thank you a thousand times, Mrs. Martindale, for your goodness to
+me, for your sympathy, and for the way you have spoken of my father
+and mother.  You have seen me cry, Mrs. Martindale,' he said; 'I
+don't often cry:  the last time was when I came back to the lonely
+house after my poor dear was laid to rest.  But you nor any other
+shall ever see a tear of mine again.'  And with that he straightened
+out his big back and held up his fine proud head, and walked out.  I
+saw him from the window striding down the avenue.  My! but he is a
+proud boy, sir--an honour to your family, sir, say I respectfully.
+And there, the proud child has gone away hungry, and he won't, I
+know, ever use that shilling to buy food!"
+
+Father was not going to have that, you know, so he said to her:
+
+"He does not belong to my family, I would have you to know.  True, he
+is allied to us through the female side; but we do not count him or
+his in my family."  He turned away and began to read a book.  It was
+a decided snub to her.
+
+But mother had a word to say before Mrs. Martindale was done with.
+Mother has a pride of her own, and doesn't brook insolence from
+inferiors; and the housekeeper's conduct seemed to be rather
+presuming.  Mother, of course, isn't quite our class, though her folk
+are quite worthy and enormously rich.  She is one of the
+Dalmallingtons, the salt people, one of whom got a peerage when the
+Conservatives went out.  She said to the housekeeper:
+
+"I think, Mrs. Martindale, that I shall not require your services
+after this day month!  And as I don't keep servants in my employment
+when I dismiss them, here is your month's wages due on the 25th of
+this month, and another month in lieu of notice.  Sign this receipt."
+She was writing a receipt as she spoke.  The other signed it without
+a word, and handed it to her.  She seemed quite flabbergasted.
+Mother got up and sailed--that is the way that mother moves when she
+is in a wax--out of the room.
+
+Lest I should forget it, let me say here that the dismissed
+housekeeper was engaged the very next day by the Countess of Salop.
+I may say in explanation that the Earl of Salop, K.G., who is Lord-
+Lieutenant of the County, is jealous of father's position and his
+growing influence.  Father is going to contest the next election on
+the Conservative side, and is sure to be made a Baronet before long.
+
+
+Letter from Major-General Sir Colin Alexander MacKelpie, V.C.,
+K.C.B., of Croom, Ross, N.B., to Rupert Sent Leger, Esq., 14, Newland
+Park, Dulwich, London, S.E.
+July 4, 1892.
+
+MY DEAR GODSON,
+
+I am truly sorry I am unable to agree with your request that I should
+acquiesce in your desire to transfer to Miss Janet MacKelpie the
+property bequeathed to you by your mother, of which property I am a
+trustee.  Let me say at once that, had it been possible to me to do
+so, I should have held it a privilege to further such a wish--not
+because the beneficiare whom you would create is a near kinswoman of
+my own.  That, in truth, is my real difficulty.  I have undertaken a
+trust made by an honourable lady on behalf of her only son--son of a
+man of stainless honour, and a dear friend of my own, and whose son
+has a rich heritage of honour from both parents, and who will, I am
+sure, like to look back on his whole life as worthy of his parents,
+and of those whom his parents trusted.  You will see, I am sure, that
+whatsoever I might grant regarding anyone else, my hands are tied in
+this matter.
+
+And now let me say, my dear boy, that your letter has given me the
+most intense pleasure.  It is an unspeakable delight to me to find in
+the son of your father--a man whom I loved, and a boy whom I love--
+the same generosity of spirit which endeared your father to all his
+comrades, old as well as young.  Come what may, I shall always be
+proud of you; and if the sword of an old soldier--it is all I have--
+can ever serve you in any way, it and its master's life are, and
+shall be, whilst life remains to him, yours.
+
+It grieves me to think that Janet cannot, through my act, be given
+that ease and tranquillity of spirit which come from competence.
+But, my dear Rupert, you will be of full age in seven years more.
+Then, if you are in the same mind--and I am sure you will not change-
+-you, being your own master, can do freely as you will.  In the
+meantime, to secure, so far as I can, my dear Janet against any
+malign stroke of fortune, I have given orders to my factor to remit
+semi-annually to Janet one full half of such income as may be derived
+in any form from my estate of Croom.  It is, I am sorry to say,
+heavily mortgaged; but of such as is--or may be, free from such
+charge as the mortgage entails--something at least will, I trust,
+remain to her.  And, my dear boy, I can frankly say that it is to me
+a real pleasure that you and I can be linked in one more bond in this
+association of purpose.  I have always held you in my heart as though
+you were my own son.  Let me tell you now that you have acted as I
+should have liked a son of my own, had I been blessed with one, to
+have acted.  God bless you, my dear.
+
+Yours ever,
+COLIN ALEX. MACKELPIE.
+
+
+Letter from Roger Melton, of Openshaw Grange, to Rupert Sent Leger,
+Esq., 14, Newland Park, Dulwich, London, S.E.
+July 1, 1892.
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+Your letter of the 30th ult. received.  Have carefully considered
+matter stated, and have come to the conclusion that my duty as a
+trustee would not allow me to give full consent, as you wish.  Let me
+explain.  The testator, in making her will, intended that such
+fortune as she had at disposal should be used to supply to you her
+son such benefits as its annual product should procure.  To this end,
+and to provide against wastefulness or foolishness on your part, or,
+indeed, against any generosity, howsoever worthy, which might
+impoverish you and so defeat her benevolent intentions regarding your
+education, comfort, and future good, she did not place the estate
+directly in your hands, leaving you to do as you might feel inclined
+about it.  But, on the contrary, she entrusted the corpus of it in
+the hands of men whom she believed should be resolute enough and
+strong enough to carry out her intent, even against any cajolements
+or pressure which might be employed to the contrary.  It being her
+intention, then, that such trustees as she appointed would use for
+your benefit the interest accruing annually from the capital at
+command, AND THAT ONLY (as specifically directed in the will), so
+that on your arriving at full age the capital entrusted to us should
+be handed over to you intact, I find a hard-and-fast duty in the
+matter of adhering exactly to the directions given.  I have no doubt
+that my co-trustees regard the matter in exactly the same light.
+Under the circumstances, therefore, we, the trustees, have not only a
+single and united duty towards you as the object of the testator's
+wishes, but towards each other as regards the manner of the carrying
+out of that duty.  I take it, therefore, that it would not be
+consonant with the spirit of the trust or of our own ideas in
+accepting it that any of us should take a course pleasant to himself
+which would or might involve a stern opposition on the part of other
+of the co-trustees.  We have each of us to do the unpleasant part of
+this duty without fear or favour.  You understand, of course, that
+the time which must elapse before you come into absolute possession
+of your estate is a limited one.  As by the terms of the will we are
+to hand over our trust when you have reached the age of twenty-one,
+there are only seven years to expire.  But till then, though I should
+gladly meet your wishes if I could, I must adhere to the duty which I
+have undertaken.  At the expiration of that period you will be quite
+free to divest yourself of your estate without protest or comment of
+any man.
+
+Having now expressed as clearly as I can the limitations by which I
+am bound with regard to the corpus of your estate, let me say that in
+any other way which is in my power or discretion I shall be most
+happy to see your wishes carried out so far as rests with me.
+Indeed, I shall undertake to use what influence I may possess with my
+co-trustees to induce them to take a similar view of your wishes.  In
+my own thinking you are quite free to use your own property in your
+own way.  But as, until you shall have attained your majority, you
+have only life-user in your mother's bequest, you are only at liberty
+to deal with the annual increment.  On our part as trustees we have a
+first charge on that increment to be used for purposes of your
+maintenance, clothes, and education.  As to what may remain over each
+half-year, you will be free to deal with it as you choose.  On
+receiving from you a written authorization to your trustees, if you
+desire the whole sum or any part of it to be paid over to Miss Janet
+MacKelpie, I shall see that it is effected.  Believe me, that our
+duty is to protect the corpus of the estate, and to this end we may
+not act on any instruction to imperil it.  But there our warranty
+stops.  We can deal during our trusteeship with the corpus only.
+Further, lest there should arise any error on your part, we can deal
+with any general instruction for only so long as it may remain
+unrevoked.  You are, and must be, free to alter your instructions or
+authorizations at any time.  Thus your latest document must be used
+for our guidance.
+
+As to the general principle involved in your wish I make no comment.
+You are at liberty to deal with your own how you will.  I quite
+understand that your impulse is a generous one, and I fully believe
+that it is in consonance with what had always been the wishes of my
+sister.  Had she been happily alive and had to give judgment of your
+intent, I am convinced that she would have approved.  Therefore, my
+dear nephew, should you so wish, I shall be happy for her sake as
+well as your own to pay over on your account (as a confidential
+matter between you and me), but from my own pocket, a sum equal to
+that which you wish transferred to Miss Janet MacKelpie.  On hearing
+from you I shall know how to act in the matter.  With all good
+wishes,
+
+Believe me to be,
+
+Your affectionate uncle,
+ROGER MELTON.
+
+
+TO RUPERT SENT LEGER, ESQ.
+Letter from Rupert Sent Leger to Roger Melton,
+July 5, 1892.
+
+MY DEAR UNCLE,
+
+Thank you heartily for your kind letter.  I quite understand, and now
+see that I should not have asked you as a trustee, such a thing.  I
+see your duty clearly, and agree with your view of it.  I enclose a
+letter directed to my trustees, asking them to pay over annually till
+further direction to Miss Janet MacKelpie at this address whatever
+sum may remain over from the interest of my mother's bequest after
+deduction of such expenses as you may deem fit for my maintenance,
+clothing, and education, together with a sum of one pound sterling
+per month, which was the amount my dear mother always gave me for my
+personal use--"pocket-money," she called it.
+
+With regard to your most kind and generous offer to give to my dear
+Aunt Janet the sum which I would have given myself, had such been in
+my power, I thank you most truly and sincerely, both for my dear aunt
+(to whom, of course, I shall not mention the matter unless you
+specially authorize me) and myself.  But, indeed, I think it will be
+better not to offer it.  Aunt Janet is very proud, and would not
+accept any benefit.  With me, of course, it is different, for since I
+was a wee child she has been like another mother to me, and I love
+her very much.  Since my mother died--and she, of course, was all-in-
+all to me--there has been no other.  And in such a love as ours pride
+has no place.  Thank you again, dear uncle, and God bless you.
+
+Your loving nephew,
+RUPERT SENT LEGER.
+
+
+ERNEST ROGER HALBARD MELTON'S RECORD--Continued,
+
+And now re the remaining one of Sir Geoffrey's children, Roger.  He
+was the third child and third son, the only daughter, Patience,
+having been born twenty years after the last of the four sons.
+Concerning Roger, I shall put down all I have heard of him from my
+father and grandfather.  From my grand-aunt I heard nothing, I was a
+very small kid when she died; but I remember seeing her, but only
+once.  A very tall, handsome woman of a little over thirty, with very
+dark hair and light-coloured eyes.  I think they were either grey or
+blue, but I can't remember which.  She looked very proud and haughty,
+but I am bound to say that she was very nice to me.  I remember
+feeling very jealous of Rupert because his mother looked so
+distinguished.  Rupert was eight years older than me, and I was
+afraid he would beat me if I said anything he did not like.  So I was
+silent except when I forgot to be, and Rupert said very unkindly, and
+I think very unfairly, that I was "A sulky little beast."  I haven't
+forgot that, and I don't mean to.  However, it doesn't matter much
+what he said or thought.  There he is--if he is at all--where no one
+can find him, with no money or nothing, for what little he had he
+settled when he came of age, on the MacSkelpie.  He wanted to give it
+to her when his mother died, but father, who was a trustee, refused;
+and Uncle Roger, as I call him, who is another, thought the trustees
+had no power to allow Rupert to throw away his matrimony, as I called
+it, making a joke to father when he called it patrimony.  Old Sir
+Colin MacSkelpie, who is the third, said he couldn't take any part in
+such a permission, as the MacSkelpie was his niece.  He is a rude old
+man, that.  I remember when, not remembering his relationship, I
+spoke of the MacSkelpie, he caught me a clip on the ear that sent me
+across the room.  His Scotch is very broad.  I can hear him say, "Hae
+some attempt at even Soothern manners, and dinna misca' yer betters,
+ye young puddock, or I'll wring yer snoot!"  Father was, I could see,
+very much offended, but he didn't say anything.  He remembered, I
+think, that the General is a V.C. man, and was fond of fighting
+duels.  But to show that the fault was not his, HE wrung MY ear--and
+the same ear too!  I suppose he thought that was justice!  But it's
+only right to say that he made up for it afterwards.  When the
+General had gone he gave me a five-pound note.
+
+I don't think Uncle Roger was very pleased with the way Rupert
+behaved about the legacy, for I don't think he ever saw him from that
+day to this.  Perhaps, of course, it was because Rupert ran away
+shortly afterwards; but I shall tell about that when I come to him.
+After all, why should my uncle bother about him?  He is not a Melton
+at all, and I am to be Head of the House--of course, when the Lord
+thinks right to take father to Himself!  Uncle Roger has tons of
+money, and he never married, so if he wants to leave it in the right
+direction he needn't have any trouble.  He made his money in what he
+calls "the Eastern Trade."  This, so far as I can gather, takes in
+the Levant and all east of it.  I know he has what they call in trade
+"houses" in all sorts of places--Turkey, and Greece, and all round
+them, Morocco, Egypt, and Southern Russia, and the Holy Land; then on
+to Persia, India, and all round it; the Chersonese, China, Japan, and
+the Pacific Islands.  It is not to be expected that we landowners can
+know much about trade, but my uncle covers--or alas! I must say
+"covered"--a lot of ground, I can tell you.  Uncle Roger was a very
+grim sort of man, and only that I was brought up to try and be kind
+to him I shouldn't ever have dared to speak to him.  But when was a
+child father and mother--especially mother--forced me to go and see
+him and be affectionate to him.  He wasn't ever even civil to me,
+that I can remember--grumpy old bear!  But, then, he never saw Rupert
+at all, so that I take it Master R- is out of the running altogether
+for testamentary honours.  The last time I saw him myself he was
+distinctly rude.  He treated me as a boy, though I was getting on for
+eighteen years of age.  I came into his office without knocking; and
+without looking up from his desk, where he was writing, he said:
+"Get out!  Why do you venture to disturb me when I'm busy?  Get out,
+and be damned to you!"  I waited where I was, ready to transfix him
+with my eye when he should look up, for I cannot forget that when my
+father dies I shall be Head of my House.  But when he did there was
+no transfixing possible.  He said quite coolly:
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it?  I thought it was one of my office boys.  Sit
+down, if you want to see me, and wait till I am ready."  So I sat
+down and waited.  Father always said that I should try to conciliate
+and please my uncle.  Father is a very shrewd man, and Uncle Roger is
+a very rich one.
+
+But I don't think Uncle R- is as shrewd as he thinks he is.  He
+sometimes makes awful mistakes in business.  For instance, some years
+ago he bought an enormous estate on the Adriatic, in the country they
+call the "Land of Blue Mountains."  At least, he says he bought it.
+He told father so in confidence.  But he didn't show any title-deeds,
+and I'm greatly afraid he was "had."  A bad job for me that he was,
+for father believes he paid an enormous sum for it, and as I am his
+natural heir, it reduces his available estate to so much less.
+
+And now about Rupert.  As I have said, he ran away when he was about
+fourteen, and we did not hear about him for years.  When we--or,
+rather, my father--did hear of him, it was no good that he heard.  He
+had gone as a cabin-boy on a sailing ship round the Horn.  Then he
+joined an exploring party through the centre of Patagonia, and then
+another up in Alaska, and a third to the Aleutian Islands.  After
+that he went through Central America, and then to Western Africa, the
+Pacific Islands, India, and a lot of places.  We all know the wisdom
+of the adage that "A rolling stone gathers no moss"; and certainly,
+if there be any value in moss, Cousin Rupert will die a poor man.
+Indeed, nothing will stand his idiotic, boastful wastefulness.  Look
+at the way in which, when he came of age, he made over all his
+mother's little fortune to the MacSkelpie! I am sure that, though
+Uncle Roger made no comment to my father, who, as Head of our House,
+should, of course, have been informed, he was not pleased.  My
+mother, who has a good fortune in her own right, and has had the
+sense to keep it in her own control--as I am to inherit it, and it is
+not in the entail, I am therefore quite impartial--I can approve of
+her spirited conduct in the matter.  We never did think much of
+Rupert, anyhow; but now, since he is in the way to be a pauper, and
+therefore a dangerous nuisance, we look on him as quite an outsider.
+We know what he really is.  For my own part, I loathe and despise
+him.  Just now we are irritated with him, for we are all kept on
+tenterhooks regarding my dear Uncle Roger's Will.  For Mr. Trent, the
+attorney who regulated my dear uncle's affairs and has possession of
+the Will, says it is necessary to know where every possible
+beneficiary is to be found before making the Will public, so we all
+have to wait.  It is especially hard on me, who am the natural heir.
+It is very thoughtless indeed of Rupert to keep away like that.  I
+wrote to old MacSkelpie about it, but he didn't seem to understand or
+to be at all anxious--he is not the heir!  He said that probably
+Rupert Sent Leger--he, too, keeps to the old spelling--did not know
+of his uncle's death, or he would have taken steps to relieve our
+anxiety.  Our anxiety, forsooth!  We are not anxious; we only wish to
+KNOW.  And if we--and especially me--who have all the annoyance of
+thinking of the detestable and unfair death-duties, are anxious, we
+should be so.  Well, anyhow, he'll get a properly bitter
+disappointment and set down when he does turn up and discovers that
+he is a pauper without hope!
+
+
+To-day we (father and I) had letters from Mr. Trent, telling us that
+the whereabouts of "Mr. Rupert Sent Leger" had been discovered, and
+that a letter disclosing the fact of poor Uncle Roger's death had
+been sent to him.  He was at Titicaca when last heard of.  So
+goodness only knows when he may get the letter, which "asks him to
+come home at once, but only gives to him such information about the
+Will as has already been given to every member of the testator's
+family."  And that is nil.  I dare say we shall be kept waiting for
+months before we get hold of the estate which is ours.  It is too
+bad!
+
+
+Letter from Edward Bingham Trent to Ernest Roger Halbard Melton.
+176, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
+December 28, 1906.
+
+DEAR SIR,
+
+I am glad to be able to inform you that I have just heard by letter
+from Mr. Rupert St. Leger that he intended leaving Rio de Janeiro by
+the S.S. Amazon, of the Royal Mail Company, on December 15.  He
+further stated that he would cable just before leaving Rio de
+Janeiro, to say on what day the ship was expected to arrive in
+London.  As all the others possibly interested in the Will of the
+late Roger Melton, and whose names are given to me in his
+instructions regarding the reading of the Will, have been advised,
+and have expressed their intention of being present at that event on
+being apprised of the time and place, I now beg to inform you that by
+cable message received the date scheduled for arrival at the Port of
+London was January 1 prox.  I therefore beg to notify you, subject to
+postponement due to the non-arrival of the Amazon, the reading of the
+Will of the late Roger Melton, Esq., will take place in my office on
+Thursday, January 3 prox., at eleven o'clock a.m.
+
+I have the honour to be, sir,
+Yours faithfully,
+EDWARD BINGHAM TRENT.
+
+
+TO ERNEST ROGER HALBARD MELTON, ESQ., HUMCROFT, SALOP.
+
+Cable:  Rupert Sent Leger to Edward Bingham Trent.  Amazon arrives
+London January 1.  SENT LEGER.
+
+
+Telegram (per Lloyd's):  Rupert Sent Leger to Edward Bingham Trent.
+THE LIZARD,
+December 31.
+Amazon arrives London to-morrow morning.  All well.--LEGER.
+
+
+Telegram:  Edward Bingham Trent to Ernest Roger Halbard Mellon.
+Rupert Sent Leger arrived.  Reading Will takes place as arranged.--
+TRENT.
+
+
+ERNEST ROGER HALBARD MELTON'S RECORD.
+January 4, 1907.
+
+The reading of Uncle Roger's Will is over.  Father got a duplicate of
+Mr. Trent's letter to me, and of the cable and two telegrams pasted
+into this Record.  We both waited patiently till the third--that is,
+we did not say anything.  The only impatient member of our family was
+my mother.  She DID say things, and if old Trent had been here his
+ears would have been red.  She said what ridiculous nonsense it was
+delaying the reading of the Will, and keeping the Heir waiting for
+the arrival of an obscure person who wasn't even a member of the
+family, inasmuch as he didn't bear the name.  I don't think it's
+quite respectful to one who is some day to be Head of the House!  I
+thought father was weakening in his patience when he said:  "True, my
+dear--true!" and got up and left the room.  Some time afterwards when
+I passed the library I heard him walking up and down.
+
+Father and I went up to town on the afternoon of Wednesday, January
+2.  We stayed, of course, at Claridge's, where we always stay when we
+go to town.  Mother wanted to come, too, but father thought it better
+not.  She would not agree to stay at home till we both promised to
+send her separate telegrams after the reading.
+
+At five minutes to eleven we entered Mr. Trent's office.  Father
+would not go a moment earlier, as he said it was bad form to seem
+eager at any time, but most of all at the reading of a will.  It was
+a rotten grind, for we had to be walking all over the neighbourhood
+for half an hour before it was time, not to be too early.
+
+When we went into the room we found there General Sir Colin MacKelpie
+and a big man, very bronzed, whom I took to be Rupert St. Leger--not
+a very creditable connection to look at, I thought!  He and old
+MacKelpie took care to be in time!  Rather low, I thought it.  Mr.
+St. Leger was reading a letter.  He had evidently come in but lately,
+for though he seemed to be eager about it, he was only at the first
+page, and I could see that there were many sheets.  He did not look
+up when we came in, or till he had finished the letter; and you may
+be sure that neither I nor my father (who, as Head of the House,
+should have had more respect from him) took the trouble to go to him.
+After all, he is a pauper and a wastrel, and he has not the honour of
+bearing our Name.  The General, however, came forward and greeted us
+both cordially.  He evidently had forgotten--or pretended to have--
+the discourteous way he once treated me, for he spoke to me quite in
+a friendly way--I thought more warmly than he did to father.  I was
+pleased to be spoken to so nicely, for, after all, whatever his
+manners may be, he is a distinguished man--has won the V.C. and a
+Baronetcy.  He got the latter not long ago, after the Frontier War in
+India.  I was not, however, led away into cordiality myself.  I had
+not forgotten his rudeness, and I thought that he might be sucking up
+to me.  I knew that when I had my dear Uncle Roger's many millions I
+should be a rather important person; and, of course, he knew it too.
+So I got even with him for his former impudence.  When he held out
+his hand I put one finger in it, and said, "How do?"  He got very red
+and turned away.  Father and he had ended by glaring at each other,
+so neither of us was sorry to be done with him.  All the time Mr. St.
+Leger did not seem to see or hear anything, but went on reading his
+letter.  I thought the old MacSkelpie was going to bring him into the
+matter between us, for as he turned away I heard him say something
+under his breath.  It sounded like "Help!" but Mr. S-- did not hear.
+He certainly no notice of it.
+
+As the MacS-- and Mr. S-- sat quite silent, neither looking at us,
+and as father was sitting on the other side of the room with his chin
+in his hand, and as I wanted to show that I was indifferent to the
+two S's, I took out this notebook, and went on with the Record,
+bringing it up to this moment.
+
+
+THE RECORD--Continued.
+
+When I had finished writing I looked over at Rupert.
+
+When he saw us, he jumped up and went over to father and shook his
+hand quite warmly.  Father took him very coolly.  Rupert, however,
+did not seem to see it, but came towards me heartily.  I happened to
+be doing something else at the moment, and at first I did not see his
+hand; but just as I was looking at it the clock struck eleven.
+Whilst it was striking Mr. Trent came into the room.  Close behind
+him came his clerk, carrying a locked tin box.  There were two other
+men also.  He bowed to us all in turn, beginning with me.  I was
+standing opposite the door; the others were scattered about.  Father
+sat still, but Sir Colin and Mr. St. Leger rose.  Mr. Trent not did
+shake hands with any of us--not even me.  Nothing but his respectful
+bow.  That is the etiquette for an attorney, I understand, on such
+formal occasions.
+
+He sat down at the end of the big table in the centre of the room,
+and asked us to sit round.  Father, of course, as Head of the Family,
+took the seat at his right hand.  Sir Colin and St. Leger went to the
+other side, the former taking the seat next to the attorney.  The
+General knows, of course, that a Baronet takes precedence at a
+ceremony.  I may be a Baronet some day myself, and have to know these
+things.
+
+The clerk took the key which his master handed to him, opened the tin
+box, and took from it a bundle of papers tied with red tape.  This he
+placed before the attorney, and put the empty box behind him on the
+floor.  Then he and the other man sat at the far end of the table;
+the latter took out a big notebook and several pencils, and put them
+before him.  He was evidently a shorthand-writer.   Mr. Trent removed
+the tape from the bundle of papers, which he placed a little distance
+in front of him.  He took a sealed envelope from the top, broke the
+seal, opened the envelope, and from it took a parchment, in the folds
+of which were some sealed envelopes, which he laid in a heap in front
+of the other paper.  Then he unfolded the parchment, and laid it
+before him with the outside page up.  He fixed his glasses, and said:
+
+"Gentlemen, the sealed envelope which you have seen me open is
+endorsed 'My Last Will and Testament--ROGER MELTON, June, 1906.'
+This document"--holding it up--"is as follows:
+
+
+"'I Roger Melton of Openshaw Grange in the County of Dorset; of
+number one hundred and twenty-three Berkeley Square London; and of
+the Castle of Vissarion in the Land of the Blue Mountains, being of
+sound mind do make this my Last Will and Testament on this day Monday
+the eleventh day of the month of June in the year of Our Lord one
+thousand nine hundred and six at the office of my old friend and
+Attorney Edward Bingham Trent in number one hundred and seventy-six
+Lincoln's Inn Fields London hereby revoking all other wills that I
+may have formerly made and giving this as my sole and last Will
+making dispositions of my property as follows:
+
+"'1.  To my kinsman and nephew Ernest Halbard Melton Esquire, justice
+of the Peace, Humcroft the County of Salop, for his sole use and
+benefit the sum of twenty thousand pounds sterling free of all Duties
+Taxes and charges whatever to be paid out of my Five per centum Bonds
+of the City of Montreal, Canada.
+
+"'2.  To my respected friend and colleague as co-trustee to the Will
+of my late sister Patience late widow of the late Captain Rupert Sent
+Leger who predeceased her, Major-General Sir Colin Alexander
+MacKelpie, Baronet, holder of the Victoria Cross, Knight Commander of
+the Order of the Bath, of Croom in the county of Ross Scotland a sum
+of Twenty thousand pounds sterling free of all Taxes and charges
+whatsoever; to be paid out of my Five per centum Bonds of the City of
+Toronto, Canada.
+
+"'3.  To Miss Janet MacKelpie presently residing at Croom in the
+County of Ross Scotland the sum of Twenty thousand pounds sterling
+free of all Duties Taxes and Charges whatsoever, to be paid out of my
+Five per centum Bonds of the London County Council.
+
+"'4.  To the various persons charities and Trustees named in the
+schedule attached to this Will and marked A. the various sums
+mentioned therein, all free of Duties and Taxes and charges
+whatsoever.'"
+
+Here Mr. Trent read out the list here following, and announced for
+our immediate understanding of the situation the total amount as two
+hundred and fifty thousand pounds.  Many of the beneficiaries were
+old friends, comrades, dependents, and servants, some of them being
+left quite large sums of money and specific objects, such as curios
+and pictures.
+
+"'5.  To my kinsman and nephew Ernest Roger Halbard Melton presently
+living in the house of his father at Humcroft Salop the sum of Ten
+thousand pounds sterling.
+
+"'6.  To my old and valued friend Edward Bingham Trent of one hundred
+and seventy-six Lincoln's Inn Fields sum of Twenty thousand pounds
+sterling free from all Duties Taxes and Charges whatsoever to be paid
+out of my Five per centum Bonds of the city of Manchester England.
+
+"'7.  To my dear nephew Rupert Sent Leger only son of my dear sister
+Patience Melton by her marriage with Captain Rupert Sent Leger the
+sum of one thousand pounds sterling.  I also bequeath to the said
+Rupert Sent Leger a further sum conditional upon his acceptance of
+the terms of a letter addressed to him marked B, and left in the
+custody of the above Edward Bingham Trent and which letter is an
+integral part of this my Will.  In case of the non-acceptance of the
+conditions of such letter, I devise and bequeath the whole of the
+sums and properties reserved therein to the executors herein
+appointed Colin Alexander MacKelpie and Edward Bingham Trent in trust
+to distribute the same in accordance with the terms of the letter in
+the present custody of Edward Bingham Trent marked C, and now
+deposited sealed with my seal in the sealed envelope containing my
+last Will to be kept in the custody of the said Edward Bingham Trent
+and which said letter C is also an integral part of my Will.  And in
+case any doubt should arise as to my ultimate intention as to the
+disposal of my property the above-mentioned Executors are to have
+full power to arrange and dispose all such matters as may seem best
+to them without further appeal.  And if any beneficiary under this
+Will shall challenge the same or any part of it, or dispute the
+validity thereof, he shall forfeit to the general estate the bequest
+made herein to him, and any such bequest shall cease and be void to
+all intents and purposes whatsoever.
+
+"'8.  For proper compliance with laws and duties connected with
+testamentary proceedings and to keep my secret trusts secret I direct
+my Executors to pay all Death, Estate, Settlement, Legacy,
+Succession, or other duties charges impositions and assessments
+whatever on the residue of my estate beyond the bequests already
+named, at the scale charged in the case of most distant relatives or
+strangers in blood.
+
+"'9.  I hereby appoint as my Executors Major-General Sir Colin
+Alexander MacKelpie, Baronet, of Croom in the County of Ross, and
+Edward Bingham Trent Attorney at Law of one hundred and seventy-six
+Lincoln's Inn Fields London West Central with full power to exercise
+their discretion in any circumstance which may arise in the carrying
+out my wishes as expressed in this Will.  As reward for their
+services in this capacity as Executors they are to receive each out
+of the general estate a sum of one hundred thousand pounds sterling
+free of all Duties and impositions whatsoever.
+
+"12.  The two Memoranda contained in the letters marked B and C are
+Integral Parts of this my Last Will are ultimately at the Probate of
+the Will to be taken as Clauses 10 and 11 of it.  The envelopes are
+marked B and C on both envelope and contents and the contents of each
+is headed thus:  B to be read as Clause 10 of my Will and the other C
+to be read as Clause 11 of my Will.
+
+"13.  Should either of the above-mentioned Executors die before the
+completion of the above year and a half from the date of the Reading
+of my Will or before the Conditions rehearsed in Letter C the
+remaining Executor shall have all and several the Rights and Duties
+entrusted by my Will to both.  And if both Executors should die then
+the matter of interpretation and execution of all matters in
+connection with this my Last Will shall rest with the Lord Chancellor
+of England for the time being or with whomsoever he may appoint for
+the purpose.
+
+"'This my Last Will is given by me on the first day of January in the
+year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seven.
+
+"'ROGER MELTON.
+
+"We Andrew Rossiter and John Colson here in the presence of each
+other and of the Testator have seen the Testator Roger Melton sign
+and seal this document.  In witness thereof we hereby set our names
+
+"'ANDREW ROSSITER clerk of 9 Primrose Avenue London W.C.
+
+"'JOHN COLSON caretaker of 176 Lincoln's Inn Fields and Verger of St.
+Tabitha's Church Clerkenwell London.'"
+
+
+When Mr. Trent had finished the reading he put all the papers
+together, and tied them up in a bundle again with the red tape.
+Holding the bundle in his hand, he stood up, saying as he did so:
+
+"That is all, gentlemen, unless any of you wish to ask me any
+questions; in which case I shall answer, of course, to the best of my
+power.  I shall ask you, Sir Colin, to remain with me, as we have to
+deal with some matters, or to arrange a time when we may meet to do
+so.  And you also, Mr. Sent Leger, as there is this letter to submit
+to you.  It is necessary that you should open it in the presence of
+the executors, but there is no necessity that anyone else should be
+present."
+
+The first to speak was my father.  Of course, as a county gentleman
+of position and estate, who is sometimes asked to take the chair at
+Sessions--of course, when there is not anyone with a title present--
+he found himself under the duty of expressing himself first.  Old
+MacKelpie has superior rank; but this was a family affair, in which
+my father is Head of the House, whilst old MacKelpie is only an
+outsider brought into it--and then only to the distaff side, by the
+wife of a younger brother of the man who married into our family.
+Father spoke with the same look on his face as when he asks important
+questions of witnesses at Quarter Sessions.
+
+"I should like some points elucidated."  The attorney bowed (he gets
+his 120 thou', any way, so he can afford to be oily--suave, I suppose
+he would call it); so father looked at a slip of paper in his hand
+and asked:
+
+"How much is the amount of the whole estate?"
+
+The attorney answered quickly, and I thought rather rudely.  He was
+red in the face, and didn't bow this time; I suppose a man of his
+class hasn't more than a very limited stock of manners:
+
+"That, sir, I am not at liberty to tell you.  And I may say that I
+would not if I could."
+
+"Is it a million?" said father again.  He was angry this time, and
+even redder than the old attorney.  The attorney said in answer, very
+quietly this time:
+
+"Ah, that's cross-examining.  Let me say, sir, that no one can know
+that until the accountants to be appointed for the purpose have
+examined the affairs of the testator up to date."
+
+Mr. Rupert St. Leger, who was looking all this time angrier than even
+the attorney or my father--though at what he had to be angry about I
+can't imagine--struck his fist on the table and rose up as if to
+speak, but as he caught sight of both old MacKelpie and the attorney
+he sat down again.  Mem.--Those three seem to agree too well.  I must
+keep a sharp eye on them.  I didn't think of this part any more at
+the time, for father asked another question which interested me much:
+
+"May I ask why the other matters of the Will are not shown to us?"
+The attorney wiped his spectacles carefully with a big silk bandanna
+handkerchief before he answered:
+
+"Simply because each of the two letters marked 'B' and 'C' is
+enclosed with instructions regarding their opening and the keeping
+secret of their contents.  I shall call your attention to the fact
+that both envelopes are sealed, and that the testator and both
+witnesses have signed their names across the flap of each envelope.
+I shall read them.  The letter marked 'B,' directed to 'Rupert Sent
+Leger,' is thus endorsed:
+
+
+"'This letter is to be given to Rupert Sent Leger by the Trustees and
+is to be opened by him in their presence.  He is to take such copy or
+make such notes as he may wish and is then to hand the letter with
+envelope to the Executors who are at once to read it, each of them
+being entitled to make copy or notes if desirous of so doing.  The
+letter is then to be replaced in its envelope and letter and envelope
+are to be placed in another envelope to be endorsed on outside as to
+its contents and to be signed across the flap by both the Executors
+and by the said Rupert Sent Leger.
+
+"'(Signed) ROGER MELTON 1/6/'06.
+
+
+"The letter marked 'C,' directed to 'Edward Bingham Trent,' is thus
+endorsed:
+
+
+"'This letter directed to Edward Bingham Trent is to be kept by him
+unopened for a term of two years after the reading of my Last Will
+unless said period is earlier terminated by either the acceptance or
+refusal of Rupert Sent Leger to accept the conditions mentioned in my
+letter to him marked 'B' which he is to receive and read in the
+presence of my Executors at the same meeting as but subsequent to the
+Reading of the clauses (except those to be ultimately numbers ten and
+eleven) of my Last Will.  This letter contains instructions as to
+what both the Executors and the said Rupert Sent Leger are to do when
+such acceptance or refusal of the said Rupert Sent Leger has been
+made known, or if he omit or refuse to make any such acceptance or
+refusal, at the end of two years next after my decease.
+
+"'(Signed) ROGER MELTON 1/6/'06.'"
+
+
+When the attorney had finished reading the last letter he put it
+carefully in his pocket.  Then he took the other letter in his hand,
+and stood up.  "Mr. Rupert Sent Leger," he said, "please to open this
+letter, and in such a way that all present may see that the
+memorandum at top of the contents is given as -
+
+"'B.  To be read as clause ten of my Will.'"
+
+St. Leger rolled up his sleeves and cuffs just as if he was going to
+perform some sort of prestidigitation--it was very theatrical and
+ridiculous--then, his wrists being quite bare, he opened the envelope
+and took out the letter.  We all saw it quite well.  It was folded
+with the first page outward, and on the top was written a line just
+as the attorney said.  In obedience to a request from the attorney,
+he laid both letter and envelope on the table in front of him.  The
+clerk then rose up, and, after handing a piece of paper to the
+attorney, went back to his seat.  Mr. Trent, having written something
+on the paper, asked us all who were present, even the clerk and the
+shorthand man, to look at the memorandum on the letter and what was
+written on the envelope, and to sign the paper, which ran:
+
+"We the signatories of this paper hereby declare that we have seen
+the sealed letter marked B and enclosed in the Will of Roger Melton
+opened in the presence of us all including Mr. Edward Bingham Trent
+and Sir Colin Alexander MacKelpie and we declare that the paper
+therein contained was headed 'B.  To be read as clause ten of my
+Will' and that there were no other contents in the envelope.  In
+attestation of which we in the presence of each other append our
+signatures."
+
+The attorney motioned to my father to begin.  Father is a cautious
+man, and he asked for a magnifying-glass, which was shortly brought
+to him by a clerk for whom the clerk in the room called.  Father
+examined the envelope all over very carefully, and also the
+memorandum at top of the paper.  Then, without a word, he signed the
+paper.  Father is a just man.  Then we all signed.  The attorney
+folded the paper and put it in an envelope.  Before closing it he
+passed it round, and we all saw that it had not been tampered with.
+Father took it out and read it, and then put it back.  Then the
+attorney asked us all to sign it across the flap, which we did.  Then
+he put the sealing-wax on it and asked father to seal it with his own
+seal.  He did so.  Then he and MacKelpie sealed it also with their
+own seals, Then he put it in another envelope, which he sealed
+himself, and he and MacKelpie signed it across the flap.
+
+Then father stood up, and so did I.  So did the two men--the clerk
+and the shorthand writer.  Father did not say a word till we got out
+into the street.  We walked along, and presently we passed an open
+gate into the fields.  He turned back, saying to me:
+
+"Come in here.  There is no one about, and we can be quiet.  I want
+to speak to you."  When we sat down on a seat with none other near
+it, father said:
+
+"You are a student of the law.  What does all that mean?"  I thought
+it a good occasion for an epigram, so I said one word:
+
+"Bilk!"
+
+"H'm!" said father; "that is so far as you and I are concerned.  You
+with a beggarly ten thousand, and I with twenty.  But what is, or
+will be, the effect of those secret trusts?"
+
+"Oh, that," I said, "will, I dare say, be all right.  Uncle Roger
+evidently did not intend the older generation to benefit too much by
+his death.  But he only gave Rupert St. Leger one thousand pounds,
+whilst he gave me ten.  That looks as if he had more regard for the
+direct line.  Of course--"  Father interrupted me:
+
+"But what was the meaning of a further sum?"
+
+"I don't know, father.  There was evidently some condition which he
+was to fulfil; but he evidently didn't expect that he would.  Why,
+otherwise, did he leave a second trust to Mr. Trent?"
+
+"True!" said father.  Then he went on:  "I wonder why he left those
+enormous sums to Trent and old MacKelpie.  They seem out of all
+proportion as executors' fees, unless--"
+
+"Unless what, father?"
+
+"Unless the fortune he has left is an enormous one.  That is why I
+asked."
+
+"And that," I laughed, "is why he refused to answer."
+
+"Why, Ernest, it must run into big figures."
+
+"Right-ho, father.  The death-duties will be annoying.  What a
+beastly swindle the death-duties are!  Why, I shall suffer even on
+your own little estate . . . "
+
+"That will do!" he said curtly.  Father is so ridiculously touchy.
+One would think he expects to live for ever.  Presently he spoke
+again:
+
+"I wonder what are the conditions of that trust.  They are as
+important--almost--as the amount of the bequest--whatever it is.  By
+the way, there seems to be no mention in the will of a residuary
+legatee.  Ernest, my boy, we may have to fight over that."
+
+"How do you make that out, father?" I asked.  He had been very rude
+over the matter of the death-duties of his own estate, though it is
+entailed and I MUST inherit.  So I determined to let him see that I
+know a good deal more than he does--of law, at any rate.  "I fear
+that when we come to look into it closely that dog won't fight.  In
+the first place, that may be all arranged in the letter to St. Leger,
+which is a part of the Will.  And if that letter should be
+inoperative by his refusal of the conditions (whatever they may be),
+then the letter to the attorney begins to work.  What it is we don't
+know, and perhaps even he doesn't--I looked at it as well as I could-
+-and we law men are trained to observation.  But even if the
+instructions mentioned as being in Letter C fail, then the corpus of
+the Will gives full power to Trent to act just as he darn pleases.
+He can give the whole thing to himself if he likes, and no one can
+say a word.  In fact, he is himself the final court of appeal."
+
+"H'm!" said father to himself.  "It is a queer kind of will, I take
+it, that can override the Court of Chancery.  We shall perhaps have
+to try it before we are done with this!"  With that he rose, and we
+walked home together--without saying another word.
+
+My mother was very inquisitive about the whole thing--women always
+are.  Father and I between us told her all it was necessary for her
+to know.  I think we were both afraid that, woman-like, she would
+make trouble for us by saying or doing something injudicious.
+Indeed, she manifested such hostility towards Rupert St. Leger that
+it is quite on the cards that she may try to injure him in some way.
+So when father said that he would have to go out shortly again, as he
+wished to consult his solicitor, I jumped up and said I would go with
+him, as I, too, should take advice as to how I stood in the matter.
+
+
+The Contents of Letter marked "B" attached as an Integral Part to the
+Last Will of Roger Melton.
+June 11, 1907.
+
+"This letter an integral part of my Last Will regards the entire
+residue of my estate beyond the specific bequests made in the body of
+my Will.  It is to appoint as Residuary Legatee of such Will--in case
+he may accept in due form the Conditions herein laid down--my dear
+Nephew Rupert Sent Leger only son of my sister Patience Melton now
+deceased by her marriage with Captain Rupert Sent Leger also now
+deceased.  On his acceptance of the Conditions and the fulfilment of
+the first of them the Entire residue of my estate after payments of
+all specific Legacies and of all my debts and other obligations is to
+become his absolute property to be dealt with or disposed of as he
+may desire.  The following are the conditions.
+
+"1.  He is to accept provisionally by letter addressed to my
+Executors a sum of nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand pounds
+sterling free of all Duties Taxes or other imposts.  This he will
+hold for a period of six months from the date of the Reading of my
+Last Will and have user of the accruements thereto calculated at the
+rate of ten per centum per annum which amount he shall under no
+circumstances be required to replace.  At the end of said six months
+he must express in writing directed to the Executors of my Will his
+acceptance or refusal of the other conditions herein to follow.  But
+if he may so choose he shall be free to declare in writing to the
+Executors within one week from the time of the Reading of the Will
+his wish to accept or to withdraw altogether from the responsibility
+of this Trust.  In case of withdrawal he is to retain absolutely and
+for his own use the above-mentioned sum of nine hundred and ninety-
+nine thousand pounds sterling free of all Duties Taxes and imposts
+whatsoever making with the specific bequest of one thousand pounds a
+clear sum of one million pounds sterling free of all imposts.  And he
+will from the moment of the delivery of such written withdrawal cease
+to have any right or interest whatsoever in the further disposition
+of my estate under this instrument.  Should such written withdrawal
+be received by my Executors they shall have possession of such
+residue of my estate as shall remain after the payment of the above
+sum of nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand pounds sterling and the
+payment of all Duties Taxes assessments or Imposts as may be entailed
+by law by its conveyance to the said Rupert Sent Leger and these my
+Executors shall hold the same for the further disposal of it
+according to the instructions given in the letter marked C and which
+is also an integral part of my Last Will and Testament.
+
+"2.  If at or before the expiration of the six months above-mentioned
+the said Rupert Sent Leger shall have accepted the further conditions
+herein stated, he is to have user of the entire income produced by
+such residue of my estate the said income being paid to him Quarterly
+on the usual Quarter Days by the aforesaid Executors to wit Major
+General Sir Colin Alexander MacKelpie Bart. and Edward Bingham Trent
+to be used by him in accordance with the terms and conditions
+hereinafter mentioned.
+
+"3.  The said Rupert Sent Leger is to reside for a period of at least
+six months to begin not later than three months from the reading of
+my Will in the Castle of Vissarion in the Land of the Blue Mountains.
+And if he fulfil the Conditions imposed on him and shall thereby
+become possessed of the residue of my estate he is to continue to
+reside there in part for a period of one year.  He is not to change
+his British Nationality except by a formal consent of the Privy
+Council of Great Britain.
+
+"At the end of a year and a half from the Reading of my Will he is to
+report in person to my Executors of the expenditure of amounts paid
+or due by him in the carrying out of the Trust and if they are
+satisfied that same are in general accord with the conditions named
+in above-mentioned letter marked C and which is an integral part of
+my Will they are to record their approval on such Will which can then
+go for final Probate and Taxation.  On the Completion of which the
+said Rupert Sent Leger shall become possessed absolutely and without
+further act or need of the entire residue of my estate.  In witness
+whereof, etc.
+
+"(Signed) ROGER MELTON."
+
+This document is attested by the witnesses to the Will on the same
+date.
+
+
+(Personal and Confidential.)
+MEMORANDA MADE BY EDWARD BINGHAM TRENT IN CONNECTION WITH THE WILL OF
+ROGER MELTON.
+January 3, 1907.
+
+The interests and issues of all concerned in the Will and estate of
+the late Roger Melton of Openshaw Grange are so vast that in case any
+litigation should take place regarding the same, I, as the solicitor,
+having the carriage of the testator's wishes, think it well to make
+certain memoranda of events, conversations, etc., not covered by
+documentary evidence.  I make the first memorandum immediately after
+the event, whilst every detail of act and conversation is still fresh
+in my mind.  I shall also try to make such comments thereon as may
+serve to refresh my memory hereafter, and which in case of my death
+may perhaps afford as opinions contemporaneously recorded some
+guiding light to other or others who may later on have to continue
+and complete the tasks entrusted to me.
+
+I.
+
+CONCERNING THE READING OF THE WILL OF ROGER MELTON.
+
+When, beginning at 11 o'clock a.m. on this the forenoon of Thursday,
+the 3rd day of January, 1907, I opened the Will and read it in full,
+except the clauses contained in the letters marked "B" and "C"; there
+were present in addition to myself, the following:
+
+1.  Ernest Halbard Melton, J.P, nephew of the testator.
+
+2.  Ernest Roger Halbard Melton, son of the above.
+
+3.  Rupert Sent Leger, nephew of the testator.
+
+4.  Major-General Sir Colin Alexander MacKelpie, Bart., co-executor
+with myself of the Will.
+
+5.  Andrew Rossiter, my clerk, one of the witnesses of the testator's
+Will.
+
+6.  Alfred Nugent, stenographer (of Messrs. Castle's office, 21,
+Bream's Buildings, W.C.).
+
+
+When the Will had been read, Mr. E. H. Melton asked the value of the
+estate left by the testator, which query I did not feel empowered or
+otherwise able to answer; and a further query, as to why those
+present were not shown the secret clauses of the Will.  I answered by
+reading the instructions endorsed on the envelopes of the two letters
+marked "B" and "C," which were sufficiently explanatory.
+
+But, lest any question should hereafter arise as to the fact that the
+memoranda in letters marked "B" and "C," which were to be read as
+clauses 10 and 11 of the Will, I caused Rupert Sent Leger to open the
+envelope marked "B" in the presence of all in the room.  These all
+signed a paper which I had already prepared, to the effect that they
+had seen the envelope opened, and that the memorandum marked "B.  To
+be read as clause ten of my Will," was contained in the envelope, of
+which it was to be the sole contents.  Mr. Ernest Halbard Melton,
+J.P., before signing, carefully examined with a magnifying-glass, for
+which he had asked, both the envelope and the heading of the
+memorandum enclosed in the letter.  He was about to turn the folded
+paper which was lying on the table over, by which he might have been
+able to read the matter of the memorandum had he so desired.  I at
+once advised him that the memorandum he was to sign dealt only with
+the heading of the page, and not with the matter.  He looked very
+angry, but said nothing, and after a second scrutiny signed.  I put
+the memorandum in an envelope, which we all signed across the flap.
+Before signing, Mr Ernest Halbard Melton took out the paper and
+verified it.  I then asked him to close it, which he did, and when
+the sealing-wax was on it he sealed it with his own seal.  Sir Colin
+A. MacKelpie and I also appended our own seals.  I put the envelope
+in another, which I sealed with my own seal, and my co-executor and I
+signed it across the flap and added the date.  I took charge of this.
+When the others present had taken their departure, my co-executor and
+I, together with Mr. Rupert Sent Leger, who had remained at my
+request, went into my private room.
+
+Here Mr. Rupert Sent Leger read the memorandum marked "B," which is
+to be read as clause 10 of the Will.  He is evidently a man of
+considerable nerve, for his face was quite impassive as he read the
+document, which conveyed to him (subject to the conditions laid down)
+a fortune which has no equal in amount in Europe, even, so far as I
+know, amongst the crowned heads.  When he had read it over a second
+time he stood up and said:
+
+"I wish I had known my uncle better.  He must have had the heart of a
+king.  I never heard of such generosity as he has shown me.  Mr.
+Trent, I see, from the conditions of this memorandum, or codicil, or
+whatever it is, that I am to declare within a week as to whether I
+accept the conditions imposed on me.  Now, I want you to tell me
+this:  must I wait a week to declare?"  In answer, I told him that
+the testator's intention was manifestly to see that he had full time
+to consider fully every point before making formal decision and
+declaration.  But, in answer to the specific question, I could answer
+that he might make declaration when he would, provided it was WITHIN,
+or rather not after, the week named.  I added:
+
+"But I strongly advise you not to act hurriedly.  So enormous a sum
+is involved that you may be sure that all possible efforts will be
+made by someone or other to dispossess you of your inheritance, and
+it will be well that everything shall be done, not only in perfect
+order, but with such manifest care and deliberation that there can be
+no question as to your intention."
+
+"Thank you, sir," he answered; "I shall do as you shall kindly advise
+me in this as in other things.  But I may tell you now--and you, too,
+my dear Sir Colin--that I not only accept my Uncle Roger's conditions
+in this, but that when the time comes in the other matters I shall
+accept every condition that he had in his mind--and that I may know
+of--in everything."  He looked exceedingly in earnest, and it gave me
+much pleasure to see and hear him.  It was just what a young man
+should do who had seen so generously treated.  As the time had now
+come, I gave him the bulky letter addressed to him, marked "D" which
+I had in my safe.  As I fulfilled my obligation in the matter, I
+said:
+
+"You need not read the letter here.  You can take it away with you,
+and read it by yourself at leisure.  It is your own property, without
+any obligation whatever attached to it.  By the way, perhaps it would
+be well if you knew.  I have a copy sealed up in an envelope, and
+endorsed, 'To be opened if occasion should arise,' but not otherwise.
+Will you see me to-morrow, or, better still, dine with me alone here
+to-night?  I should like to have a talk with you, and you may wish to
+ask me some questions."  He answered me cordially.  I actually felt
+touched by the way he said good-bye before he went away.  Sir Colin
+MacKelpie went with him, as Sent Leger was to drop him at the Reform.
+
+
+Letter from Roger Melton to Rupert Sent Leger, endorsed "D. re Rupert
+Sent Leger.  To be given to him by Edward Bingham Trent if and as
+soon as he has declared (formally or informally) his intention of
+accepting the conditions named in Letter B., forming Clause 10 in my
+Will.  R. M., 1/1/'07.
+
+"Mem.--Copy (sealed) left in custody of E. B. Trent, to be opened if
+necessary, as directed."
+June 11, 1906.
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+When (if ever) you receive this you will know that (with the
+exception of some definite bequests) I have left to you, under
+certain conditions, the entire bulk of my fortune--a fortune so great
+that by its aid as a help, a man of courage and ability may carve out
+for himself a name and place in history.  The specific conditions
+contained in Clause 10 of my Will have to be observed, for such I
+deem to be of service to your own fortune; but herein I give my
+advice, which you are at liberty to follow or not as you will, and my
+wishes, which I shall try to explain fully and clearly, so that you
+may be in possession of my views in case you should desire to carry
+them out, or, at least, to so endeavour that the results I hope for
+may be ultimately achieved.  First let me explain--for your
+understanding and your guidance--that the power, or perhaps it had
+better be called the pressure, behind the accumulation of my fortune
+has been ambition.  In obedience to its compulsion, I toiled early
+and late until I had so arranged matters that, subject to broad
+supervision, my ideas could be carried out by men whom I had selected
+and tested, and not found wanting.  This was for years to the
+satisfaction, and ultimately to the accumulation by these men of
+fortune commensurate in some measure to their own worth and their
+importance to my designs.  Thus I had accumulated, whilst still a
+young man, a considerable fortune.  This I have for over forty years
+used sparingly as regards my personal needs, daringly with regard to
+speculative investments.  With the latter I took such very great
+care, studying the conditions surrounding them so thoroughly, that
+even now my schedule of bad debts or unsuccessful investments is
+almost a blank.  Perhaps by such means things flourished with me, and
+wealth piled in so fast that at times I could hardly use it to
+advantage.  This was all done as the forerunner of ambition, but I
+was over fifty years of age when the horizon of ambition itself
+opened up to me.  I speak thus freely, my dear Rupert, as when you
+read it I shall have passed away, and not ambition nor the fear of
+misunderstanding, nor even of scorn can touch me.  My ventures in
+commerce and finance covered not only the Far East, but every foot of
+the way to it, so that the Mediterranean and all its opening seas
+were familiar to me.  In my journeyings up and down the Adriatic I
+was always struck by the great beauty and seeming richness--native
+richness--of the Land of the Blue Mountains.  At last Chance took me
+into that delectable region.  When the "Balkan Struggle" of '90 was
+on, one of the great Voivodes came to me in secret to arrange a large
+loan for national purposes.  It was known in financial circles of
+both Europe and Asia that I took an active part in the haute
+politique of national treasuries, and the Voivode Vissarion came to
+me as to one able and willing to carry out his wishes.  After
+confidential pour-parlers, he explained to me that his nation was in
+the throes of a great crisis.  As you perhaps know, the gallant
+little Nation in the Land of the Blue Mountains has had a strange
+history.  For more than a thousand years--ever since its settlement
+after the disaster of Rossoro--it had maintained its national
+independence under several forms of Government.  At first it had a
+King whose successors became so despotic that they were dethroned.
+Then it was governed by its Voivodes, with the combining influence of
+a Vladika somewhat similar in power and function to the Prince-
+Bishops of Montenegro; afterwards by a Prince; or, as at present, by
+an irregular elective Council, influenced in a modified form by the
+Vladika, who was then supposed to exercise a purely spiritual
+function.  Such a Council in a small, poor nation did not have
+sufficient funds for armaments, which were not immediately and
+imperatively necessary; and therefore the Voivode Vissarion, who had
+vast estates in his own possession, and who was the present
+representative a family which of old had been leaders in the land,
+found it a duty to do on his own account that which the State could
+not do.  For security as to the loan which he wished to get, and
+which was indeed a vast one, he offered to sell me his whole estate
+if I would secure to him a right to repurchase it within a given time
+(a time which I may say has some time ago expired).  He made it a
+condition that the sale and agreement should remain a strict secret
+between us, as a widespread knowledge that his estate had changed
+hands would in all probability result in my death and his own at the
+hands of the mountaineers, who are beyond everything loyal, and were
+jealous to the last degree.  An attack by Turkey was feared, and new
+armaments were required; and the patriotic Voivode was sacrificing
+his own great fortune for the public good.  What a sacrifice this was
+he well knew, for in all discussions regarding a possible change in
+the Constitution of the Blue Mountains it was always taken for
+granted that if the principles of the Constitution should change to a
+more personal rule, his own family should be regarded as the Most
+Noble.  It had ever been on the side of freedom in olden time; before
+the establishment of the Council, or even during the rule of the
+Voivodes, the Vissarion had every now and again stood out against the
+King or challenged the Princedom.  The very name stood for freedom,
+for nationality, against foreign oppression; and the bold
+mountaineers were devoted to it, as in other free countries men
+follow the flag.
+
+Such loyalty was a power and a help in the land, for it knew danger
+in every form; and anything which aided the cohesion of its integers
+was a natural asset.  On every side other powers, great and small,
+pressed the land, anxious to acquire its suzerainty by any means--
+fraud or force.  Greece, Turkey, Austria, Russia, Italy, France, had
+all tried in vain.  Russia, often hurled back, was waiting an
+opportunity to attack.  Austria and Greece, although united by no
+common purpose or design, were ready to throw in their forces with
+whomsoever might seem most likely to be victor.  Other Balkan States,
+too, were not lacking in desire to add the little territory of the
+Blue Mountains to their more ample possessions.  Albania, Dalmatia,
+Herzegovina, Servia, Bulgaria, looked with lustful eyes on the land,
+which was in itself a vast natural fortress, having close under its
+shelter perhaps the finest harbour between Gibraltar and the
+Dardanelles.
+
+But the fierce, hardy mountaineers were unconquerable.  For centuries
+they had fought, with a fervour and fury that nothing could withstand
+or abate, attacks on their independence.  Time after time, century
+after century, they had opposed with dauntless front invading armies
+sent against them.  This unquenchable fire of freedom had had its
+effect.  One and all, the great Powers knew that to conquer that
+little nation would be no mean task, but rather that of a tireless
+giant.  Over and over again had they fought with units against
+hundreds, never ceasing until they had either wiped out their foes
+entirely or seen them retreat across the frontier in diminished
+numbers.
+
+For many years past, however, the Land of the Blue Mountains had
+remained unassailable, for all the Powers and States had feared lest
+the others should unite against the one who should begin the attack.
+
+At the time I speak of there was a feeling throughout the Blue
+Mountains--and, indeed, elsewhere--that Turkey was preparing for a
+war of offence.  The objective of her attack was not known anywhere,
+but here there was evidence that the Turkish "Bureau of Spies" was in
+active exercise towards their sturdy little neighbour.  To prepare
+for this, the Voivode Peter Vissarion approached me in order to
+obtain the necessary "sinews of war."
+
+The situation was complicated by the fact that the Elective Council
+was at present largely held together by the old Greek Church, which
+was the religion of the people, and which had had since the beginning
+its destinies linked in a large degree with theirs.  Thus it was
+possible that if a war should break out, it might easily become--
+whatever might have been its cause or beginnings--a war of creeds.
+This in the Balkans must be largely one of races, the end of which no
+mind could diagnose or even guess at.
+
+I had now for some time had knowledge of the country and its people,
+and had come to love them both.  The nobility of Vissarion's self-
+sacrifice at once appealed to me, and I felt that I, too, should like
+to have a hand in the upholding of such a land and such a people.
+They both deserved freedom.  When Vissarion handed me the completed
+deed of sale I was going to tear it up; but he somehow recognized my
+intention, and forestalled it.  He held up his hand arrestingly as he
+said:
+
+"I recognize your purpose, and, believe me, I honour you for it from
+the very depths of my soul.  But, my friend, it must not be.  Our
+mountaineers are proud beyond belief.  Though they would allow me--
+who am one of themselves, and whose fathers have been in some way
+leaders and spokesmen amongst them for many centuries--to do all that
+is in my power to do--and what, each and all, they would be glad to
+do were the call to them--they would not accept aid from one outside
+themselves.  My good friend, they would resent it, and might show to
+you, who wish us all so well, active hostility, which might end in
+danger, or even death.  That was why, my friend, I asked to put a
+clause in our agreement, that I might have right to repurchase my
+estate, regarding which you would fain act so generously."
+
+Thus it is, my dear nephew Rupert, only son of my dear sister, that I
+hereby charge you solemnly as you value me--as you value yourself--as
+you value honour, that, should it ever become known that that noble
+Voivode, Peter Vissarion, imperilled himself for his country's good,
+and if it be of danger or evil repute to him that even for such a
+purpose he sold his heritage, you shall at once and to the knowledge
+of the mountaineers--though not necessarily to others--reconvey to
+him or his heirs the freehold that he was willing to part with--and
+that he has de facto parted with by the effluxion of the time during
+which his right of repurchase existed.  This is a secret trust and
+duty which is between thee and me alone in the first instance; a duty
+which I have undertaken on behalf of my heirs, and which must be
+carried out, at whatsoever cost may ensue.  You must not take it that
+it is from any mistrust of you or belief that you will fail that I
+have taken another measure to insure that this my cherished idea is
+borne out.  Indeed, it is that the law may, in case of need--for no
+man can know what may happen after his own hand be taken from the
+plough--be complied with, that I have in another letter written for
+the guidance of others, directed that in case of any failure to carry
+out this trust--death or other--the direction become a clause or
+codicil to my Will.  But in the meantime I wish that this be kept a
+secret between us two.  To show you the full extent of my confidence,
+let me here tell you that the letter alluded to above is marked "C,"
+and directed to my solicitor and co-executor, Edward Bingham Trent,
+which is finally to be regarded as clause eleven of my Will.  To
+which end he has my instructions and also a copy of this letter,
+which is, in case of need, and that only, to be opened, and is to be
+a guide to my wishes as to the carrying out by you of the conditions
+on which you inherit.
+
+And now, my dear nephew, let me change to another subject more dear
+to me--yourself.  When you read this I shall have passed away, so
+that I need not be hampered now by that reserve which I feel has
+grown upon me through a long and self-contained life.  Your mother
+was very dear to me.  As you know, she was twenty years younger than
+her youngest brother, who was two years younger than me.  So we were
+all young men when she was a baby, and, I need not say, a pet amongst
+us--almost like our own child to each of us, as well as our sister.
+You knew her sweetness and high quality, so I need say nothing of
+these; but I should like you to understand that she was very dear to
+me.  When she and your father came to know and love each other I was
+far away, opening up a new branch of business in the interior of
+China, and it was not for several months that I got home news.  When
+I first heard of him they had already been married.  I was delighted
+to find that they were very happy.  They needed nothing that I could
+give.  When he died so suddenly I tried to comfort her, and all I had
+was at her disposal, did she want it.  She was a proud woman--though
+not with me.  She had come to understand that, though I seemed cold
+and hard (and perhaps was so generally), I was not so to her.  But
+she would not have help of any kind.  When I pressed her, she told me
+that she had enough for your keep and education and her own
+sustenance for the time she must still live; that your father and she
+had agreed that you should be brought up to a healthy and strenuous
+life rather than to one of luxury; and she thought that it would be
+better for the development of your character that you should learn to
+be self-reliant and to be content with what your dear father had left
+you.  She had always been a wise and thoughtful girl, and now all her
+wisdom and thought were for you, your father's and her child.  When
+she spoke of you and your future, she said many things which I
+thought memorable.  One of them I remember to this day.  It was
+apropos of my saying that there is a danger of its own kind in
+extreme poverty.  A young man might know too much want.  She answered
+me:  "True!  That is so!  But there is a danger that overrides it;"
+and after a time went on:
+
+"It is better not to know wants than not to know want!"  I tell you,
+boy, that is a great truth, and I hope you will remember it for
+yourself as well as a part of the wisdom of your mother.  And here
+let me say something else which is a sort of corollary of that wise
+utterance:
+
+I dare say you thought me very hard and unsympathetic that time I
+would not, as one of your trustees, agree to your transferring your
+little fortune to Miss MacKelpie.  I dare say you bear a grudge
+towards me about it up to this day.  Well, if you have any of that
+remaining, put it aside when you know the truth.  That request of
+yours was an unspeakable delight to me.  It was like your mother
+coming back from the dead.  That little letter of yours made me wish
+for the first time that I had a son--and that he should be like you.
+I fell into a sort of reverie, thinking if I were yet too old to
+marry, so that a son might be with me in my declining years--if such
+were to ever be for me.  But I concluded that this might not be.
+There was no woman whom I knew or had ever met with that I could love
+as your mother loved your father and as he loved her.  So I resigned
+myself to my fate.  I must go my lonely road on to the end.  And then
+came a ray of light into my darkness:  there was you.  Though you
+might not feel like a son to me--I could not expect it when the
+memory of that sweet relationship was more worthily filled.  But I
+could feel like a father to you.  Nothing could prevent that or
+interfere with it, for I would keep it as my secret in the very holy
+of holies of my heart, where had been for thirty years the image of a
+sweet little child--your mother.  My boy, when in your future life
+you shall have happiness and honour and power, I hope you will
+sometimes give a thought to the lonely old man whose later years your
+very existence seemed to brighten.
+
+The thought of your mother recalled me to my duty.  I had undertaken
+for her a sacred task:  to carry out her wishes regarding her son.  I
+knew how she would have acted.  It might--would--have been to her a
+struggle of inclination and duty; and duty would have won.  And so I
+carried out my duty, though I tell you it was a harsh and bitter task
+to me at the time.  But I may tell you that I have since been glad
+when I think of the result.  I tried, as you may perhaps remember, to
+carry out your wishes in another way, but your letter put the
+difficulty of doing so so clearly before me that I had to give it up.
+And let me tell you that that letter endeared you to me more than
+ever.
+
+I need not tell you that thenceforth I followed your life very
+closely.  When you ran away to sea, I used in secret every part of
+the mechanism of commerce to find out what had become of you.  Then,
+until you had reached your majority, I had a constant watch kept upon
+you--not to interfere with you in any way, but so that I might be
+able to find you should need arise.  When in due course I heard of
+your first act on coming of age I was satisfied.  I had to know of
+the carrying out of your original intention towards Janet Mac Kelpie,
+for the securities had to be transferred.
+
+From that time on I watched--of course through other eyes--your chief
+doings.  It would have been a pleasure to me to have been able to
+help in carrying out any hope or ambition of yours, but I realized
+that in the years intervening between your coming of age and the
+present moment you were fulfilling your ideas and ambitions in your
+own way, and, as I shall try to explain to you presently, my
+ambitions also.  You were of so adventurous a nature that even my own
+widely-spread machinery of acquiring information--what I may call my
+private "intelligence department"--was inadequate.  My machinery was
+fairly adequate for the East--in great part, at all events.  But you
+went North and South, and West also, and, in addition, you essayed
+realms where commerce and purely real affairs have no foothold--
+worlds of thought, of spiritual import, of psychic phenomena--
+speaking generally, of mysteries.  As now and again I was baffled in
+my inquiries, I had to enlarge my mechanism, and to this end started-
+-not in my own name, of course--some new magazines devoted to certain
+branches of inquiry and adventure.  Should you ever care to know more
+of these things, Mr. Trent, in whose name the stock is left, will be
+delighted to give you all details.  Indeed, these stocks, like all
+else I have, shall be yours when the time comes, if you care to ask
+for them.  By means of The Journal of Adventure, The Magazine of
+Mystery, Occultism, Balloon and Aeroplane, The Submarine, Jungle and
+Pampas, The Ghost World, The Explorer, Forest and Island, Ocean and
+Creek, I was often kept informed when I should otherwise have been
+ignorant of your whereabouts and designs.  For instance, when you had
+disappeared into the Forest of the Incas, I got the first whisper of
+your strange adventures and discoveries in the buried cities of
+Eudori from a correspondent of The Journal of Adventure long before
+the details given in The Times of the rock-temple of the primeval
+savages, where only remained the little dragon serpents, whose giant
+ancestors were rudely sculptured on the sacrificial altar.  I well
+remember how I thrilled at even that meagre account of your going in
+alone into that veritable hell.  It was from Occultism that I learned
+how you had made a stay alone in the haunted catacombs of Elora, in
+the far recesses of the Himalayas, and of the fearful experiences
+which, when you came out shuddering and ghastly, overcame to almost
+epileptic fear those who had banded themselves together to go as far
+as the rock-cut approach to the hidden temple.
+
+All such things I read with rejoicing.  You were shaping yourself for
+a wider and loftier adventure, which would crown more worthily your
+matured manhood.  When I read of you in a description of Mihask, in
+Madagascar, and the devil-worship there rarely held, I felt I had
+only to wait for your home-coming in order to broach the enterprise I
+had so long contemplated.  This was what I read:
+
+"He is a man to whom no adventure is too wild or too daring.  His
+reckless bravery is a byword amongst many savage peoples and amongst
+many others not savages, whose fears are not of material things, but
+of the world of mysteries in and beyond the grave.  He dares not only
+wild animals and savage men; but has tackled African magic and Indian
+mysticism.  The Psychical Research Society has long exploited his
+deeds of valiance, and looked upon him as perhaps their most trusted
+agent or source of discovery.  He is in the very prime of life, of
+almost giant stature and strength, trained to the use of all arms of
+all countries, inured to every kind of hardship, subtle-minded and
+resourceful, understanding human nature from its elemental form up.
+To say that he is fearless would be inadequate.  In a word, he is a
+man whose strength and daring fit him for any enterprise of any kind.
+He would dare and do anything in the world or out of it, on the earth
+or under it, in the sea or--in the air, fearing nothing material or
+unseen, not man or ghost, nor God nor Devil."
+
+If you ever care to think of it, I carried that cutting in my pocket-
+book from that hour I read it till now.
+
+Remember, again, I say, that I never interfered in the slightest way
+in any of your adventures.  I wanted you to "dree your own weird," as
+the Scotch say; and I wanted to know of it--that was all.  Now, as I
+hold you fully equipped for greater enterprise, I want to set your
+feet on the road and to provide you with the most potent weapon--
+beyond personal qualities--for the winning of great honour--a gain,
+my dear nephew, which, I am right sure, does and will appeal to you
+as it has ever done to me.  I have worked for it for more than fifty
+years; but now that the time has come when the torch is slipping from
+my old hands, I look to you, my dearest kinsman, to lift it and carry
+it on.
+
+The little nation of the Blue Mountains has from the first appealed
+to me.  It is poor and proud and brave.  Its people are well worth
+winning, and I would advise you to throw in your lot with them.  You
+may find them hard to win, for when peoples, like individuals, are
+poor and proud, these qualities are apt to react on each other to an
+endless degree.  These men are untamable, and no one can ever succeed
+with them unless he is with them in all-in-all, and is a leader
+recognized.  But if you can win them they are loyal to death.  If you
+are ambitious--and I know you are--there may be a field for you in
+such a country.  With your qualifications, fortified by the fortune
+which I am happy enough to be able to leave you, you may dare much
+and go far.  Should I be alive when you return from your exploration
+in Northern South America, I may have the happiness of helping you to
+this or any other ambition, and I shall deem it a privilege to share
+it with you; but time is going on.  I am in my seventy-second year .
+. . the years of man are three-score and ten--I suppose you
+understand; I do . . . Let me point out this:  For ambitious projects
+the great nationalities are impossible to a stranger--and in our own
+we are limited by loyalty (and common-sense).  It is only in a small
+nation that great ambitions can be achieved.  If you share my own
+views and wishes, the Blue .Mountains is your ground.  I hoped at one
+time that I might yet become a Voivode--even a great one.  But age
+has dulled my personal ambitions as it has cramped my powers.  I no
+longer dream of such honour for myself, though I do look on it as a
+possibility for you if you care for it.  Through my Will you will
+have a great position and a great estate, and though you may have to
+yield up the latter in accordance with my wish, as already expressed
+in this letter, the very doing so will give you an even greater hold
+than this possession in the hearts of the mountaineers, should they
+ever come to know it.  Should it be that at the time you inherit from
+me the Voivode Vissarion should not be alive, it may serve or aid you
+to know that in such case you would be absolved from any conditions
+of mine, though I trust you would in that, as in all other matters,
+hold obligation enforced by your own honour as to my wishes.
+Therefore the matter stands thus:  If Vissarion lives, you will
+relinquish the estates.  Should such not be the case, you will act as
+you believe that I would wish you to.  In either case the
+mountaineers should not know from you in any way of the secret
+contracts between Vissarion and myself.  Enlightenment of the many
+should (if ever) come from others than yourself.  And unless such
+take place, you would leave the estates without any quid pro quo
+whatever.  This you need not mind, for the fortune you will inherit
+will leave you free and able to purchase other estates in the Blue
+Mountains or elsewhere that you may select in the world.
+
+If others attack, attack them, and quicker and harder than they can,
+if such be a possibility.  Should it ever be that you inherit the
+Castle of Vissarion on the Spear of Ivan, remember that I had it
+secretly fortified and armed against attack.  There are not only
+massive grilles, but doors of chilled bronze where such be needed.
+My adherent Rooke, who has faithfully served me for nearly forty
+years, and has gone on my behalf on many perilous expeditions, will,
+I trust, serve you in the same way.  Treat him well for my sake, if
+not for your own.  I have left him provision for a life of ease; but
+he would rather take a part in dangerous enterprises.  He is silent
+as the grave and as bold as a lion.  He knows every detail of the
+fortification and of the secret means of defence.  A word in your
+ear--he was once a pirate.  He was then in his extreme youth, and
+long since changed his ways in this respect; but from this fact you
+can understand his nature.  You will find him useful should occasion
+ever arise.  Should you accept the conditions of my letter, you are
+to make the Blue Mountains--in part, at least--your home, living
+there a part of the year, if only for a week, as in England men of
+many estates share the time amongst them.  To this you are not bound,
+and no one shall have power to compel you or interfere with you.  I
+only express a hope.  But one thing I do more than hope--I desire, if
+you will honour my wishes, that, come what may, you are to keep your
+British nationality, unless by special arrangement with and consent
+of the Privy Council.  Such arrangement to be formally made by my
+friend, Edward Bingham Trent, or whomsoever he may appoint by deed or
+will to act in the matter, and made in such a way that no act save
+that alone of Parliament in all its estates, and endorsed by the
+King, may or can prevail against it.
+
+My last word to you is, Be bold and honest, and fear not.  Most
+things--even kingship--SOMEWHERE may now and again be won by the
+sword.  A brave heart and a strong arm may go far.  But whatever is
+so won cannot be held merely by the sword.  Justice alone can hold in
+the long run.  Where men trust they will follow, and the rank and
+file of people want to follow, not to lead.  If it be your fortune to
+lead, be bold.  Be wary, if you will; exercise any other faculties
+that may aid or guard.  Shrink from nothing.  Avoid nothing that is
+honourable in itself.  Take responsibility when such presents itself.
+What others shrink from, accept.  That is to be great in what world,
+little or big, you move.  Fear nothing, no matter of what kind danger
+may be or whence it come.  The only real way to meet danger is to
+despise it--except with your brains.  Meet it in the gate, not the
+hall.
+
+My kinsman, the name of my race and your own, worthily mingled in
+your own person, now rests with you!
+
+
+Letter from Rupert Sent Leger, 32 Bodmin Street, Victoria, S.W., to
+Miss Janet MacKelpie, Croom, Ross-shire.
+January 3, 1907.
+
+MY DEAREST AUNT JANET,
+
+You will, I know, be rejoiced to hear of the great good-fortune which
+has come to me through the Will of Uncle Roger.  Perhaps Sir Colin
+will have written to you, as he is one of the executors, and there is
+a bequest to you, so I must not spoil his pleasure of telling you of
+that part himself.  Unfortunately, I am not free to speak fully of my
+own legacy yet, but I want you to know that at worst I am to receive
+an amount many times more than I ever dreamt of possessing through
+any possible stroke of fortune.  So soon as I can leave London--
+where, of course, I must remain until things are settled--I am coming
+up to Croom to see you, and I hope I shall by then be able to let you
+know so much that you will be able to guess at the extraordinary
+change that has come to my circumstances.  It is all like an
+impossible dream:  there is nothing like it in the "Arabian Nights."
+However, the details must wait, I am pledged to secrecy for the
+present.  And you must be pledged too.  You won't mind, dear, will
+you?  What I want to do at present is merely to tell you of my own
+good-fortune, and that I shall be going presently to live for a while
+at Vissarion.  Won't you come with me, Aunt Janet?  We shall talk
+more of this when I come to Croom; but I want you to keep the subject
+in your mind.
+
+Your loving
+RUPERT.
+
+
+From Rupert Sent Leger's Journal.
+January 4, 1907.
+
+Things have been humming about me so fast that I have had hardly time
+to think.  But some of the things have been so important, and have so
+changed my entire outlook on life, that it may be well to keep some
+personal record of them.  I may some day want to remember some
+detail--perhaps the sequence of events, or something like that--and
+it may be useful.  It ought to be, if there is any justice in things,
+for it will be an awful swot to write it when I have so many things
+to think of now.  Aunt Janet, I suppose, will like to keep it locked
+up for me, as she does with all my journals and papers.  That is one
+good thing about Aunt Janet amongst many:  she has no curiosity, or
+else she has some other quality which keeps her from prying as other
+women would.  It would seem that she has not so much as opened the
+cover of one of my journals ever in her life, and that she would not
+without my permission.  So this can in time go to her also.
+
+I dined last night with Mr. Trent, by his special desire.  The dinner
+was in his own rooms.  Dinner sent in from the hotel.  He would not
+have any waiters at all, but made them send in the dinner all at
+once, and we helped ourselves.  As we were quite alone, we could talk
+freely, and we got over a lot of ground while we were dining.  He
+began to tell me about Uncle Roger.  I was glad of that, for, of
+course, I wanted to know all I could of him, and the fact was I had
+seen very little of him.  Of course, when I was a small kid he was
+often in our house, for he was very fond of mother, and she of him.
+But I fancy that a small boy was rather a nuisance to him.  And then
+I was at school, and he was away in the East.  And then poor mother
+died while he was living in the Blue Mountains, and I never saw him
+again.  When I wrote to him about Aunt Janet he answered me very
+kindly but he was so very just in the matter that I got afraid of
+him.  And after that I ran away, and have been roaming ever since; so
+there was never a chance of our meeting.  But that letter of his has
+opened my eyes.  To think of him following me that way all over the
+world, waiting to hold out a helping hand if I should want it, I only
+wish I had known, or even suspected, the sort of man he was, and how
+he cared for me, and I would sometimes have come back to see him, if
+I had to come half round the world.  Well, all I can do now is to
+carry out his wishes; that will be my expiation for my neglect.  He
+knew what he wanted exactly, and I suppose I shall come in time to
+know it all and understand it, too.
+
+I was thinking something like this when Mr. Trent began to talk, so
+that all he said fitted exactly into my own thought.  The two men
+were evidently great friends--I should have gathered that, anyhow,
+from the Will--and the letters--so I was not surprised when Mr. Trent
+told me that they had been to school together, Uncle Roger being a
+senior when he was a junior; and had then and ever after shared each
+other's confidence.  Mr. Trent, I gathered, had from the very first
+been in love with my mother, even when she was a little girl; but he
+was poor and shy, and did not like to speak.  When he had made up his
+mind to do so, he found that she had by then met my father, and could
+not help seeing that they loved each other.  So he was silent.  He
+told me he had never said a word about it to anyone--not even to my
+Uncle Roger, though he knew from one thing and another, though he
+never spoke of it, that he would like it.  I could not help seeing
+that the dear old man regarded me in a sort of parental way--I have
+heard of such romantic attachments being transferred to the later
+generation.  I was not displeased with it; on the contrary, I liked
+him better for it.  I love my mother so much--I always think of her
+in the present--that I cannot think of her as dead.  There is a tie
+between anyone else who loved her and myself.  I tried to let Mr.
+Trent see that I liked him, and it pleased him so much that I could
+see his liking for me growing greater.  Before we parted he told me
+that he was going to give up business.  He must have understood how
+disappointed I was--for how could I ever get along at all without
+him?--for he said, as he laid a hand quite affectionately, I thought-
+-on my shoulder:
+
+"I shall have one client, though, whose business I always hope to
+keep, and for whom I shall be always whilst I live glad to act--if he
+will have me."  I did not care to speak as I took his hand.  He
+squeezed mine, too, and said very earnestly:
+
+"I served your uncle's interests to the very best of my ability for
+nearly fifty years.  He had full confidence in me, and I was proud of
+his trust.  I can honestly say, Rupert--you won't mind me using that
+familiarity, will you?--that, though the interests which I guarded
+were so vast that without abusing my trust I could often have used my
+knowledge to my personal advantage, I never once, in little matters
+or big, abused that trust--no, not even rubbed the bloom off it.  And
+now that he has remembered me in his Will so generously that I need
+work no more, it will be a very genuine pleasure and pride to me to
+carry out as well as I can the wishes that I partly knew, and now
+realize more fully towards you, his nephew."
+
+In the long chat which we had, and which lasted till midnight, he
+told me many very interesting things about Uncle Roger.  When, in the
+course of conversation, he mentioned that the fortune Uncle Roger
+left must be well over a hundred millions, I was so surprised that I
+said out loud--I did not mean to ask a question:
+
+"How on earth could a man beginning with nothing realize such a
+gigantic fortune?"
+
+"By all honest ways," he answered, "and his clever human insight.  He
+knew one half of the world, and so kept abreast of all public and
+national movements that he knew the critical moment to advance money
+required.  He was always generous, and always on the side of freedom.
+There are nations at this moment only now entering on the
+consolidation of their liberty, who owe all to him, who knew when and
+how to help.  No wonder that in some lands they will drink to his
+memory on great occasions as they used to drink his health."
+
+"As you and I shall do now, sir!" I said, as I filled my glass and
+stood up.  We drank it in bumpers.  We did not say a word, either of
+us; but the old gentleman held out his hand, and I took it.  And so,
+holding hands, we drank in silence.  It made me feel quite choky; and
+I could see that he, too, was moved.
+
+
+From E. B. Trent's Memoranda.
+January 4, 1907.
+
+I asked Mr. Rupert Sent Leger to dine with me at my office alone, as
+I wished to have a chat with him.  To-morrow Sir Colin and I will
+have a formal meeting with him for the settlement of affairs, but I
+thought it best to have an informal talk with him alone first, as I
+wished to tell him certain matters which will make our meeting to-
+morrow more productive of utility, as he can now have more full
+understanding of the subjects which we have to discuss.  Sir Colin is
+all that can be in manhood, and I could wish no better colleague in
+the executorship of this phenomenal Will; but he has not had the
+privilege of a lifelong friendship with the testator as I have had.
+And as Rupert Sent Leger had to learn intimate details regarding his
+uncle, I could best make my confidences alone.  To-morrow we shall
+have plenty of formality.  I was delighted with Rupert.  He is just
+what I could have wished his mother's boy to be--or a son of my own
+to be, had I had the good-fortune to have been a father.  But this is
+not for me.  I remember long, long ago reading a passage in Lamb's
+Essays which hangs in my mind:  "The children of Alice call Bartrum
+father."  Some of my old friends would laugh to see ME write this,
+but these memoranda are for my eyes alone, and no one shall see them
+till after my death, unless by my own permission.  The boy takes some
+qualities after his father; he has a daring that is disturbing to an
+old dryasdust lawyer like me.  But somehow I like him more than I
+ever liked anyone--any man--in my life--more even than his uncle, my
+old friend,  Roger Melton; and Lord knows I had much cause to like
+him.  I have more than ever now.  It was quite delightful to see the
+way the young adventurer was touched by his uncle's thought of him.
+He is a truly gallant fellow, but venturesome exploits have not
+affected the goodness of heart.  It is a pleasure to me to think that
+Roger and Colin came together apropos of the boy's thoughtful
+generosity towards Miss MacKelpie.  The old soldier will be a good
+friend to him, or I am much mistaken.  With an old lawyer like me,
+and an old soldier like him, and a real old gentlewoman like Miss
+MacKelpie, who loves the very ground he walks on, to look after him,
+together with all his own fine qualities and his marvellous
+experience of the world, and the gigantic wealth that will surely be
+his, that young man will go far.
+
+
+Letter from Rupert Sent Leger to Miss Janet MacKelpie, Croom.
+January 5, 1907.
+
+MY DEAREST AUNT JANET,
+
+It is all over--the first stage of it; and that is as far as I can
+get at present.  I shall have to wait for a few days--or it may be
+weeks--in London for the doing of certain things now necessitated by
+my acceptance of Uncle Roger's bequest.  But as soon as I can, dear,
+I shall come down to Croom and spend with you as many days as
+possible.  I shall then tell you all I am at liberty to tell, and I
+shall thank you personally for your consent to come with me to
+Vissarion.  Oh, how I wish my dear mother had lived to be with us!
+It would have made her happy, I know, to have come; and then we three
+who shared together the old dear, hard days would have shared in the
+same way the new splendour.  I would try to show all my love and
+gratitude to you both . . . You must take the whole burden of it now,
+dear, for you and I are alone.  No, not alone, as we used to be, for
+I have now two old friends who are already dear to me.  One is so to
+you already.  Sir Colin is simply splendid, and so, in his own way,
+is Mr. Trent.  I am lucky, Aunt Janet, to have two such men to think
+of affairs for me.  Am I not?  I shall send you a wire as soon as
+ever I can see my way to get through my work; and I want you to think
+over all the things you ever wished for in your life, so that I may--
+if there is any mortal way of doing so--get them for you.  You will
+not stand in the way of my having this great pleasure, will you,
+dear?  Good-bye.
+
+Your loving
+RUPERT.
+
+
+E. B. Trent's Memoranda.
+January 6, 1907.
+
+
+The formal meeting of Sir Colin and myself with Rupert Sent Leger
+went off quite satisfactorily.  From what he had said yesterday, and
+again last night, I had almost come to expect an unreserved
+acceptance of everything stated or implied in Roger Melton's Will;
+but when we had sat round the table--this appeared, by the way, to be
+a formality for which we were all prepared, for we sat down as if by
+instinct--the very first words he said were:
+
+"As I suppose I must go through this formality, I may as well say at
+once that I accept every possible condition which was in the mind of
+Uncle Roger; and to this end I am prepared to sign, seal, and
+deliver--or whatever is the ritual--whatever document you, sir"--
+turning to me--"may think necessary or advisable, and of which you
+both approve."  He stood up and walked about the room for a few
+moments, Sir Colin and I sitting quite still, silent.  He came back
+to his seat, and after a few seconds of nervousness--a rare thing
+with him, I fancy--said:  "I hope you both understand--of course, I
+know you do; I only speak because this is an occasion for formality--
+that I am willing to accept, and at once!  I do so, believe me, not
+to get possession of this vast fortune, but because of him who has
+given it.  The man who was fond of me, and who trusted me, and yet
+had strength to keep his own feelings in check--who followed me in
+spirit to far lands and desperate adventures, and who, though he
+might be across the world from me, was ready to put out a hand to
+save or help me, was no common man; and his care of my mother's son
+meant no common love for my dear mother.  And so she and I together
+accept his trust, come of it what may.  I have been thinking it over
+all night, and all the time I could not get out of the idea that
+mother was somewhere near me.  The only thought that could debar me
+from doing as I wished to do--and intend to do--would be that she
+would not approve.  Now that I am satisfied she would approve, I
+accept.  Whatever may result or happen, I shall go on following the
+course that he has set for me.  So help me, God!"  Sir Colin stood
+up, and I must say a more martial figure I never saw.  He was in full
+uniform, for he was going on to the King's levee after our business.
+He drew his sword from the scabbard and laid it naked on the table
+before Rupert, and said:
+
+"You are going, sir, into a strange and danger country--I have been
+reading about it since we met--and you will be largely alone amongst
+fierce mountaineers who resent the very presence of a stranger, and
+to whom you are, and must be, one.  If you should ever be in any
+trouble and want a man to stand back to back with you, I hope you
+will give me the honour!"  As he said this pointed to his sword.
+Rupert and I were also standing now--one cannot sit down in the
+presence of such an act as that.  "You are, I am proud to say, allied
+with my family:  and I only wish to God it was closer to myself."
+Rupert took him by the hand and bent his head before him as answered:
+
+"The honour is mine, Sir Colin; and no greater can come to any man
+than that which you have just done me.  The best way I can show how I
+value it will be to call on you if I am ever in such a tight place.
+By Jove, sir, this is history repeating itself.  Aunt Janet used to
+tell me when I was a youngster how MacKelpie of Croom laid his sword
+before Prince Charlie.  I hope I may tell her of this; it would make
+her so proud and happy.  Don't imagine, sir, that I am thinking
+myself a Charles Edward.  It is only that Aunt Janet is so good to me
+that I might well think I was."
+
+Sir Colin bowed grandly:
+
+"Rupert Sent Leger, my dear niece is a woman of great discretion and
+discernment.  And, moreover, I am thinking she has in her some of the
+gift of Second Sight that has been a heritage of our blood.  And I am
+one with my niece--in everything!"  The whole thing was quite regal
+in manner; it seemed to take me back to the days of the Pretender.
+
+It was not, however, a time for sentiment, but for action--we had met
+regarding the future, not the past; so I produced the short document
+I had already prepared.  On the strength of his steadfast declaration
+that he would accept the terms of the Will and the secret letters, I
+had got ready a formal acceptance.  When I had once again formally
+asked Mr. Sent Leger's wishes, and he had declared his wish to
+accept, I got in a couple of my clerks as witnesses.
+
+Then, having again asked him in their presence if it was his wish to
+declare acceptance of the conditions, the document was signed and
+witnessed, Sir Colin and I both appending our signatures to the
+Attestation.
+
+And so the first stage of Rupert Sent Leger's inheritance is
+completed.  The next step will not have to be undertaken on my part
+until the expiration of six months from his entry on his estate at
+Vissarion.  As he announces his intention of going within a
+fortnight, this will mean practically a little over six months from
+now.
+
+
+
+BOOK II:  VISSARION
+
+
+
+Letter from Rupert Sent Leger, Castle of Vissarion, the Spear of
+Ivan, Land of the Blue Mountains, to Miss Janet MacKelpie, Croom
+Castle, Ross-shire, N.B.
+January 23, 1907.
+
+MY DEAREST AUNT JANET,
+
+As you see, I am here at last.  Having got my formal duty done, as
+you made me promise--my letters reporting arrival to Sir Colin and
+Mr. Trent are lying sealed in front of me ready to post (for nothing
+shall go before yours)--I am free to speak to you.
+
+This is a most lovely place, and I hope you will like it.  I am quite
+sure you will.  We passed it in the steamer coming from Trieste to
+Durazzo.  I knew the locality from the chart, and it was pointed out
+to me by one of the officers with whom I had become quite friendly,
+and who kindly showed me interesting places whenever we got within
+sight of shore.  The Spear of Ivan, on which the Castle stands, is a
+headland running well out into the sea.  It is quite a peculiar
+place--a sort of headland on a headland, jutting out into a deep,
+wide bay, so that, though it is a promontory, it is as far away from
+the traffic of coast life as anything you can conceive.  The main
+promontory is the end of a range of mountains, and looms up vast,
+towering over everything, a mass of sapphire blue.  I can well
+understand how the country came to be called the "Land of the Blue
+Mountains," for it is all mountains, and they are all blue!  The
+coast-line is magnificent--what is called "iron-bound"--being all
+rocky; sometimes great frowning precipices; sometimes jutting spurs
+of rock; again little rocky islets, now and again clad with trees and
+verdure, at other places stark and bare.  Elsewhere are little rocky
+bays and indentations--always rock, and often with long, interesting
+caves.  Some of the shores of the bays are sandy, or else ridges of
+beautiful pebbles, where the waves make endless murmur.
+
+But of all the places I have seen--in this land or any other--the
+most absolutely beautiful is Vissarion.  It stands at the ultimate
+point of the promontory--I mean the little, or, rather, lesser
+promontory--that continues on the spur of the mountain range.  For
+the lesser promontory or extension of the mountain is in reality
+vast; the lowest bit of cliff along the sea-front is not less than a
+couple of hundred feet high.  That point of rock is really very
+peculiar.  I think Dame Nature must, in the early days of her
+housekeeping--or, rather, house-BUILDING--have intended to give her
+little child, man, a rudimentary lesson in self-protection.  It is
+just a natural bastion such as a titanic Vauban might have designed
+in primeval times.  So far as the Castle is concerned, it is alone
+visible from the sea.  Any enemy approaching could see only that
+frowning wall of black rock, of vast height and perpendicular
+steepness.  Even the old fortifications which crown it are not built,
+but cut in the solid rock.  A long narrow creek of very deep water,
+walled in by high, steep cliffs, runs in behind the Castle, bending
+north and west, making safe and secret anchorage.  Into the creek
+falls over a precipice a mountain-stream, which never fails in volume
+of water.  On the western shore of that creek is the Castle, a huge
+pile of buildings of every style of architecture, from the Twelfth
+century to where such things seemed to stop in this dear old-world
+land--about the time of Queen Elizabeth.  So it is pretty
+picturesque.  I can tell you.  When we got the first glimpse of the
+place from the steamer the officer, with whom I was on the bridge,
+pointed towards it and said:
+
+"That is where we saw the dead woman floating in a coffin."  That was
+rather interesting, so I asked him all about it.  He took from his
+pocket-book a cutting from an Italian paper, which he handed to me.
+As I can read and speak Italian fairly well, it was all right; but as
+you, my dear Aunt Janet, are not skilled in languages, and as I doubt
+if there is any assistance of the kind to be had at Croom, I do not
+send it.  But as I have heard that the item has been produced in the
+last number of The Journal of Occultism, you will be easily able to
+get it.  As he handed me the cutting he said:  "I am Destilia!"  His
+story was so strange that I asked him a good many questions about it.
+He answered me quite frankly on every point, but always adhering
+stoutly to the main point--namely, that it was no phantom or mirage,
+no dream or imperfect vision in a fog.  "We were four in all who saw
+it," he said--"three from the bridge and the Englishman, Caulfield--
+from the bows--whose account exactly agreed with what we saw.
+Captain Mirolani and Falamano and I were all awake and in good trim.
+We looked with our night-glasses, which are more than usually
+powerful.  You know, we need good glasses for the east shore of the
+Adriatic and for among the islands to the south.  There was a full
+moon and a brilliant light.  Of course we were a little way off, for
+though the Spear of Ivan is in deep water, one has to be careful of
+currents, for it is in just such places that the dangerous currents
+run."  The agent of Lloyd's told me only a few weeks ago that it was
+only after a prolonged investigation of the tidal and sea currents
+that the house decided to except from ordinary sea risks losses due
+to a too close course by the Spear of Ivan.  When I tried to get a
+little more definite account of the coffin-boat and the dead lady
+that is given in The Journal of Occultism he simply shrugged his
+shoulders.  "Signor, it is all," he said.  "That Englishman wrote
+everything after endless questioning."
+
+So you see, my dear, that our new home is not without superstitious
+interests of its own.  It is rather a nice idea, is it not, to have a
+dead woman cruising round our promontory in a coffin?  I doubt if
+even at Croom you can beat that.  "Makes the place kind of homey," as
+an American would say.  When you come, Aunt Janet, you will not feel
+lonesome, at any rate, and it will save us the trouble of importing
+some of your Highland ghosts to make you feel at home in the new
+land.  I don't know, but we might ask the stiff to come to tea with
+us.  Of course, it would be a late tea.  Somewhere between midnight
+and cock-crow would be about the etiquette of the thing, I fancy!
+
+But I must tell you all the realities of the Castle and around it.
+So I will write again within a day or two, and try to let you know
+enough to prepare you for coming here.  Till then adieu, my dear.
+
+Your loving
+RUPERT.
+
+
+From Rupert Sent Leger, Vissarion, to Janet MacKelpie,
+Croom.
+January 25, 1907.
+
+I hope I did not frighten you, dear Aunt Janet, by the yarn of the
+lady in the coffin.  But I know you are not afraid; you have told me
+too many weird stories for me to dread that.  Besides, you have
+Second Sight--latent, at all events.  However, there won't be any
+more ghosts, or about ghosts, in this letter.  I want to tell you all
+about our new home.  I am so glad you are coming out so soon; I am
+beginning to feel so lonesome--I walk about sometimes aimlessly, and
+find my thoughts drifting in such an odd way.  If I didn't know
+better, I might begin to think I was in love!  There is no one here
+to be in love with; so make your mind easy, Aunt Janet.  Not that you
+would be unhappy, I know, dear, if I DID fall in love.  I suppose I
+must marry some day.  It is a duty now, I know, when there is such an
+estate as Uncle Roger has left me.  And I know this:  I shall never
+marry any woman unless I love her.  And I am right sure that if I do
+love her you will love her, too, Aunt Janet!  Won't you, dear?  It
+wouldn't be half a delight if you didn't.  It won't if you don't.
+There, now!
+
+But before I begin to describe Vissarion I shall throw a sop to you
+as a chatelaine; that may give you patience to read the rest.  The
+Castle needs a lot of things to make it comfortable--as you would
+consider it.  In fact, it is absolutely destitute of everything of a
+domestic nature.  Uncle Roger had it vetted on the defence side, and
+so far it could stand a siege.  But it couldn't cook a dinner or go
+through a spring-cleaning!  As you know, I am not much up in domestic
+matters, and so I cannot give you details; but you may take it that
+it wants everything.  I don't mean furniture, or silver, or even
+gold-plate, or works of art, for it is full of the most magnificent
+old things that you can imagine.  I think Uncle Roger must have been
+a collector, and gathered a lot of good things in all sorts of
+places, stored them for years, and then sent them here.  But as to
+glass, china, delft, all sorts of crockery, linen, household
+appliances and machinery, cooking utensils--except of the simplest--
+there are none.  I don't think Uncle Roger could have lived here more
+than on a temporary picnic.  So far as I only am concerned, I am all
+right; a gridiron and a saucepan are all _I_ want--and I can use them
+myself.  But, dear Aunt Janet, I don't want you to pig it.  I would
+like you to have everything you can imagine, and all of the very
+best.  Cost doesn't count now for us, thanks to Uncle Roger; and so I
+want you to order all.  I know you, dear--being a woman--won't object
+to shopping.  But it will have to be wholesale.  This is an enormous
+place, and will swallow up all you can buy--like a quicksand.  Do as
+you like about choosing, but get all the help you can.  Don't be
+afraid of getting too much.  You can't, or of being idle when you are
+here.  I assure you that when you come there will be so much to do
+and so many things to think of that you will want to get away from it
+all.  And, besides, Aunt Janet, I hope you won't be too long.
+Indeed, I don't wish to be selfish, but your boy is lonely, and wants
+you.  And when you get here you will be an EMPRESS.  I don't
+altogether like doing so, lest I should offend a millionairess like
+you; but it may facilitate matters, and the way's of commerce are
+strict, though devious.  So I send you a cheque for 1,000 pounds for
+the little things:  and a letter to the bank to honour your own
+cheques for any amount I have got.
+
+I think, by the way, I should, if I were you, take or send out a few
+servants--not too many at first, only just enough to attend on our
+two selves.  You can arrange to send for any more you may want later.
+Engage them, and arrange for their being paid--when they are in our
+service we must treat them well--and then they can be at our call as
+you find that we want them.  I think you should secure, say, fifty or
+a hundred--'tis an awfu' big place, Aunt Janet!  And in the same way
+will you secure--and, of course, arrange for pay similarly--a hundred
+men, exclusive of any servants you think it well to have.  I should
+like the General, if he can give the time, to choose or pass them.  I
+want clansmen that I can depend on, if need be.  We are going to live
+in a country which is at present strange to us, and it is well to
+look things in the face.  I know Sir Colin will only have men who are
+a credit to Scotland and to Ross and to Croom--men who will impress
+the Blue Mountaineers.  I know they will take them to their hearts--
+certainly if any of them are bachelors the girls will!  Forgive me!
+But if we are to settle here, our followers will probably want to
+settle also.  Moreover, the Blue Mountaineers may want followers
+also!  And will want them to settle, too, and have successors!
+
+Now for the description of the place.  Well, I simply can't just now.
+It is all so wonderful and so beautiful.  The Castle--I have written
+so much already about other things that I really must keep the Castle
+for another letter!  Love to Sir Colin if he is at Croom.  And oh,
+dear Aunt Janet, how I wish that my dear mother was coming out!  It
+all seems so dark and empty without her.  How she would have enjoyed
+it!  How proud she would have been!  And, my dear, if she could be
+with us again, how grateful she would have been to you for all you
+have done for her boy!  As I am, believe me, most truly and sincerely
+and affectionately grateful.
+
+Your loving
+RUPERT.
+
+
+Rupert Sent Leger, Vissarion, to Janet MacKelpie, Croom.
+January 26, 1907.
+
+MY DEAR AUNT JANET,
+
+Please read this as if it was a part of the letter I wrote yesterday.
+
+The Castle itself is so vast that I really can't describe it in
+detail.  So I am waiting till you come; and then you and I will go
+over it together and learn all that we can about it.  We shall take
+Rooke with us, and, as he is supposed to know every part of it, from
+the keep to the torture-chamber, we can spend a few days over it.  Of
+course, I have been over most of it, since I came--that, is, I went
+at various times to see different portions--the battlements, the
+bastions, the old guard-room, the hall, the chapel, the walls, the
+roof.  And I have been through some of the network of rock passages.
+Uncle Roger must have spent a mint of money on it, so far as I can
+see; and though I am not a soldier, I have been in so many places
+fortified in different ways that I am not entirely ignorant of the
+subject.  He has restored it in such an up-to-date way that it is
+practically impregnable to anything under big guns or a siege-train.
+He has gone so far as to have certain outworks and the keep covered
+with armoured plating of what looks like harveyized steel.  You will
+wonder when you see it.  But as yet I really know only a few rooms,
+and am familiar with only one--my own room.  The drawing-room--not
+the great hall, which is a vast place; the library--a magnificent
+one, but in sad disorder--we must get a librarian some day to put it
+in trim; and the drawing-room and boudoir and bedroom suite which I
+have selected for you, are all fine.  But my own room is what suits
+me best, though I do not think you would care for it for yourself.
+If you do, you shall have it.  It was Uncle Roger's own room when he
+stayed here; living in it for a few days served to give me more
+insight to his character--or rather to his mind--than I could have
+otherwise had.  It is just the kind of place I like myself; so,
+naturally, I understand the other chap who liked it too.  It is a
+fine big room, not quite within the Castle, but an outlying part of
+it.  It is not detached, or anything of that sort, but is a sort of
+garden-room built on to it.  There seems to have been always some
+sort of place where it is, for the passages and openings inside seem
+to accept or recognize it.  It can be shut off if necessary--it would
+be in case of attack--by a great slab of steel, just like the door of
+a safe, which slides from inside the wall, and can be operated from
+either inside or outside--if you know how.  That is from my room or
+from within the keep.  The mechanism is a secret, and no one but
+Rooke and I know it.  The room opens out through a great French
+window--the French window is modern, I take it, and was arranged by
+or for Uncle Roger; I think there must have been always a large
+opening there, for centuries at least--which opens on a wide terrace
+or balcony of white marble, extending right and left.  From this a
+white marble stair lies straight in front of the window, and leads
+down to the garden.  The balcony and staircase are quite ancient--of
+old Italian work, beautifully carved, and, of course, weather-worn
+through centuries.  There is just that little tinging of green here
+and there which makes all outdoor marble so charming.  It is hard to
+believe at times that it is a part of a fortified castle, it is so
+elegant and free and open.  The first glance of it would make a
+burglar's heart glad.  He would say to himself:  "Here is the sort of
+crib I like when I'm on the job.  You can just walk in and out as you
+choose."  But, Aunt Janet, old Roger was cuter than any burglar.  He
+had the place so guarded that the burglar would have been a baffled
+burglar.  There are two steel shields which can slide out from the
+wall and lock into the other side right across the whole big window.
+One is a grille of steel bands that open out into diamond-shaped
+lozenges.  Nothing bigger than a kitten could get through; and yet
+you can see the garden and the mountains and the whole view--much the
+same as you ladies can see through your veils.  The other is a great
+sheet of steel, which slides out in a similar way in different
+grooves.  It is not, of course, so heavy and strong as the safe-door
+which covers the little opening in the main wall, but Rooke tells me
+it is proof against the heaviest rifle-hall.
+
+Having told you this, I must tell you, too, Aunt Janet, lest you
+should be made anxious by the arriere-pensee of all these warlike
+measures of defence, that I always sleep at night with one of these
+iron screens across the window.  Of course, when I am awake I leave
+it open.  As yet I have tried only, but not used, the grille; and I
+don't think I shall ever use anything else, for it is a perfect
+guard.  If it should be tampered with from outside it would sound an
+alarm at the head of the bed, and the pressing of a button would roll
+out the solid steel screen in front of it.  As a matter of fact, I
+have been so used to the open that I don't feel comfortable shut in.
+I only close windows against cold or rain.  The weather here is
+delightful--as yet, at all events--but they tell me that the rainy
+season will be on us before very long.
+
+I think you will like my den, aunty dear, though it will doubtless be
+a worry to you to see it so untidy.  But that can't be helped.  I
+must be untidy SOMEWHERE; and it is best in my own den!
+
+Again I find my letter so long that I must cut it off now and go on
+again to-night.  So this must go as it stands.  I shall not cause you
+to wait to hear all I can tell you about our new home.
+
+Your loving
+RUPERT.
+
+
+From Rupert Sent Leger, Vissarion, to Janet MacKelpie,
+Croom.
+January 29, 1907.
+
+MY DEAR AUNT JANET,
+
+My den looks out, as I told you in my last letter, on the garden, or,
+to speak more accurately, on ONE of the gardens, for there are acres
+of them.  This is the old one, which must be almost as old as the
+Castle itself, for it was within the defences in the old days of
+bows.  The wall that surrounds the inner portion of it has long ago
+been levelled, but sufficient remains at either end where it joined
+the outer defences to show the long casemates for the bowmen to shoot
+through and the raised stone gallery where they stood.  It is just
+the same kind of building as the stone-work of the sentry's walk on
+the roof and of the great old guard-room under it.
+
+But whatever the garden may have been, and no matter how it was
+guarded, it is a most lovely place.  There are whole sections of
+garden here of various styles--Greek, Italian, French, German, Dutch,
+British, Spanish, African, Moorish--all the older nationalities.  I
+am going to have a new one laid out for you--a Japanese garden.  I
+have sent to the great gardener of Japan, Minaro, to make the plans
+for it, and to come over with workmen to carry it out.  He is to
+bring trees and shrubs and flowers and stone-work, and everything
+that can be required; and you shall superintend the finishing, if not
+the doing, of it yourself.  We have such a fine head of water here,
+and the climate is, they tell me, usually so lovely that we can do
+anything in the gardening way.  If it should ever turn out that the
+climate does not suit, we shall put a great high glass roof over it,
+and MAKE a suitable climate.
+
+This garden in front of my room is the old Italian garden.  It must
+have been done with extraordinary taste and care, for there is not a
+bit of it which is not rarely beautiful.  Sir Thomas Browne himself,
+for all his Quincunx, would have been delighted with it, and have
+found material for another "Garden of Cyrus."  It is so big that
+there are endless "episodes" of garden beauty I think all Italy must
+have been ransacked in old times for garden stone-work of exceptional
+beauty; and these treasures have been put together by some master-
+hand.  Even the formal borders of the walks are of old porous stone,
+which takes the weather-staining so beautifully, and are carved in
+endless variety.  Now that the gardens have been so long neglected or
+left in abeyance, the green staining has become perfect.  Though the
+stone-work is itself intact, it has all the picturesque effect of the
+wear and ruin wrought by many centuries.  I am having it kept for you
+just as it is, except that I have had the weeds and undergrowth
+cleared away so that its beauties might be visible.
+
+But it is not merely the architect work of the garden that is so
+beautiful, nor is the assembling there of the manifold wealth of
+floral beauty--there is the beauty that Nature creates by the hand of
+her servant, Time.  You see, Aunt Janet, how the beautiful garden
+inspires a danger-hardened old tramp like me to high-grade sentiments
+of poetic fancy!  Not only have limestone and sandstone, and even
+marble, grown green in time, but even the shrubs planted and then
+neglected have developed new kinds of beauty of their own.  In some
+far-distant time some master-gardener of the Vissarions has tried to
+realize an idea--that of tiny plants that would grow just a little
+higher than the flowers, so that the effect of an uneven floral
+surface would be achieved without any hiding of anything in the
+garden seen from anywhere.  This is only my reading of what has been
+from the effect of what is!  In the long period of neglect the shrubs
+have outlived the flowers.  Nature has been doing her own work all
+the time in enforcing the survival of the fittest.  The shrubs have
+grown and grown, and have overtopped flower and weed, according to
+their inherent varieties of stature; to the effect that now you see
+irregularly scattered through the garden quite a number--for it is a
+big place--of vegetable products which from a landscape standpoint
+have something of the general effect of statues without the cramping
+feeling of detail.  Whoever it was that laid out that part of the
+garden or made the choice of items, must have taken pains to get
+strange specimens, for all those taller shrubs are in special
+colours, mostly yellow or white--white cypress, white holly, yellow
+yew, grey-golden box, silver juniper, variegated maple, spiraea, and
+numbers of dwarf shrubs whose names I don't know.  I only know that
+when the moon shines--and this, my dear Aunt Janet, is the very land
+of moonlight itself!--they all look ghastly pale.  The effect is
+weird to the last degree, and I am sure that you will enjoy it.  For
+myself, as you know, uncanny things hold no fear.  I suppose it is
+that I have been up against so many different kinds of fears, or,
+rather, of things which for most people have terrors of their own,
+that I have come to have a contempt--not an active contempt, you
+know, but a tolerative contempt--for the whole family of them.  And
+you, too, will enjoy yourself here famously, I know.  You'll have to
+collect all the stories of such matters in our new world and make a
+new book of facts for the Psychical Research Society.  It will be
+nice to see your own name on a title-page, won't it, Aunt Janet?
+
+
+From Rupert Sent Leger, Vissarion, to Janet MacKelpie,
+Croom.
+January 30, 1907.
+
+MY DEAR AUNT JANET,
+
+I stopped writing last night--do you know why?  Because I wanted to
+write more!  This sounds a paradox, but it is true.  The fact is
+that, as I go on telling you of this delightful place, I keep finding
+out new beauties myself.  Broadly speaking, it IS ALL beautiful.  In
+the long view or the little view--as the telescope or the microscope
+directs--it is all the same.  Your eye can turn on nothing that does
+not entrance you.  I was yesterday roaming about the upper part of
+time Castle, and came across some delightful nooks, which at once I
+became fond of, and already like them as if I had known them all my
+life.  I felt at first a sense of greediness when I had appropriated
+to myself several rooms in different places--I who have never in my
+life had more than one room which I could call my own--and that only
+for a time!  But when I slept on it the feeling changed, and its
+aspect is now not half bad.  It is now under another classification--
+under a much more important label--PROPRIETORSHIP.  If I were writing
+philosophy, I should here put in a cynical remark:
+
+"Selfishness is an appanage of poverty.  It might appear in the stud-
+book as by 'Morals' out of 'Wants.'"
+
+I have now three bedrooms arranged as my own particular dens.  One of
+the other two was also a choice of Uncle Roger's.  It is at the top
+of one of the towers to the extreme east, and from it I can catch the
+first ray of light over the mountains.  I slept in it last night, and
+when I woke, as in my travelling I was accustomed to do, at dawn, I
+saw from my bed through an open window--a small window, for it is in
+a fortress tower--the whole great expanse to the east.  Not far off,
+and springing from the summit of a great ruin, where long ago a seed
+had fallen, rose a great silver-birch, and the half-transparent,
+drooping branches and hanging clusters of leaf broke the outline of
+the grey hills beyond, for the hills were, for a wonder, grey instead
+of blue.  There was a mackerel sky, with the clouds dropping on the
+mountain-tops till you could hardly say which was which.  It was a
+mackerel sky of a very bold and extraordinary kind--not a dish of
+mackerel, but a world of mackerel!  The mountains are certainly most
+lovely.  In this clear air they usually seem close at hand.  It was
+only this morning, with the faint glimpse of the dawn whilst the
+night clouds were still unpierced by the sunlight, that I seemed to
+realize their greatness.  I have seen the same enlightening effect of
+aerial perspective a few times before--in Colorado, in Upper India,
+in Thibet, and in the uplands amongst the Andes.
+
+There is certainly something in looking at things from above which
+tends to raise one's own self-esteem.  From the height, inequalities
+simply disappear.  This I have often felt on a big scale when
+ballooning, or, better still, from an aeroplane.  Even here from the
+tower the outlook is somehow quite different from below.  One
+realizes the place and all around it, not in detail, but as a whole.
+I shall certainly sleep up here occasionally, when you have come and
+we have settled down to our life as it is to be.  I shall live in my
+own room downstairs, where I can have the intimacy of the garden.
+But I shall appreciate it all the more from now and again losing the
+sense of intimacy for a while, and surveying it without the sense of
+one's own self-importance.
+
+I hope you have started on that matter of the servants.  For myself,
+I don't care a button whether or not there are any servants at all;
+but I know well that you won't come till you have made your
+arrangements regarding them!  Another thing, Aunt Janet.  You must
+not be killed with work here, and it is all so vast . . . Why can't
+you get some sort of secretary who will write your letters and do all
+that sort of thing for you?  I know you won't have a man secretary;
+but there are lots of women now who can write shorthand and
+typewrite.  You could doubtless get one in the clan--someone with a
+desire to better herself.  I know you would make her happy here.  If
+she is not too young, all the better; she will have learned to hold
+her tongue and mind her own business, and not be too inquisitive.
+That would be a nuisance when we are finding our way about in a new
+country and trying to reconcile all sorts of opposites in a whole new
+country with new people, whom at first we shan't understand, and who
+certainly won't understand us; where every man carries a gun with as
+little thought of it as he has of buttons!  Good-bye for a while.
+
+Your loving
+RUPERT.
+
+
+From Rupert Sent Leger, Vissarion, to Janet MacKelpie,
+Croom.
+February 3, 1907.
+
+I am back in my own room again.  Already it seems to me that to get
+here again is like coming home.  I have been going about for the last
+few days amongst the mountaineers and trying to make their
+acquaintance.  It is a tough job; and I can see that there will be
+nothing but to stick to it.  They are in reality the most primitive
+people I ever met--the most fixed to their own ideas, which belong to
+centuries back.  I can understand now what people were like in
+England--not in Queen Elizabeth's time, for that was civilized time,
+but in the time of Coeur-de-Lion, or even earlier--and all the time
+with the most absolute mastery of weapons of precision.  Every man
+carries a rifle--and knows how to use it, too.  I do believe they
+would rather go without their clothes than their guns if they had to
+choose between them.  They also carry a handjar, which used to be
+their national weapon.  It is a sort of heavy, straight cutlass, and
+they are so expert with it as well as so strong that it is as facile
+in the hands of a Blue Mountaineer as is a foil in the hands of a
+Persian maitre d'armes.  They are so proud and reserved that they
+make one feel quite small, and an "outsider" as well.  I can see
+quite well that they rather resent my being here at all.  It is not
+personal, for when alone with me they are genial, almost brotherly;
+but the moment a few of them get together they are like a sort of
+jury, with me as the criminal before them.  It is an odd situation,
+and quite new to me.  I am pretty well accustomed to all sorts of
+people, from cannibals to Mahatmas, but I'm blessed if I ever struck
+such a type as this--so proud, so haughty, so reserved, so distant,
+so absolutely fearless, so honourable, so hospitable.  Uncle Roger's
+head was level when he chose them out as a people to live amongst.
+Do you know, Aunt Janet, I can't help feeling that they are very much
+like your own Highlanders--only more so.  I'm sure of one thing:
+that in the end we shall get on capitally together.  But it will be a
+slow job, and will need a lot of patience.  I have a feeling in my
+bones that when they know me better they will be very loyal and very
+true; and I am not a hair's-breadth afraid of them or anything they
+shall or might do.  That is, of course, if I live long enough for
+them to have time to know me.  Anything may happen with such an
+indomitable, proud people to whom pride is more than victuals.  After
+all, it only needs one man out of a crowd to have a wrong idea or to
+make a mistake as to one's motive--and there you are.  But it will be
+all right that way, I am sure.  I am come here to stay, as Uncle
+Roger wished.  And stay I shall even if it has to be in a little bed
+of my own beyond the garden--seven feet odd long, and not too narrow-
+-or else a stone-box of equal proportions in the vaults of St. Sava's
+Church across the Creek--the old burial-place of the Vissarions and
+other noble people for a good many centuries back . . .
+
+I have been reading over this letter, dear Aunt Janet, and I am
+afraid the record is rather an alarming one.  But don't you go
+building up superstitious horrors or fears on it.  Honestly, I am
+only joking about death--a thing to which I have been rather prone
+for a good many years back.  Not in very good taste, I suppose, but
+certainly very useful when the old man with the black wings goes
+flying about you day and night in strange places, sometimes visible
+and at others invisible.  But you can always hear wings, especially
+in the dark, when you cannot see them.  YOU know that, Aunt Janet,
+who come of a race of warriors, and who have special sight behind or
+through the black curtain.
+
+Honestly, I am in no whit afraid of the Blue Mountaineers, nor have I
+a doubt of them.  I love them already for their splendid qualities,
+and I am prepared to love them for themselves.  I feel, too, that
+they will love me (and incidentally they are sure to love you).  I
+have a sort of undercurrent of thought that there is something in
+their minds concerning me--something not painful, but disturbing;
+something that has a base in the past; something that has hope in it
+and possible pride, and not a little respect.  As yet they can have
+had no opportunity of forming such impression from seeing me or from
+any thing I have done.  Of course, it may be that, although they are
+fine, tall, stalwart men, I am still a head and shoulders over the
+tallest of them that I have yet seen.  I catch their eyes looking up
+at me as though they were measuring me, even when they are keeping
+away from me, or, rather, keeping me from them at arm's length.  I
+suppose I shall understand what it all means some day.  In the
+meantime there is nothing to do but to go on my own way--which is
+Uncle Roger's--and wait and be patient and just.  I have learned the
+value of that, any way, in my life amongst strange peoples.  Good-
+night.
+
+Your loving
+RUPERT.
+
+
+From Rupert Sent Leger, Vissarion, to Janet MacKelpie,
+Croom.
+February 24, 1907.
+
+MY DEAR AUNT JANET,
+
+I am more than rejoiced to hear that you are coming here so soon.
+This isolation is, I think, getting on my nerves.  I thought for a
+while last night that I was getting on, but the reaction came all too
+soon.  I was in my room in the east turret, the room on the
+corbeille, and saw here and there men passing silently and swiftly
+between the trees as though in secret.  By-and-by I located their
+meeting-place, which was in a hollow in the midst of the wood just
+outside the "natural" garden, as the map or plan of the castle calls
+it.  I stalked that place for all I was worth, and suddenly walked
+straight into the midst of them.  There were perhaps two or three
+hundred gathered, about the very finest lot of men I ever saw in my
+life.  It was in its way quite an experience, and one not likely to
+be repeated, for, as I told you, in this country every man carries a
+rifle, and knows how to use it.  I do not think I have seen a single
+man (or married man either) without his rifle since I came here.  I
+wonder if they take them with them to bed!  Well, the instant after I
+stood amongst them every rifle in the place was aimed straight at me.
+Don't be alarmed, Aunt Janet; they did not fire at me.  If they had I
+should not be writing to you now.  I should be in that little bit of
+real estate or the stone box, and about as full of lead as I could
+hold.  Ordinarily, I take it, they would have fired on the instant;
+that is the etiquette here.  But this time they--all separately but
+all together--made a new rule.  No one said a word or, so far as I
+could see, made a movement.  Here came in my own experience.  I had
+been more than once in a tight place of something of the same kind,
+so I simply behaved in the most natural way I could.  I felt
+conscious--it was all in a flash, remember--that if I showed fear or
+cause for fear, or even acknowledged danger by so much as even
+holding up my hands, I should have drawn all the fire.  They all
+remained stock-still, as though they had been turned into stone, for
+several seconds.  Then a queer kind of look flashed round them like
+wind over corn--something like the surprise one shows unconsciously
+on waking in a strange place.  A second after they each dropped the
+rifle to the hollow of his arm and stood ready for anything.  It was
+all as regular and quick and simultaneous as a salute at St. James's
+Palace.
+
+Happily I had no arms of any kind with me, so that there could be no
+complication.  I am rather a quick hand myself when there is any
+shooting to be done.  However, there was no trouble here, but the
+contrary; the Blue Mountaineers--it sounds like a new sort of Bond
+Street band, doesn't it?--treated me in quite a different way than
+they did when I first met them.  They were amazingly civil, almost
+deferential.  But, all time same, they were more distant than ever,
+and all the time I was there I could get not a whit closer to them.
+They seemed in a sort of way to be afraid or in awe of me.  No doubt
+that will soon pass away, and when we know one another better we
+shall become close friends.  They are too fine fellows not to be
+worth a little waiting for.  (That sentence, by the way, is a pretty
+bad sentence!  In old days you would have slippered me for it!)  Your
+journey is all arranged, and I hope you will be comfortable.  Rooke
+will meet you at Liverpool Street and look after everything.
+
+I shan't write again, but when we meet at Fiume I shall begin to tell
+you all the rest.  Till then, good-bye.  A good journey to you, and a
+happy meeting to us both.
+
+RUPERT.
+
+
+Letter from Janet MacKelpie, Vissarion, to Sir Colin MacKelpie,
+United Service Club, London.
+
+DEAREST UNCLE, February 28, 1907.
+
+I had a very comfortable journey all across Europe.  Rupert wrote to
+me some time ago to say that when I got to Vissarion I should be an
+Empress, and he certainly took care that on the way here I should be
+treated like one.  Rooke, who seems a wonderful old man, was in the
+next compartment to that reserved for me.  At Harwich he had
+everything arranged perfectly, and so right on to Fiume.  Everywhere
+there were attentive officials waiting.  I had a carriage all to
+myself, which I joined at Antwerp--a whole carriage with a suite of
+rooms, dining-room, drawing-room, bedroom, even bath-room.  There was
+a cook with a kitchen of his own on board, a real chef like a French
+nobleman in disguise.  There were also a waiter and a servant-maid.
+My own maid Maggie was quite awed at first.  We were as far as
+Cologne before she summoned up courage to order them about.  Whenever
+we stopped Rooke was on the platform with local officials, and kept
+the door of my carriage like a sentry on duty.
+
+At Fiume, when the train slowed down, I saw Rupert waiting on the
+platform.  He looked magnificent, towering over everybody there like
+a giant.  He is in perfect health, and seemed glad to see me.  He
+took me off at once on an automobile to a quay where an electric
+launch was waiting.  This took us on board a beautiful big steam-
+yacht, which was waiting with full steam up and--how he got there I
+don't know--Rooke waiting at the gangway.
+
+I had another suite all to myself.  Rupert and I had dinner together-
+-I think the finest dinner I ever sat down to.  This was very nice of
+Rupert, for it was all for me.  He himself only ate a piece of steak
+and drank a glass of water.  I went to bed early, for, despite the
+luxury of the journey, I was very tired.
+
+I awoke in the grey of the morning, and came on deck.  We were close
+to the coast.  Rupert was on the bridge with the Captain, and Rooke
+was acting as pilot.  When Rupert saw me, he ran down the ladder and
+took me up on the bridge.  He left me there while he ran down again
+and brought me up a lovely fur cloak which I had never seen.  He put
+it on me and kissed me.  He is the tenderest-hearted boy in the
+world, as well as the best and bravest!  He made me take his arm
+whilst he pointed out Vissarion, towards which we were steering.  It
+is the most lovely place I ever saw.  I won't stop to describe it
+now, for it will be better that you see it for yourself and enjoy it
+all fresh as I did.
+
+The Castle is an immense place.  You had better ship off, as soon as
+all is ready here and you can arrange it, the servants whom I
+engaged; and I am not sure that we shall not want as many more.
+There has hardly been a mop or broom on the place for centuries, and
+I doubt if it ever had a thorough good cleaning all over since it was
+built.  And, do you know, Uncle, that it might be well to double that
+little army of yours that you are arranging for Rupert?  Indeed, the
+boy told me himself that he was going to write to you about it.  I
+think old Lachlan and his wife, Sandy's Mary, had better be in charge
+of the maids when they come over.  A lot of lassies like yon will be
+iller to keep together than a flock of sheep.  So it will be wise to
+have authority over them, especially as none of them speaks a word of
+foreign tongues.  Rooke--you saw him at the station at Liverpool
+Street--will, if he be available, go over to bring the whole body
+here.  He has offered to do it if I should wish.  And, by the way, I
+think it will be well, when the time comes for their departure, if
+not only the lassies, but Lachlan and Sandy's Mary, too, will call
+him MISTER Rooke.  He is a very important person indeed here.  He is,
+in fact, a sort of Master of the Castle, and though he is very self-
+suppressing, is a man of rarely fine qualities.  Also it will be well
+to keep authority.  When your clansmen come over, he will have charge
+of them, too.  Dear me!  I find I have written such a long letter, I
+must stop and get to work.  I shall write again.
+
+Your very affectionate
+JANET.
+
+
+From the Same to the Same.
+March 3, 1907.
+
+DEAREST UNCLE,
+
+All goes well here, and as there is no news, I only write because you
+are a dear, and I want to thank you for all the trouble you have
+taken for me--and for Rupert.  I think we had better wait awhile
+before bringing out the servants.  Rooke is away on some business for
+Rupert, and will not be back for some time; Rupert thinks it may be a
+couple of months.  There is no one else that he could send to take
+charge of the party from home, and I don't like the idea of all those
+lassies coming out without an escort.  Even Lachlan and Sandy's Mary
+are ignorant of foreign languages and foreign ways.  But as soon as
+Rooke returns we can have them all out.  I dare say you will have
+some of your clansmen ready by then, and I think the poor girls, who
+may feel a bit strange in a new country like this, where the ways are
+so different from ours, will feel easier when they know that there
+are some of their own mankind near them.  Perhaps it might be well
+that those of them who are engaged to each other--I know there are
+some--should marry before they come out here.  It will be more
+convenient in many ways, and will save lodgment, and, besides, these
+Blue Mountaineers are very handsome men.  Good-night.
+
+JANET.
+
+
+Sir Colin MacKelpie, Croom, to Janet MacKelpie,
+Vissarion.
+March 9, 1907.
+
+MY DEAR JANET,
+
+I have duly received both your letters, and am delighted to find you
+are so well pleased with your new home.  It must certainly be a very
+lovely and unique place, and I am myself longing to see it.  I came
+up here three days ago, and am, as usual, feeling all the better for
+a breath of my native air.  Time goes on, my dear, and I am beginning
+to feel not so young as I was.  Tell Rupert that the men are all fit,
+and longing to get out to him.  They are certainly a fine lot of men.
+I don't think I ever saw a finer.  I have had them drilled and
+trained as soldiers, and, in addition, have had them taught a lot of
+trades just as they selected themselves.  So he shall have nigh him
+men who can turn their hands to anything--not, of course, that they
+all know every trade, but amongst them there is someone who can do
+whatever may be required.  There are blacksmiths, carpenters,
+farriers, saddle-makers, gardeners, plumbers, cutlers, gunsmiths, so,
+as they all are farmers by origin and sportsmen by practice, they
+will make a rare household body of men.  They are nearly all first-
+class shots, and I am having them practise with revolvers.  They are
+being taught fencing and broadsword and ju-jitsu; I have organized
+them in military form, with their own sergeants and corporals.  This
+morning I had an inspection, and I assure you, my dear, they could
+give points to the Household troop in matters of drill.  I tell you I
+am proud of my clansmen!
+
+I think you are quite wise about waiting to bring out the lassies,
+and wiser still about the marrying.  I dare say there will be more
+marrying when they all get settled in a foreign country.  I shall be
+glad of it, for as Rupert is going to settle there, it will be good
+for him to have round him a little colony of his own people.  And it
+will be good for them, too, for I know he will be good to them--as
+you will, my dear.  The hills are barren here, and life is hard, and
+each year there is more and more demand for crofts, and sooner or
+later our people must thin out.  And mayhap our little settlement of
+MacKelpie clan away beyond the frontiers of the Empire may be some
+service to the nation and the King.  But this is a dream!  I see that
+here I am beginning to realise in myself one part of Isaiah's
+prophecy:
+
+"Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream
+dreams."
+
+By the way, my dear, talking about dreams, I am sending you out some
+boxes of books which were in your rooms.  They are nearly all on odd
+subjects that WE understand--Second Sight, Ghosts, Dreams (that was
+what brought the matter to my mind just now), superstitions,
+Vampires, Wehr-Wolves, and all such uncanny folk and things.  I
+looked over some of these books, and found your marks and underlining
+and comments, so I fancy you will miss them in your new home.  You
+will, I am sure, feel more at ease with such old friends close to
+you.  I have taken the names and sent the list to London, so that
+when you pay me a visit again you will be at home in all ways.  If
+you come to me altogether, you will be more welcome still--if
+possible.  But I am sure that Rupert, who I know loves you very much,
+will try to make you so happy that you will not want to leave him.
+So I will have to come out often to see you both, even at the cost of
+leaving Croom for so long.  Strange, is it not? that now, when,
+through Roger Melton's more than kind remembrance of me, I am able to
+go where I will and do what I will, I want more and more to remain at
+home by my own ingle.  I don't think that anyone but you or Rupert
+could get me away from it.  I am working very hard at my little
+regiment, as I call it.  They are simply fine, and will, I am sure,
+do us credit.  The uniforms are all made, and well made, too.  There
+is not a man of them that does not look like an officer.  I tell you,
+Janet, that when we turn out the Vissarion Guard we shall feel proud
+of them.  I dare say that a couple of months will do all that can be
+done here.  I shall come out with them myself.  Rupert writes me that
+he thinks it will be more comfortable to come out direct in a ship of
+our own.  So when I go up to London in a few weeks' time I shall see
+about chartering a suitable vessel.  It will certainly save a lot of
+trouble to us and anxiety to our people.  Would it not be well when I
+am getting the ship, if I charter one big enough to take out all your
+lassies, too?  It is not as if they were strangers.  After all, my
+dear, soldiers are soldiers and lassies are lassies.  But these are
+all kinsfolk, as well as clansmen and clanswomen, and I, their Chief,
+shall be there.  Let me know your views and wishes in this respect.
+Mr. Trent, whom I saw before leaving London, asked me to "convey to
+you his most respectful remembrances"--these were his very words, and
+here they are.  Trent is a nice fellow, and I like him.  He has
+promised to pay me a visit here before the month is up, and I look
+forward to our both enjoying ourselves.
+
+Good-bye, my dear, and the Lord watch over you and our dear boy.
+
+Your affectionate Uncle,
+COLIN ALEXANDER MACKELPIE.
+
+
+
+BOOK III:  THE COMING OF THE LADY
+
+
+
+RUPERT SENT LEGER'S JOURNAL.
+
+April 3, 1907.
+
+I have waited till now--well into midday--before beginning to set
+down the details of the strange episode of last night.  I have spoken
+with persons whom I know to be of normal type.  I have breakfasted,
+as usual heartily, and have every reason to consider myself in
+perfect health and sanity.  So that the record following may be
+regarded as not only true in substance, but exact as to details.  I
+have investigated and reported on too many cases for the Psychical
+Research Society to be ignorant of the necessity for absolute
+accuracy in such matters of even the minutest detail.
+
+Yesterday was Tuesday, the second day of April, 1907.  I passed a day
+of interest, with its fair amount of work of varying kinds.  Aunt
+Janet and I lunched together, had a stroll round the gardens after
+tea--especially examining the site for the new Japanese garden, which
+we shall call "Janet's Garden."  We went in mackintoshes, for the
+rainy season is in its full, the only sign of its not being a
+repetition of the Deluge being that breaks in the continuance are
+beginning.  They are short at present but will doubtless enlarge
+themselves as the season comes towards an end.  We dined together at
+seven.  After dinner I had a cigar, and then joined Aunt Janet for an
+hour in her drawing-room.  I left her at half-past ten, when I went
+to my own room and wrote some letters.  At ten minutes past eleven I
+wound my watch, so I know the time accurately.  Having prepared for
+bed, I drew back the heavy curtain in front of my window, which opens
+on the marble steps into the Italian garden.  I had put out my light
+before drawing back the curtain, for I wanted to have a look at the
+scene before turning in.  Aunt Janet has always had an old-fashioned
+idea of the need (or propriety, I hardly know which) of keeping
+windows closed and curtains drawn.  I am gradually getting her to
+leave my room alone in this respect, but at present the change is in
+its fitful stage, and of course I must not hurry matters or be too
+persistent, as it would hurt her feelings.  This night was one of
+those under the old regime.  It was a delight to look out, for the
+scene was perfect of its own kind.  The long spell of rain--the
+ceaseless downpour which had for the time flooded everywhere--had
+passed, and water in abnormal places rather trickled than ran.  We
+were now beginning to be in the sloppy rather than the deluged stage.
+There was plenty of light to see by, for the moon had begun to show
+out fitfully through the masses of flying clouds.  The uncertain
+light made weird shadows with the shrubs and statues in the garden.
+The long straight walk which leads from the marble steps is strewn
+with fine sand white from the quartz strand in the nook to the south
+of the Castle.  Tall shrubs of white holly, yew, juniper, cypress,
+and variegated maple and spiraea, which stood at intervals along the
+walk and its branches, appeared ghost-like in the fitful moonlight.
+The many vases and statues and urns, always like phantoms in a half-
+light, were more than ever weird.  Last night the moonlight was
+unusually effective, and showed not only the gardens down to the
+defending wall, but the deep gloom of the great forest-trees beyond;
+and beyond that, again, to where the mountain chain began, the forest
+running up their silvered slopes flamelike in form, deviated here and
+there by great crags and the outcropping rocky sinews of the vast
+mountains.
+
+Whilst I was looking at this lovely prospect, I thought I saw
+something white flit, like a modified white flash, at odd moments
+from one to another of the shrubs or statues--anything which would
+afford cover from observation.  At first I was not sure whether I
+really saw anything or did not.  This was in itself a little
+disturbing to me, for I have been so long trained to minute
+observation of facts surrounding me, on which often depend not only
+my own life, but the lives of others, that I have become accustomed
+to trust my eyes; and anything creating the faintest doubt in this
+respect is a cause of more or less anxiety to me.  Now, however, that
+my attention was called to myself, I looked more keenly, and in a
+very short time was satisfied that something was moving--something
+clad in white.  It was natural enough that my thoughts should tend
+towards something uncanny--the belief that this place is haunted,
+conveyed in a thousand ways of speech and inference.  Aunt Janet's
+eerie beliefs, fortified by her books on occult subjects--and of
+late, in our isolation from the rest of the world, the subject of
+daily conversations--helped to this end.  No wonder, then, that,
+fully awake and with senses all on edge, I waited for some further
+manifestation from this ghostly visitor--as in my mind I took it to
+be.  It must surely be a ghost or spiritual manifestation of some
+kind which moved in this silent way.  In order to see and hear
+better, I softly moved back the folding grille, opened the French
+window, and stepped out, bare-footed and pyjama-clad as I was, on the
+marble terrace.  How cold the wet marble was!  How heavy smelled the
+rain-laden garden!  It was as though the night and the damp, and even
+the moonlight, were drawing the aroma from all the flowers that
+blossomed.  The whole night seemed to exhale heavy, half-intoxicating
+odours!  I stood at the head of the marble steps, and all immediately
+before me was ghostly in the extreme--the white marble terrace and
+steps, the white walks of quartz-sand glistening under the fitful
+moonlight; the shrubs of white or pale green or yellow,--all looking
+dim and ghostly in the glamorous light; the white statues and vases.
+And amongst them, still flitting noiselessly, that mysterious elusive
+figure which I could not say was based on fact or imagination.  I
+held my breath, listening intently for every sound; but sound there
+was none, save those of the night and its denizens.  Owls hooted in
+the forest; bats, taking advantage of the cessation of the rain,
+flitted about silently, like shadows in the air.  But there was no
+more sign of moving ghost or phantom, or whatever I had seen might
+have been--if, indeed, there had been anything except imagination.
+
+So, after waiting awhile, I returned to my room, closed the window,
+drew the grille across again, and dragged the heavy curtain before
+the opening; then, having extinguished my candles, went to bed in the
+dark.  In a few minutes I must have been asleep.
+
+"What was that?"  I almost heard the words of my own thought as I sat
+up in bed wide awake.  To memory rather than present hearing the
+disturbing sound had seemed like the faint tapping at the window.
+For some seconds I listened, mechanically but intently, with bated
+breath and that quick beating of the heart which in a timorous person
+speaks for fear, and for expectation in another.  In the stillness
+the sound came again--this time a very, very faint but unmistakable
+tapping at the glass door.
+
+I jumped up, drew back the curtain, and for a moment stood appalled.
+
+There, outside on the balcony, in the now brilliant moonlight, stood
+a woman, wrapped in white grave-clothes saturated with water, which
+dripped on the marble floor, making a pool which trickled slowly down
+the wet steps.  Attitude and dress and circumstance all conveyed the
+idea that, though she moved and spoke, she was not quick, but dead.
+She was young and very beautiful, but pale, like the grey pallor of
+death.  Through the still white of her face, which made her look as
+cold as the wet marble she stood on, her dark eyes seemed to gleam
+with a strange but enticing lustre.  Even in the unsearching
+moonlight, which is after all rather deceptive than illuminative, I
+could not but notice one rare quality of her eyes.  Each had some
+quality of refraction which made it look as though it contained a
+star.  At every movement she made, the stars exhibited new beauties,
+of more rare and radiant force.  She looked at me imploringly as the
+heavy curtain rolled back, and in eloquent gestures implored me to
+admit her.  Instinctively I obeyed; I rolled back the steel grille,
+and threw open the French window.  I noticed that she shivered and
+trembled as the glass door fell open.  Indeed, she seemed so overcome
+with cold as to seem almost unable to move.  In the sense of her
+helplessness all idea of the strangeness of the situation entirely
+disappeared.  It was not as if my first idea of death taken from her
+cerements was negatived.  It was simply that I did not think of it at
+all; I was content to accept things as they were--she was a woman,
+and in some dreadful trouble; that was enough.
+
+I am thus particular about my own emotions, as I may have to refer to
+them again in matters of comprehension or comparison.  The whole
+thing is so vastly strange and abnormal that the least thing may
+afterwards give some guiding light or clue to something otherwise not
+understandable.  I have always found that in recondite matters first
+impressions are of more real value than later conclusions.  We humans
+place far too little reliance on instinct as against reason; and yet
+instinct is the great gift of Nature to all animals for their
+protection and the fulfilment of their functions generally.
+
+When I stepped out on the balcony, not thinking of my costume, I
+found that the woman was benumbed and hardly able to move.  Even when
+I asked her to enter, and supplemented my words with gestures in case
+she should not understand my language, she stood stock-still, only
+rocking slightly to and fro as though she had just strength enough
+left to balance herself on her feet.  I was afraid, from the
+condition in which she was, that she might drop down dead at any
+moment.  So I took her by the hand to lead her in.  But she seemed
+too weak to even make the attempt.  When I pulled her slightly
+forward, thinking to help her, she tottered, and would have fallen
+had I not caught her in my arms.  Then, half lifting her, I moved her
+forwards.  Her feet, relieved of her weight, now seemed able to make
+the necessary effort; and so, I almost carrying her, we moved into
+the room.  She was at the very end of her strength; I had to lift her
+over the sill.  In obedience to her motion, I closed the French
+window and bolted it.  I supposed the warmth of the room--though
+cool, it was warmer than the damp air without--affected her quickly,
+for on the instant she seemed to begin to recover herself.  In a few
+seconds, as though she had reacquired her strength, she herself
+pulled the heavy curtain across the window.  This left us in
+darkness, through which I heard her say in English:
+
+"Light.  Get a light!"
+
+I found matches, and at once lit a candle.  As the wick flared, she
+moved over to the door of the room, and tried if the lock and bolt
+were fastened.  Satisfied as to this, she moved towards me, her wet
+shroud leaving a trail of moisture on the green carpet.  By this time
+the wax of the candle had melted sufficiently to let me see her
+clearly.  She was shaking and quivering as though in an ague; she
+drew the wet shroud around her piteously.  Instinctively I spoke:
+
+"Can I do anything for you?"
+
+She answered, still in English, and in a voice of thrilling, almost
+piercing sweetness, which seemed somehow to go straight to my heart,
+and affected me strangely:  "Give me warmth."
+
+I hurried to the fireplace.  It was empty; there was no fire laid.  I
+turned to her, and said:
+
+"Wait just a few minutes here.  I shall call someone, and get help--
+and fire."
+
+Her voice seemed to ring with intensity as she answered without a
+pause:
+
+"No, no!  Rather would I be"--here she hesitated for an instant, but
+as she caught sight of her cerements went on hurriedly--"as I am.  I
+trust you--not others; and you must not betray my trust."  Almost
+instantly she fell into a frightful fit of shivering, drawing again
+her death-clothes close to her, so piteously that it wrung my heart.
+I suppose I am a practical man.  At any rate, I am accustomed to
+action.  I took from its place beside my bed a thick Jaeger dressing-
+gown of dark brown--it was, of course, of extra length--and held it
+out to her as I said:
+
+"Put that on.  It is the only warm thing here which would be
+suitable.  Stay; you must remove that wet--wet"--I stumbled about for
+a word that would not be offensive--"that frock--dress--costume--
+whatever it is."  I pointed to where, in the corner of the room,
+stood a chintz-covered folding-screen which fences in my cold sponge
+bath, which is laid ready for me overnight, as I am an early riser.
+
+She bowed gravely, and taking the dressing-gown in a long, white,
+finely-shaped hand, bore it behind the screen.  There was a slight
+rustle, and then a hollow "flop" as the wet garment fell on the
+floor; more rustling and rubbing, and a minute later she emerged
+wrapped from head to foot in the long Jaeger garment, which trailed
+on the floor behind her, though she was a tall woman.  She was still
+shivering painfully, however.  I took a flask of brandy and a glass
+from a cupboard, and offered her some; but with a motion of her hand
+she refused it, though she moaned grievously.
+
+"Oh, I am so cold--so cold!"  Her teeth were chattering.  I was
+pained at her sad condition, and said despairingly, for I was at my
+wits' end to know what to do:
+
+"Tell me anything that I can do to help you, and I will do it.  I may
+not call help; there is no fire--nothing to make it with; you will
+not take some brandy.  What on earth can I do to give you warmth?"
+
+Her answer certainly surprised me when it came, though it was
+practical enough--so practical that I should not have dared to say
+it.  She looked me straight in the face for a few seconds before
+speaking.  Then, with an air of girlish innocence which disarmed
+suspicion and convinced me at once of her simple faith, she said in a
+voice that at once thrilled me and evoked all my pity:
+
+"Let me rest for a while, and cover me up with rugs.  That may give
+me warmth.  I am dying of cold.  And I have a deadly fear upon me--a
+deadly fear.  Sit by me, and let me hold your hand.  You are big and
+strong, and you look brave.  It will reassure me.  I am not myself a
+coward, but to-night fear has got me by the throat.  I can hardly
+breathe.  Do let me stay till I am warm.  If you only knew what I
+have gone through, and have to go through still, I am sure you would
+pity me and help me."
+
+To say that I was astonished would be a mild description of my
+feelings.  I was not shocked.  The life which I have led was not one
+which makes for prudery.  To travel in strange places amongst strange
+peoples with strange views of their own is to have odd experiences
+and peculiar adventures now and again; a man without human passions
+is not the type necessary for an adventurous life, such as I myself
+have had.  But even a man of passions and experiences can, when he
+respects a woman, be shocked--even prudish--where his own opinion of
+her is concerned.  Such must bring to her guarding any generosity
+which he has, and any self-restraint also.  Even should she place
+herself in a doubtful position, her honour calls to his honour.  This
+is a call which may not be--MUST not be--unanswered.  Even passion
+must pause for at least a while at sound of such a trumpet-call.
+
+This woman I did respect--much respect.  Her youth and beauty; her
+manifest ignorance of evil; her superb disdain of convention, which
+could only come through hereditary dignity; her terrible fear and
+suffering--for there must be more in her unhappy condition than meets
+the eye--would all demand respect, even if one did not hasten to
+yield it.  Nevertheless, I thought it necessary to enter a protest
+against her embarrassing suggestion.  I certainly did feel a fool
+when making it, also a cad.  I can truly say it was made only for her
+good, and out of the best of me, such as I am.  I felt impossibly
+awkward; and stuttered and stumbled before I spoke:
+
+"But surely--the convenances!  Your being here alone at night!  Mrs.
+Grundy--convention--the--"
+
+She interrupted me with an incomparable dignity--a dignity which had
+the effect of shutting me up like a clasp-knife and making me feel a
+decided inferior--and a poor show at that.  There was such a gracious
+simplicity and honesty in it, too, such self-respecting knowledge of
+herself and her position, that I could be neither angry nor hurt.  I
+could only feel ashamed of myself, and of my own littleness of mind
+and morals.  She seemed in her icy coldness--now spiritual as well as
+bodily--like an incarnate figure of Pride as she answered:
+
+"What are convenances or conventions to me!  If you only knew where I
+have come from--the existence (if it can be called so) which I have
+had--the loneliness--the horror!  And besides, it is for me to MAKE
+conventions, not to yield my personal freedom of action to them.
+Even as I am--even here and in this garb--I am above convention.
+Convenances do not trouble me or hamper me.  That, at least, I have
+won by what I have gone through, even if it had never come to me
+through any other way.  Let me stay."  She said the last words, in
+spite of all her pride, appealingly.  But still, there was a note of
+high pride in all this--in all she said and did, in her attitude and
+movement, in the tones of her voice, in the loftiness of her carriage
+and the steadfast look of her open, starlit eyes.  Altogether, there
+was something so rarely lofty in herself and all that clad her that,
+face to face with it and with her, my feeble attempt at moral
+precaution seemed puny, ridiculous, and out of place.  Without a word
+in the doing, I took from an old chiffonier chest an armful of
+blankets, several of which I threw over her as she lay, for in the
+meantime, having replaced the coverlet, she had lain down at length
+on the bed.  I took a chair, and sat down beside her.  When she
+stretched out her hand from beneath the pile of wraps, I took it in
+mine, saying:
+
+"Get warm and rest.  Sleep if you can.  You need not fear; I shall
+guard you with my life."
+
+She looked at me gratefully, her starry eyes taking a new light more
+full of illumination than was afforded by the wax candle, which was
+shaded from her by my body . . . She was horribly cold, and her teeth
+chattered so violently that I feared lest she should have incurred
+some dangerous evil from her wetting and the cold that followed it.
+I felt, however, so awkward that I could find no words to express my
+fears; moreover, I hardly dared say anything at all regarding herself
+after the haughty way in which she had received my well-meant
+protest.  Manifestly I was but to her as a sort of refuge and
+provider of heat, altogether impersonal, and not to be regarded in
+any degree as an individual.  In these humiliating circumstances what
+could I do but sit quiet--and wait developments?
+
+Little by little the fierce chattering of her teeth began to abate as
+the warmth of her surroundings stole through her.  I also felt, even
+in this strangely awakening position, the influence of the quiet; and
+sleep began to steal over me.  Several times I tried to fend it off,
+but, as I could not make any overt movement without alarming my
+strange and beautiful companion, I had to yield myself to drowsiness.
+I was still in such an overwhelming stupor of surprise that I could
+not even think freely.  There was nothing for me but to control
+myself and wait.  Before I could well fix my thoughts I was asleep.
+
+I was recalled to consciousness by hearing, even through the pall of
+sleep that bound me, the crowing of a cock in some of the out-offices
+of the castle.  At the same instant the figure, lying deathly still
+but for the gentle heaving of her bosom, began to struggle wildly.
+The sound had won through the gates of her sleep also.  With a swift,
+gliding motion she slipped from the bed to the floor, saying in a
+fierce whisper as she pulled herself up to her full height:
+
+"Let me out!  I must go!  I must go!"
+
+By this time I was fully awake, and the whole position of things came
+to me in an instant which I shall never--can never--forget:  the dim
+light of the candle, now nearly burned down to the socket, all the
+dimmer from the fact that the first grey gleam of morning was
+stealing in round the edges of the heavy curtain; the tall, slim
+figure in the brown dressing-gown whose over-length trailed on the
+floor, the black hair showing glossy in the light, and increasing by
+contrast the marble whiteness of the face, in which the black eyes
+sent through their stars fiery gleams.  She appeared quite in a
+frenzy of haste; her eagerness was simply irresistible.
+
+I was so stupefied with amazement, as well as with sleep, that I did
+not attempt to stop her, but began instinctively to help her by
+furthering her wishes.  As she ran behind the screen, and, as far as
+sound could inform me,--began frantically to disrobe herself of the
+warm dressing-gown and to don again the ice-cold wet shroud, I pulled
+back the curtain from the window, and drew the bolt of the glass
+door.  As I did so she was already behind me, shivering.  As I threw
+open the door she glided out with a swift silent movement, but
+trembling in an agonized way.  As she passed me, she murmured in a
+low voice, which was almost lost in the chattering of her teeth:
+
+"Oh, thank you--thank you a thousand times!  But I must go.  I MUST!
+I MUST!  I shall come again, and try to show my gratitude.  Do not
+condemn me as ungrateful--till then."  And she was gone.
+
+I watched her pass the length of the white path, flitting from shrub
+to shrub or statue as she had come.  In the cold grey light of the
+undeveloped dawn she seemed even more ghostly than she had done in
+the black shadow of the night.
+
+When she disappeared from sight in the shadow of the wood, I stood on
+the terrace for a long time watching, in case I should be afforded
+another glimpse of her, for there was now no doubt in my mind that
+she had for me some strange attraction.  I felt even then that the
+look in those glorious starry eyes would be with me always so long as
+I might live.  There was some fascination which went deeper than my
+eyes or my flesh or my heart--down deep into the very depths of my
+soul.  My mind was all in a whirl, so that I could hardly think
+coherently.  It all was like a dream; the reality seemed far away.
+It was not possible to doubt that the phantom figure which had been
+so close to me during the dark hours of the night was actual flesh
+and blood.  Yet she was so cold, so cold!  Altogether I could not fix
+my mind to either proposition:  that it was a living woman who had
+held my hand, or a dead body reanimated for the time or the occasion
+in some strange manner.
+
+The difficulty was too great for me to make up my mind upon it, even
+had I wanted to.  But, in any case, I did not want to.  This would,
+no doubt, come in time.  But till then I wished to dream on, as
+anyone does in a dream which can still be blissful though there be
+pauses of pain, or ghastliness, or doubt, or terror.
+
+So I closed the window and drew the curtain again, feeling for the
+first time the cold in which I had stood on the wet marble floor of
+the terrace when my bare feet began to get warm on the soft carpet.
+To get rid of the chill feeling I got into the bed on which SHE had
+lain, and as the warmth restored me tried to think coherently.  For a
+short while I was going over the facts of the night--or what seemed
+as facts to my remembrance.  But as I continued to think, the
+possibilities of any result seemed to get less, and I found myself
+vainly trying to reconcile with the logic of life the grim episode of
+the night.  The effort proved to be too much for such concentration
+as was left to me; moreover, interrupted sleep was clamant, and would
+not be denied.  What I dreamt of--if I dreamt at all--I know not.  I
+only know that I was ready for waking when the time came.  It came
+with a violent knocking at my door.  I sprang from bed, fully awake
+in a second, drew the bolt, and slipped back to bed.  With a hurried
+"May I come in?" Aunt Janet entered.  She seemed relieved when she
+saw me, and gave without my asking an explanation of her
+perturbation:
+
+"Oh, laddie, I hae been so uneasy aboot ye all the nicht.  I hae had
+dreams an' veesions an' a' sorts o' uncanny fancies.  I fear that--"
+She was by now drawing back the curtain, and as her eyes took in the
+marks of wet all over the floor the current of her thoughts changed:
+
+"Why, laddie, whativer hae ye been doin' wi' yer baith?  Oh, the mess
+ye hae made!  'Tis sinful to gie sic trouble an' waste . . . "  And
+so she went on.  I was glad to hear the tirade, which was only what a
+good housewife, outraged in her sentiments of order, would have made.
+I listened in patience--with pleasure when I thought of what she
+would have thought (and said) had she known the real facts.  I was
+well pleased to have got off so easily.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+April 10, 1907.
+
+For some days after what I call "the episode" I was in a strange
+condition of mind.  I did not take anyone--not even Aunt Janet--into
+confidence.  Even she dear, and open-hearted and liberal-minded as
+she is, might not have understood well enough to be just and
+tolerant; and I did not care to hear any adverse comment on my
+strange visitor.  Somehow I could not bear the thought of anyone
+finding fault with her or in her, though, strangely enough, I was
+eternally defending her to myself; for, despite my wishes,
+embarrassing thoughts WOULD come again and again, and again in all
+sorts and variants of queries difficult to answer.  I found myself
+defending her, sometimes as a woman hard pressed by spiritual fear
+and physical suffering, sometimes as not being amenable to laws that
+govern the Living.  Indeed, I could not make up my mind whether I
+looked on her as a living human being or as one with some strange
+existence in another world, and having only a chance foothold in our
+own.  In such doubt imagination began to work, and thoughts of evil,
+of danger, of doubt, even of fear, began to crowd on me with such
+persistence and in such varied forms that I found my instinct of
+reticence growing into a settled purpose.  The value of this
+instinctive precaution was promptly shown by Aunt Janet's state of
+mind, with consequent revelation of it.  She became full of gloomy
+prognostications and what I thought were morbid fears.  For the first
+time in my life I discovered that Aunt Janet had nerves!  I had long
+had a secret belief that she was gifted, to some degree at any rate,
+with Second Sight, which quality, or whatever it is, skilled in the
+powers if not the lore of superstition, manages to keep at stretch
+not only the mind of its immediate pathic, but of others relevant to
+it.  Perhaps this natural quality had received a fresh impetus from
+the arrival of some cases of her books sent on by Sir Colin.  She
+appeared to read and reread these works, which were chiefly on occult
+subjects, day and night, except when she was imparting to me choice
+excerpts of the most baleful and fearsome kind.  Indeed, before a
+week was over I found myself to be an expert in the history of the
+cult, as well as in its manifestations, which latter I had been
+versed in for a good many years.
+
+The result of all this was that it set me brooding.  Such, at least,
+I gathered was the fact when Aunt Janet took me to task for it.  She
+always speaks out according to her convictions, so that her thinking
+I brooded was to me a proof that I did; and after a personal
+examination I came--reluctantly--to the conclusion that she was
+right, so far, at any rate, as my outer conduct was concerned.  The
+state of mind I was in, however, kept me from making any
+acknowledgment of it--the real cause of my keeping so much to myself
+and of being so distrait.  And so I went on, torturing myself as
+before with introspective questioning; and she, with her mind set on
+my actions, and endeavouring to find a cause for them, continued and
+expounded her beliefs and fears.
+
+Her nightly chats with me when we were alone after dinner--for I had
+come to avoid her questioning at other times--kept my imagination at
+high pressure.  Despite myself, I could not but find new cause for
+concern in the perennial founts of her superstition.  I had thought,
+years ago, that I had then sounded the depths of this branch of
+psychicism; but this new phase of thought, founded on the really deep
+hold which the existence of my beautiful visitor and her sad and
+dreadful circumstances had taken upon me, brought me a new concern in
+the matter of self-importance.  I came to think that I must
+reconstruct my self-values, and begin a fresh understanding of
+ethical beliefs.  Do what I would, my mind would keep turning on the
+uncanny subjects brought before it.  I began to apply them one by one
+to my own late experience, and unconsciously to try to fit them in
+turn to the present case.
+
+The effect of this brooding was that I was, despite my own will,
+struck by the similarity of circumstances bearing on my visitor, and
+the conditions apportioned by tradition and superstition to such
+strange survivals from earlier ages as these partial existences which
+are rather Undead than Living--still walking the earth, though
+claimed by the world of the Dead.  Amongst them are the Vampire, or
+the Wehr-Wolf.  To this class also might belong in a measure the
+Doppelganger--one of whose dual existences commonly belongs to the
+actual world around it.  So, too, the denizens of the world of
+Astralism.  In any of these named worlds there is a material
+presence--which must be created, if only for a single or periodic
+purpose.  It matters not whether a material presence already created
+can be receptive of a disembodied soul, or a soul unattached can have
+a body built up for it or around it; or, again, whether the body of a
+dead person can be made seeming quick through some diabolic influence
+manifested in the present, or an inheritance or result of some
+baleful use of malefic power in the past.  The result is the same in
+each case, though the ways be widely different:  a soul and a body
+which are not in unity but brought together for strange purposes
+through stranger means and by powers still more strange.
+
+Through much thought and a process of exclusions the eerie form which
+seemed to be most in correspondence with my adventure, and most
+suitable to my fascinating visitor, appeared to be the Vampire.
+Doppelganger, Astral creations, and all such-like, did not comply
+with the conditions of my night experience.  The Wehr-Wolf is but a
+variant of the Vampire, and so needed not to be classed or examined
+at all.  Then it was that, thus focussed, the Lady of the Shroud (for
+so I came to hold her in my mind) began to assume a new force.  Aunt
+Janet's library afforded me clues which I followed with avidity.  In
+my secret heart I hated the quest, and did not wish to go on with it.
+But in this I was not my own master.  Do what I would--brush away
+doubts never so often, new doubts and imaginings came in their stead.
+The circumstance almost repeated the parable of the Seven Devils who
+took the place of the exorcised one.  Doubts I could stand.
+Imaginings I could stand.  But doubts and imaginings together made a
+force so fell that I was driven to accept any reading of the mystery
+which might presumably afford a foothold for satisfying thought.  And
+so I came to accept tentatively the Vampire theory--accept it, at
+least, so far as to examine it as judicially as was given me to do.
+As the days wore on, so the conviction grew.  The more I read on the
+subject, the more directly the evidences pointed towards this view.
+The more I thought, the more obstinate became the conviction.  I
+ransacked Aunt Janet's volumes again and again to find anything to
+the contrary; but in vain.  Again, no matter how obstinate were my
+convictions at any given time, unsettlement came with fresh thinking
+over the argument, so that I was kept in a harassing state of
+uncertainty.
+
+Briefly, the evidence in favour of accord between the facts of the
+case and the Vampire theory were:
+
+Her coming was at night--the time the Vampire is according to the
+theory, free to move at will.
+
+She wore her shroud--a necessity of coming fresh from grave or tomb;
+for there is nothing occult about clothing which is not subject to
+astral or other influences.
+
+She had to be helped into my room--in strict accordance with what one
+sceptical critic of occultism has called "the Vampire etiquette."
+
+She made violent haste in getting away at cock-crow.
+
+She seemed preternaturally cold; her sleep was almost abnormal in
+intensity, and yet the sound of the cock-crowing came through it.
+
+These things showed her to be subject to SOME laws, though not in
+exact accord within those which govern human beings.  Under the
+stress of such circumstances as she must have gone through, her
+vitality seemed more than human--the quality of vitality which could
+outlive ordinary burial.  Again, such purpose as she had shown in
+donning, under stress of some compelling direction, her ice-cold wet
+shroud, and, wrapt in it, going out again into the night, was hardly
+normal for a woman.
+
+But if so, and if she was indeed a Vampire, might not whatever it may
+be that holds such beings in thrall be by some means or other
+exorcised?  To find the means must be my next task.  I am actually
+pining to see her again.  Never before have I been stirred to my
+depths by anyone.  Come it from Heaven or Hell, from the Earth or the
+Grave, it does not matter; I shall make it my task to win her back to
+life and peace.  If she be indeed a Vampire, the task may be hard and
+long; if she be not so, and if it be merely that circumstances have
+so gathered round her as to produce that impression, the task may be
+simpler and the result more sweet.  No, not more sweet; for what can
+be more sweet than to restore the lost or seemingly lost soul of the
+woman you love!  There, the truth is out at last!  I suppose that I
+have fallen in love with her.  If so, it is too late for me to fight
+against it.  I can only wait with what patience I can till I see her
+again.  But to that end I can do nothing.  I know absolutely nothing
+about her--not even her name.  Patience!
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+April 16, 1907.
+
+The only relief I have had from the haunting anxiety regarding the
+Lady of the Shroud has been in the troubled state of my adopted
+country.  There has evidently been something up which I have not been
+allowed to know.  The mountaineers are troubled and restless; are
+wandering about, singly and in parties, and holding meetings in
+strange places.  This is what I gather used to be in old days when
+intrigues were on foot with Turks, Greeks, Austrians, Italians,
+Russians.  This concerns me vitally, for my mind has long been made
+up to share the fortunes of the Land of the Blue Mountains.  For good
+or ill I mean to stay here:  J'y suis, j'y reste.  I share henceforth
+the lot of the Blue Mountaineers; and not Turkey, nor Greece, nor
+Austria, nor Italy, nor Russia--no, not France nor Germany either;
+not man nor God nor Devil shall drive me from my purpose.  With these
+patriots I throw in my lot!  My only difficulty seemed at first to be
+with the men themselves.  They are so proud that at the beginning I
+feared they would not even accord me the honour of being one of them!
+However, things always move on somehow, no matter what difficulties
+there be at the beginning.  Never mind!  When one looks back at an
+accomplished fact the beginning is not to be seen--and if it were it
+would not matter.  It is not of any account, anyhow.
+
+I heard that there was going to be a great meeting near here
+yesterday afternoon, and I attended it.  I think it was a success.
+If such is any proof, I felt elated as well as satisfied when I came
+away.  Aunt Janet's Second Sight on the subject was comforting,
+though grim, and in a measure disconcerting.  When I was saying good-
+night she asked me to bend down my head.  As I did so, she laid her
+hands on it and passed them all over it.  I heard her say to herself:
+
+"Strange!  There's nothing there; yet I could have sworn I saw it!"
+I asked her to explain, but she would not.  For once she was a little
+obstinate, and refused point blank to even talk of the subject.  She
+was not worried nor unhappy; so I had no cause for concern.  I said
+nothing, but I shall wait and see.  Most mysteries become plain or
+disappear altogether in time.  But about the meeting--lest I forget!
+
+When I joined the mountaineers who had assembled, I really think they
+were glad to see me; though some of them seemed adverse, and others
+did not seem over well satisfied.  However, absolute unity is very
+seldom to be found.  Indeed, it is almost impossible; and in a free
+community is not altogether to be desired.  When it is apparent, the
+gathering lacks that sense of individual feeling which makes for the
+real consensus of opinion--which is the real unity of purpose.  The
+meeting was at first, therefore, a little cold and distant.  But
+presently it began to thaw, and after some fiery harangues I was
+asked to speak.  Happily, I had begun to learn the Balkan language as
+soon as ever Uncle Roger's wishes had been made known to me, and as I
+have some facility of tongues and a great deal of experience, I soon
+began to know something of it.  Indeed, when I had been here a few
+weeks, with opportunity of speaking daily with the people themselves,
+and learned to understand the intonations and vocal inflexions, I
+felt quite easy in speaking it.  I understood every word which had up
+to then been spoken at the meeting, and when I spoke myself I felt
+that they understood.  That is an experience which every speaker has
+in a certain way and up to a certain point.  He knows by some kind of
+instinct if his hearers are with him; if they respond, they must
+certainly have understood.  Last night this was marked.  I felt it
+every instant I was talking and when I came to realize that the men
+were in strict accord with my general views, I took them into
+confidence with regard to my own personal purpose.  It was the
+beginning of a mutual trust; so for peroration I told them that I had
+come to the conclusion that what they wanted most for their own
+protection and the security and consolidation of their nation was
+arms--arms of the very latest pattern.  Here they interrupted me with
+wild cheers, which so strung me up that I went farther than I
+intended, and made a daring venture.  "Ay," I repeated, "the security
+and consolidation of your country--of OUR country, for I have come to
+live amongst you.  Here is my home whilst I live.  I am with you
+heart and soul.  I shall live with you, fight shoulder to shoulder
+with you, and, if need be, shall die with you!"  Here the shouting
+was terrific, and the younger men raised their guns to fire a salute
+in Blue Mountain fashion.  But on the instant the Vladika {1} held up
+his hands and motioned them to desist.  In the immediate silence he
+spoke, sharply at first, but later ascending to a high pitch of
+single-minded, lofty eloquence.  His words rang in my ears long after
+the meeting was over and other thoughts had come between them and the
+present.
+
+"Silence!" he thundered.  "Make no echoes in the forest or through
+the hills at this dire time of stress and threatened danger to our
+land.  Bethink ye of this meeting, held here and in secret, in order
+that no whisper of it may be heard afar.  Have ye all, brave men of
+the Blue Mountains, come hither through the forest like shadows that
+some of you, thoughtless, may enlighten your enemies as to our secret
+purpose?  The thunder of your guns would doubtless sound well in the
+ears of those who wish us ill and try to work us wrong.  Fellow-
+countrymen, know ye not that the Turk is awake once more for our
+harming?  The Bureau of Spies has risen from the torpor which came on
+it when the purpose against our Teuta roused our mountains to such
+anger that the frontiers blazed with passion, and were swept with
+fire and sword.  Moreover, there is a traitor somewhere in the land,
+or else incautious carelessness has served the same base purpose.
+Something of our needs--our doing, whose secret we have tried to
+hide, has gone out.  The myrmidons of the Turk are close on our
+borders, and it may be that some of them have passed our guards and
+are amidst us unknown.  So it behoves us doubly to be discreet.
+Believe me that I share with you, my brothers, our love for the
+gallant Englishman who has come amongst us to share our sorrows and
+ambitions--and I trust it may be our joys.  We are all united in the
+wish to do him honour--though not in the way by which danger might be
+carried on the wings of love.  My brothers, our newest brother comes
+to us from the Great Nation which amongst the nations has been our
+only friend, and which has ere now helped us in our direst need--that
+mighty Britain whose hand has ever been raised in the cause of
+freedom.  We of the Blue Mountains know her best as she stands with
+sword in hand face to face with our foes.  And this, her son and now
+our brother, brings further to our need the hand of a giant and the
+heart of a lion.  Later on, when danger does not ring us round, when
+silence is no longer our outer guard; we shall bid him welcome in
+true fashion of our land.  But till then he will believe--for he is
+great-hearted--that our love and thanks and welcome are not to be
+measured by sound.  When the time comes, then shall be sound in his
+honour--not of rifles alone, but bells and cannon and the mighty
+voice of a free people shouting as one.  But now we must be wise and
+silent, for the Turk is once again at our gates.  Alas! the cause of
+his former coming may not be, for she whose beauty and nobility and
+whose place in our nation and in our hearts tempted him to fraud and
+violence is not with us to share even our anxiety."
+
+Here his voice broke, and there arose from all a deep wailing sound,
+which rose and rose till the woods around us seemed broken by a
+mighty and long-sustained sob.  The orator saw that his purpose was
+accomplished, and with a short sentence finished his harangue:  "But
+the need of our nation still remains!"  Then, with an eloquent
+gesture to me to proceed, he merged in the crowd and disappeared.
+
+How could I even attempt to follow such a speaker with any hope of
+success?  I simply told them what I had already done in the way of
+help, saying:
+
+"As you needed arms, I have got them.  My agent sends me word through
+the code between us that he has procured for me--for us--fifty
+thousand of the newest-pattern rifles, the French Ingis-Malbron,
+which has surpassed all others, and sufficient ammunition to last for
+a year of war.  The first section is in hand, and will soon be ready
+for consignment.  There are other war materials, too, which, when
+they arrive, will enable every man and woman--even the children--of
+our land to take a part in its defence should such be needed.  My
+brothers, I am with you in all things, for good or ill!"
+
+It made me very proud to hear the mighty shout which arose.  I had
+felt exalted before, but now this personal development almost
+unmanned me.  I was glad of the long-sustained applause to recover my
+self-control.
+
+I was quite satisfied that the meeting did not want to hear any other
+speaker, for they began to melt away without any formal notification
+having been given.  I doubt if there will be another meeting soon
+again.  The weather has begun to break, and we are in for another
+spell of rain.  It is disagreeable, of course; but it has its own
+charm.  It was during a spell of wet weather that the Lady of the
+Shroud came to me.  Perhaps the rain may bring her again.  I hope so,
+with all my soul.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+April 23, 1907.
+
+The rain has continued for four whole days and nights, and the low-
+lying ground is like a quagmire in places.  In the sunlight the whole
+mountains glisten with running streams and falling water.  I feel a
+strange kind of elation, but from no visible cause.  Aunt Janet
+rather queered it by telling me, as she said good-night, to be very
+careful of myself, as she had seen in a dream last night a figure in
+a shroud.  I fear she was not pleased that I did not take it with all
+the seriousness that she did.  I would not wound her for the world if
+I could help it, but the idea of a shroud gets too near the bone to
+be safe, and I had to fend her off at all hazards.  So when I doubted
+if the Fates regarded the visionary shroud as of necessity
+appertaining to me, she said, in a way that was, for her, almost
+sharp:
+
+"Take care, laddie.  'Tis ill jesting wi' the powers o' time
+Unknown."
+
+Perhaps it was that her talk put the subject in my mind.  The woman
+needed no such aid; she was always there; but when I locked myself
+into my room that night, I half expected to find her in the room.  I
+was not sleepy, so I took a book of Aunt Janet's and began to read.
+The title was "On the Powers and Qualities of Disembodied Spirits."
+"Your grammar," said I to the author, "is hardly attractive, but I
+may learn something which might apply to her.  I shall read your
+book."  Before settling down to it, however, I thought I would have a
+look at the garden.  Since the night of the visit the garden seemed
+to have a new attractiveness for me:  a night seldom passed without
+my having a last look at it before turning in.  So I drew the great
+curtain and looked out.
+
+The scene was beautiful, but almost entirely desolate.  All was
+ghastly in the raw, hard gleams of moonlight coming fitfully through
+the masses of flying cloud.  The wind was rising, and the air was
+damp and cold.  I looked round the room instinctively, and noticed
+that the fire was laid ready for lighting, and that there were small-
+cut logs of wood piled beside the hearth.  Ever since that night I
+have had a fire laid ready.  I was tempted to light it, but as I
+never have a fire unless I sleep in the open, I hesitated to begin.
+I went back to the window, and, opening the catch, stepped out on the
+terrace.  As I looked down the white walk and let my eyes range over
+the expanse of the garden, where everything glistened as the
+moonlight caught the wet, I half expected to see some white figure
+flitting amongst the shrubs and statues.  The whole scene of the
+former visit came back to me so vividly that I could hardly believe
+that any time had passed since then.  It was the same scene, and
+again late in the evening.  Life in Vissarion was primitive, and
+early hours prevailed--though not so late as on that night.
+
+As I looked I thought I caught a glimpse of something white far away.
+It was only a ray of moonlight coming through the rugged edge of a
+cloud.  But all the same it set me in a strange state of
+perturbation.  Somehow I seemed to lose sight of my own identity.  It
+was as though I was hypnotized by the situation or by memory, or
+perhaps by some occult force.  Without thinking of what I was doing,
+or being conscious of any reason for it, I crossed the room and set
+light to the fire.  Then I blew out the candle and came to the window
+again.  I never thought it might be a foolish thing to do--to stand
+at a window with a light behind me in this country, where every man
+carries a gun with him always.  I was in my evening clothes, too,
+with my breast well marked by a white shirt.  I opened the window and
+stepped out on the terrace.  There I stood for many minutes,
+thinking.  All the time my eyes kept ranging over the garden.  Once I
+thought I saw a white figure moving, but it was not followed up, so,
+becoming conscious that it was again beginning to rain, I stepped
+back into the room, shut the window, and drew the curtain.  Then I
+realized the comforting appearance of the fire, and went over and
+stood before it.
+
+Hark!  Once more there was a gentle tapping at the window.  I rushed
+over to it and drew the curtain.
+
+There, out on the rain-beaten terrace, stood the white shrouded
+figure, more desolate-appearing than ever.  Ghastly pale she looked,
+as before, but her eyes had an eager look which was new.  I took it
+that she was attracted by the fire, which was by now well ablaze, and
+was throwing up jets of flame as the dry logs crackled.  The leaping
+flames threw fitful light across the room, and every gleam threw the
+white-clad figure into prominence, showing the gleam of the black
+eyes, and fixing the stars that lay in them.
+
+Without a word I threw open the window, and, taking the white hand
+extended to me, drew into the room the Lady of the Shroud.
+
+As she entered and felt the warmth of the blazing fire, a glad look
+spread over her face.  She made a movement as if to run to it.  But
+she drew back an instant after, looking round with instinctive
+caution.  She closed the window and bolted it, touched the lever
+which spread the grille across the opening, and pulled close the
+curtain behind it.  Then she went swiftly to the door and tried if it
+was locked.  Satisfied as to this, she came quickly over to the fire,
+and, kneeling before it, stretched out her numbed hands to the blaze.
+Almost on the instant her wet shroud began to steam.  I stood
+wondering.  The precautions of secrecy in the midst of her suffering-
+-for that she did suffer was only too painfully manifest--must have
+presupposed some danger.  Then and there my mind was made up that
+there should no harm assail her that I by any means could fend off.
+Still, the present must be attended to; pneumonia and other ills
+stalked behind such a chill as must infallibly come on her unless
+precautions were taken.  I took again the dressing-gown which she had
+worn before and handed it to her, motioning as I did so towards the
+screen which had made a dressing-room for her on the former occasion.
+To my surprise she hesitated.  I waited.  She waited, too, and then
+laid down the dressing-gown on the edge of the stone fender.  So I
+spoke:
+
+"Won't you change as you did before?  Your--your frock can then be
+dried.  Do!  It will be so much safer for you to be dry clad when you
+resume your own dress."
+
+"How can I whilst you are here?"
+
+Her words made me stare, so different were they from her acts of the
+other visit.  I simply bowed--speech on such a subject would be at
+least inadequate--and walked over to the window.  Passing behind the
+curtain, I opened the window.  Before stepping out on to the terrace,
+I looked into the room and said:
+
+"Take your own time.  There is no hurry.  I dare say you will find
+there all you may want.  I shall remain on the terrace until you
+summon me."  With that I went out on the terrace, drawing close the
+glass door behind me.
+
+I stood looking out on the dreary scene for what seemed a very short
+time, my mind in a whirl.  There came a rustle from within, and I saw
+a dark brown figure steal round the edge of the curtain.  A white
+hand was raised, and beckoned me to come in.  I entered, bolting the
+window behind me.  She had passed across the room, and was again
+kneeling before the fire with her hands outstretched.  The shroud was
+laid in partially opened folds on one side of the hearth, and was
+steaming heavily.  I brought over some cushions and pillows, and made
+a little pile of them beside her.
+
+"Sit there," I said, "and rest quietly in the heat."  It may have
+been the effect of the glowing heat, but there was a rich colour in
+her face as she looked at me with shining eyes.  Without a word, but
+with a courteous little bow, she sat down at once.  I put a thick rug
+across her shoulders, and sat down myself on a stool a couple of feet
+away.
+
+For fully five or six minutes we sat in silence.  At last, turning
+her head towards me she said in a sweet, low voice:
+
+"I had intended coming earlier on purpose to thank you for your very
+sweet and gracious courtesy to me, but circumstances were such that I
+could not leave my--my"--she hesitated before saying--"my abode.  I
+am not free, as you and others are, to do what I will.  My existence
+is sadly cold and stern, and full of horrors that appal.  But I DO
+thank you.  For myself I am not sorry for the delay, for every hour
+shows me more clearly how good and understanding and sympathetic you
+have been to me.  I only hope that some day you may realize how kind
+you have been, and how much I appreciate it."
+
+"I am only too glad to be of any service," I said, feebly I felt, as
+I held out my hand.  She did not seem to see it.  Her eyes were now
+on the fire, and a warm blush dyed forehead and cheek and neck.  The
+reproof was so gentle that no one could have been offended.  It was
+evident that she was something coy and reticent, and would not allow
+me to come at present more close to her, even to the touching of her
+hand.  But that her heart was not in the denial was also evident in
+the glance from her glorious dark starry eyes.  These glances--
+veritable lightning flashes coming through her pronounced reserve--
+finished entirely any wavering there might be in my own purpose.  I
+was aware now to the full that my heart was quite subjugated.  I knew
+that I was in love--veritably so much in love as to feel that without
+this woman, be she what she might, by my side my future must be
+absolutely barren.
+
+It was presently apparent that she did not mean to stay as long on
+this occasion as on the last.  When the castle clock struck midnight
+she suddenly sprang to her feet with a bound, saying:
+
+"I must go!  There is midnight!"  I rose at once, the intensity of
+her speech having instantly obliterated the sleep which, under the
+influence of rest and warmth, was creeping upon me.  Once more she
+was in a frenzy of haste, so I hurried towards the window, but as I
+looked back saw her, despite her haste, still standing.  I motioned
+towards the screen, and slipping behind the curtain, opened the
+window and went out on the terrace.  As I was disappearing behind the
+curtain I saw her with the tail of my eye lifting the shroud, now
+dry, from the hearth.
+
+She was out through the window in an incredibly short time, now
+clothed once more in that dreadful wrapping.  As she sped past me
+barefooted on the wet, chilly marble which made her shudder, she
+whispered:
+
+"Thank you again.  You ARE good to me.  You can understand."
+
+Once again I stood on the terrace, saw her melt like a shadow down
+the steps, and disappear behind the nearest shrub.  Thence she
+flitted away from point to point with exceeding haste.  The moonlight
+had now disappeared behind heavy banks of cloud, so there was little
+light to see by.  I could just distinguish a pale gleam here and
+there as she wended her secret way.
+
+For a long time I stood there alone thinking, as I watched the course
+she had taken, and wondering where might be her ultimate destination.
+As she had spoken of her "abode," I knew there was some definitive
+objective of her flight.
+
+It was no use wondering.  I was so entirely ignorant of her
+surroundings that I had not even a starting-place for speculation.
+So I went in, leaving the window open.  It seemed that this being so
+made one barrier the less between us.  I gathered the cushions and
+rugs from before the fire, which was no longer leaping, but burning
+with a steady glow, and put them back in their places.  Aunt Janet
+might come in the morning, as she had done before, and I did not wish
+to set her thinking.  She is much too clever a person to have
+treading on the heels of a mystery--especially one in which my own
+affections are engaged.  I wonder what she would have said had she
+seen me kiss the cushion on which my beautiful guest's head had
+rested?
+
+When I was in bed, and in the dark save for the fading glow of the
+fire, my thoughts became fixed that whether she came from Earth or
+Heaven or Hell, my lovely visitor was already more to me than aught
+else in the world.  This time she had, on going, said no word of
+returning.  I had been so much taken up with her presence, and so
+upset by her abrupt departure, that I had omitted to ask her.  And so
+I am driven, as before, to accept the chance of her returning--a
+chance which I fear I am or may be unable to control.
+
+Surely enough Aunt Janet did come in the morning, early.  I was still
+asleep when she knocked at my door.  With that purely physical
+subconsciousness which comes with habit I must have realized the
+cause of the sound, for I woke fully conscious of the fact that Aunt
+Janet had knocked and was waiting to come in.  I jumped from bed, and
+back again when I had unlocked the door.  When Aunt Janet came in she
+noticed the cold of the room.
+
+"Save us, laddie, but ye'll get your death o' cold in this room."
+Then, as she looked round and noticed the ashes of the extinct fire
+in the grate:
+
+"Eh, but ye're no that daft after a'; ye've had the sense to light
+yer fire.  Glad I am that we had the fire laid and a wheen o' dry
+logs ready to yer hand."  She evidently felt the cold air coming from
+the window, for she went over and drew the curtain.  When she saw the
+open window, she raised her hands in a sort of dismay, which to me,
+knowing how little base for concern could be within her knowledge,
+was comic.  Hurriedly she shut the window, and then, coming close
+over to my bed, said:
+
+"Yon has been a fearsome nicht again, laddie, for yer poor auld
+aunty."
+
+"Dreaming again, Aunt Janet?" I asked--rather flippantly as it seemed
+to me.  She shook her head:
+
+"Not so, Rupert, unless it be that the Lord gies us in dreams what we
+in our spiritual darkness think are veesions."  I roused up at this.
+When Aunt Janet calls me Rupert, as she always used to do in my dear
+mother's time, things are serious with her.  As I was back in
+childhood now, recalled by her word, I thought the best thing I could
+do to cheer her would be to bring her back there too--if I could.  So
+I patted the edge of the bed as I used to do when I was a wee kiddie
+and wanted her to comfort me, and said:
+
+"Sit down, Aunt Janet, and tell me."  She yielded at once, and the
+look of the happy old days grew over her face as though there had
+come a gleam of sunshine.  She sat down, and I put out my hands as I
+used to do, and took her hand between them.  There was a tear in her
+eye as she raised my hand and kissed it as in old times.  But for the
+infinite pathos of it, it would have been comic:
+
+Aunt Janet, old and grey-haired, but still retaining her girlish
+slimness of figure, petite, dainty as a Dresden figure, her face
+lined with the care of years, but softened and ennobled by the
+unselfishness of those years, holding up my big hand, which would
+outweigh her whole arm; sitting dainty as a pretty old fairy beside a
+recumbent giant--for my bulk never seems so great as when I am near
+this real little good fairy of my life--seven feet beside four feet
+seven.
+
+So she began as of old, as though she were about to soothe a
+frightened child with a fairy tale:
+
+"'Twas a veesion, I think, though a dream it may hae been.  But
+whichever or whatever it was, it concerned my little boy, who has
+grown to be a big giant, so much that I woke all of a tremble.
+Laddie dear, I thought that I saw ye being married."  This gave me an
+opening, though a small one, for comforting her, so I took it at
+once:
+
+"Why, dear, there isn't anything to alarm you in that, is there?  It
+was only the other day when you spoke to me about the need of my
+getting married, if it was only that you might have children of your
+boy playing around your knees as their father used to do when he was
+a helpless wee child himself."
+
+"That is so, laddie," she answered gravely.  "But your weddin' was
+none so merry as I fain would see.  True, you seemed to lo'e her wi'
+all yer hairt.  Yer eyes shone that bright that ye might ha' set her
+afire, for all her black locks and her winsome face.  But, laddie,
+that was not all--no, not though her black een, that had the licht o'
+all the stars o' nicht in them, shone in yours as though a hairt o'
+love an' passion, too, dwelt in them.  I saw ye join hands, an' heard
+a strange voice that talked stranger still, but I saw none ither.
+Your eyes an' her eyes, an' your hand an' hers, were all I saw.  For
+all else was dim, and the darkness was close around ye twa.  And when
+the benison was spoken--I knew that by the voices that sang, and by
+the gladness of her een, as well as by the pride and glory of yours--
+the licht began to glow a wee more, an' I could see yer bride.  She
+was in a veil o' wondrous fine lace.  And there were orange-flowers
+in her hair, though there were twigs, too, and there was a crown o'
+flowers on head wi' a golden band round it.  And the heathen candles
+that stood on the table wi' the Book had some strange effect, for the
+reflex o' it hung in the air o'er her head like the shadow of a
+crown.  There was a gold ring on her finger and a silver one on
+yours."  Here she paused and trembled, so that, hoping to dispel her
+fears, I said, as like as I could to the way I used to when I was a
+child:
+
+"Go on, Aunt Janet."
+
+She did not seem to recognize consciously the likeness between past
+and present; but the effect was there, for she went on more like her
+old self, though there was a prophetic gravity in her voice, more
+marked than I had ever heard from her:
+
+"All this I've told ye was well; but, oh, laddie, there was a
+dreadful lack o' livin' joy such as I should expect from the woman
+whom my boy had chosen for his wife--and at the marriage coupling,
+too!  And no wonder, when all is said; for though the marriage veil
+o' love was fine, an' the garland o' flowers was fresh-gathered,
+underneath them a' was nane ither than a ghastly shroud.  As I looked
+in my veesion--or maybe dream--I expectit to see the worms crawl
+round the flagstane at her feet.  If 'twas not Death, laddie dear,
+that stood by ye, it was the shadow o' Death that made the darkness
+round ye, that neither the light o' candles nor the smoke o' heathen
+incense could pierce.  Oh, laddie, laddie, wae is me that I hae seen
+sic a veesion--waking or sleeping, it matters not!  I was sair
+distressed--so sair that I woke wi' a shriek on my lips and bathed in
+cold sweat.  I would hae come doon to ye to see if you were hearty or
+no--or even to listen at your door for any sound o' yer being quick,
+but that I feared to alarm ye till morn should come.  I've counted
+the hours and the minutes since midnight, when I saw the veesion,
+till I came hither just the now."
+
+"Quite right, Aunt Janet," I said, "and I thank you for your kind
+thought for me in the matter, now and always."  Then I went on, for I
+wanted to take precautions against the possibility of her discovery
+of my secret.  I could not bear to think that she might run my
+precious secret to earth in any well-meant piece of bungling.  That
+would be to me disaster unbearable.  She might frighten away
+altogether my beautiful visitor, even whose name or origin I did not
+know, and I might never see her again:
+
+"You must never do that, Aunt Janet.  You and I are too good friends
+to have sense of distrust or annoyance come between us--which would
+surely happen if I had to keep thinking that you or anyone else might
+be watching me."
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+April 27, 1907.
+
+After a spell of loneliness which has seemed endless I have something
+to write.  When the void in my heart was becoming the receptacle for
+many devils of suspicion and distrust I set myself a task which
+might, I thought, keep my thoughts in part, at any rate, occupied--to
+explore minutely the neighbourhood round the Castle.  This might, I
+hoped, serve as an anodyne to my pain of loneliness, which grew more
+acute as the days, the hours, wore on, even if it should not
+ultimately afford me some clue to the whereabouts of the woman whom I
+had now grown to love so madly.
+
+My exploration soon took a systematic form, as I intended that it
+should be exhaustive.  I would take every day a separate line of
+advance from the Castle, beginning at the south and working round by
+the east to the north.  The first day only took me to the edge of the
+creek, which I crossed in a boat, and landed at the base of the cliff
+opposite.  I found the cliffs alone worth a visit.  Here and there
+were openings to caves which I made up my mind to explore later.  I
+managed to climb up the cliff at a spot less beetling than the rest,
+and continued my journey.  It was, though very beautiful, not a
+specially interesting place.  I explored that spoke of the wheel of
+which Vissarion was the hub, and got back just in time for dinner.
+
+The next day I took a course slightly more to the eastward.  I had no
+difficulty in keeping a straight path, for, once I had rowed across
+the creek, the old church of St. Sava rose before me in stately
+gloom.  This was the spot where many generations of the noblest of
+the Land of the Blue Mountains had from time immemorial been laid to
+rest, amongst them the Vissarions.  Again, I found the opposite
+cliffs pierced here and there with caves, some with wide openings,--
+others the openings of which were partly above and partly below
+water.  I could, however, find no means of climbing the cliff at this
+part, and had to make a long detour, following up the line of the
+creek till further on I found a piece of beach from which ascent was
+possible.  Here I ascended, and found that I was on a line between
+the Castle and the southern side of the mountains.  I saw the church
+of St. Sava away to my right, and not far from the edge of the cliff.
+I made my way to it at once, for as yet I had never been near it.
+Hitherto my excursions had been limited to the Castle and its many
+gardens and surroundings.  It was of a style with which I was not
+familiar--with four wings to the points of the compass.  The great
+doorway, set in a magnificent frontage of carved stone of manifestly
+ancient date, faced west, so that, when one entered, he went east.
+To my surprise--for somehow I expected the contrary--I found the door
+open.  Not wide open, but what is called ajar--manifestly not locked
+or barred, but not sufficiently open for one to look in.  I entered,
+and after passing through a wide vestibule, more like a section of a
+corridor than an ostensible entrance, made my way through a spacious
+doorway into the body of the church.  The church itself was almost
+circular, the openings of the four naves being spacious enough to
+give the appearance of the interior as a whole, being a huge cross.
+It was strangely dim, for the window openings were small and high-
+set, and were, moreover, filled with green or blue glass, each window
+having a colour to itself.  The glass was very old, being of the
+thirteenth or fourteenth century.  Such appointments as there were--
+for it had a general air of desolation--were of great beauty and
+richness,--especially so to be in a place--even a church--where the
+door lay open, and no one was to be seen.  It was strangely silent
+even for an old church on a lonesome headland.  There reigned a
+dismal solemnity which seemed to chill me, accustomed as I have been
+to strange and weird places.  It seemed abandoned, though it had not
+that air of having been neglected which is so often to be noticed in
+old 'churches.  There was none of the everlasting accumulation of
+dust which prevails in places of higher cultivation and larger and
+more strenuous work.
+
+In the church itself or its appending chambers I could find no clue
+or suggestion which could guide me in any way in my search for the
+Lady of the Shroud.  Monuments there were in profusion--statues,
+tablets, and all the customary memorials of the dead.  The families
+and dates represented were simply bewildering.  Often the name of
+Vissarion was given, and the inscription which it held I read through
+carefully, looking to find some enlightenment of any kind.  But all
+in vain:  there was nothing to see in the church itself.  So I
+determined to visit the crypt.  I had no lantern or candle with me,
+so had to go back to the Castle to secure one.
+
+It was strange, coming in from the sunlight, here overwhelming to one
+so recently accustomed to northern skies, to note the slender gleam
+of the lantern which I carried, and which I had lit inside the door.
+At my first entry to the church my mind had been so much taken up
+with the strangeness of the place, together with the intensity of
+wish for some sort of clue, that I had really no opportunity of
+examining detail.  But now detail became necessary, as I had to find
+the entrance to the crypt.  My puny light could not dissipate the
+semi-Cimmerian gloom of the vast edifice; I had to throw the feeble
+gleam into one after another of the dark corners.
+
+At last I found, behind the great screen, a narrow stone staircase
+which seemed to wind down into the rock.  It was not in any way
+secret, but being in the narrow space behind the great screen, was
+not visible except when close to it.  I knew I was now close to my
+objective, and began to descend.  Accustomed though I have been to
+all sorts of mysteries and dangers, I felt awed and almost
+overwhelmed by a sense of loneliness and desolation as I descended
+the ancient winding steps.  These were many in number, roughly hewn
+of old in the solid rock on which the church was built.
+
+I met a fresh surprise in finding that the door of the crypt was
+open.  After all, this was different from the church-door being open;
+for in many places it is a custom to allow all comers at all times to
+find rest and comfort in the sacred place.  But I did expect that at
+least the final resting-place of the historic dead would be held safe
+against casual intrusion.  Even I, on a quest which was very near my
+heart, paused with an almost overwhelming sense of decorum before
+passing through that open door.  The crypt was a huge place,
+strangely lofty for a vault.  From its formation, however, I soon
+came to the conclusion that it was originally a natural cavern
+altered to its present purpose by the hand of man.  I could hear
+somewhere near the sound of running water, but I could not locate it.
+Now and again at irregular intervals there was a prolonged booming,
+which could only come from a wave breaking in a confined place.  The
+recollection then came to me of the proximity of the church to the
+top of the beetling cliff, and of the half-sunk cavern entrances
+which pierced it.
+
+With the gleam of my lamp to guide me, I went through and round the
+whole place.  There were many massive tombs, mostly rough-hewn from
+great slabs or blocks of stone.  Some of them were marble, and the
+cutting of all was ancient.  So large and heavy were some of them
+that it was a wonder to me how they could ever have been brought to
+this place, to which the only entrance was seemingly the narrow,
+tortuous stairway by which I had come.  At last I saw near one end of
+the crypt a great chain hanging.  Turning the light upward, I found
+that it depended from a ring set over a wide opening, evidently made
+artificially.  It must have been through this opening that the great
+sarcophagi had been lowered.
+
+Directly underneath the hanging chain, which did not come closer to
+the ground than some eight or ten feet, was a huge tomb in the shape
+of a rectangular coffer or sarcophagus.  It was open, save for a huge
+sheet of thick glass which rested above it on two thick balks of dark
+oak, cut to exceeding smoothness, which lay across it, one at either
+end.  On the far side from where I stood each of these was joined to
+another oak plank, also cut smooth, which sloped gently to the rocky
+floor.  Should it be necessary to open the tomb, the glass could be
+made to slide along the supports and descend by the sloping planks.
+
+Naturally curious to know what might be within such a strange
+receptacle, I raised the lantern, depressing its lens so that the
+light might fall within.
+
+Then I started back with a cry, the lantern slipping from my
+nerveless hand and falling with a ringing sound on the great sheet of
+thick glass.
+
+Within, pillowed on soft cushions, and covered with a mantle woven of
+white natural fleece sprigged with tiny sprays of pine wrought in
+gold, lay the body of a woman--none other than my beautiful visitor.
+She was marble white, and her long black eyelashes lay on her white
+cheeks as though she slept.
+
+Without a word or a sound, save the sounds made by my hurrying feet
+on the stone flooring, I fled up the steep steps, and through the dim
+expanse of the church, out into the bright sunlight.  I found that I
+had mechanically raised the fallen lamp, and had taken it with me in
+my flight.
+
+My feet naturally turned towards home.  It was all instinctive.  The
+new horror had--for the time, at any rate--drowned my mind in its
+mystery, deeper than the deepest depths of thought or imagination.
+
+
+
+BOOK IV:  UNDER THE FLAGSTAFF
+
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+May 1, 1907.
+
+For some days after the last adventure I was in truth in a half-dazed
+condition, unable to think sensibly, hardly coherently.  Indeed, it
+was as much as I could do to preserve something of my habitual
+appearance and manner.  However, my first test happily came soon, and
+when I was once through it I reacquired sufficient self-confidence to
+go through with my purpose.  Gradually the original phase of
+stupefaction passed, and I was able to look the situation in the
+face.  I knew the worst now, at any rate; and when the lowest point
+has been reached things must begin to mend.  Still, I was wofully
+sensitive regarding anything which might affect my Lady of the
+Shroud, or even my opinion of her.  I even began to dread Aunt
+Janet's Second-Sight visions or dreams.  These had a fatal habit of
+coming so near to fact that they always made for a danger of
+discovery.  I had to realize now that the Lady of the Shroud might
+indeed be a Vampire--one of that horrid race that survives death and
+carries on a life-in-death existence eternally and only for evil.
+Indeed, I began to EXPECT that Aunt Janet would ere long have some
+prophetic insight to the matter.  She had been so wonderfully correct
+in her prophetic surmises with regard to both the visits to my room
+that it was hardly possible that she could fail to take cognizance of
+this last development.
+
+But my dread was not justified; at any rate, I had no reason to
+suspect that by any force or exercise of her occult gift she might
+cause me concern by the discovery of my secret.  Only once did I feel
+that actual danger in that respect was close to me.  That was when
+she came early one morning and rapped at my door.  When I called out,
+"Who is that?  What is it?" she said in an agitated way:
+
+"Thank God, laddie, you are all right!  Go to sleep again."
+
+Later on, when we met at breakfast, she explained that she had had a
+nightmare in the grey of the morning.  She thought she had seen me in
+the crypt of a great church close beside a stone coffin; and, knowing
+that such was an ominous subject to dream about, came as soon as she
+dared to see if I was all right.  Her mind was evidently set on death
+and burial, for she went on:
+
+"By the way, Rupert, I am told that the great church on time top of
+the cliff across the creek is St. Sava's, where the great people of
+the country used to be buried.  I want you to take me there some day.
+We shall go over it, and look at the tombs and monuments together.  I
+really think I should be afraid to go alone, but it will be all right
+if you are with me."  This was getting really dangerous, so I turned
+it aside:
+
+Really, Aunt Janet, I'm afraid it won't do.  If you go off to weird
+old churches, and fill yourself up with a fresh supply of horrors, I
+don't know what will happen.  You'll be dreaming dreadful things
+about me every night and neither you nor I shall get any sleep."  It
+went to my heart to oppose her in any wish; and also this kind of
+chaffy opposition might pain her.  But I had no alternative; the
+matter was too serious to be allowed to proceed.  Should Aunt Janet
+go to the church, she would surely want to visit the crypt.  Should
+she do so, and there notice the glass-covered tomb--as she could not
+help doing--the Lord only knew what would happen.  She had already
+Second-Sighted a woman being married to me, and before I myself knew
+that I had such a hope.  What might she not reveal did she know where
+the woman came from?  It may have been that her power of Second Sight
+had to rest on some basis of knowledge or belief, and that her vision
+was but some intuitive perception of my own subjective thought.  But
+whatever it was it should be stopped--at all hazards.
+
+This whole episode set me thinking introspectively, and led me
+gradually but imperatively to self-analysis--not of powers, but of
+motives.  I found myself before long examining myself as to what were
+my real intentions.  I thought at first that this intellectual
+process was an exercise of pure reason; but soon discarded this as
+inadequate--even impossible.  Reason is a cold manifestation; this
+feeling which swayed and dominated me is none other than passion,
+which is quick, hot, and insistent.
+
+As for myself, the self-analysis could lead to but one result--the
+expression to myself of the reality and definiteness of an already-
+formed though unconscious intention.  I wished to do the woman good--
+to serve her in some way--to secure her some benefit by any means, no
+matter how difficult, which might be within my power.  I knew that I
+loved her--loved her most truly and fervently; there was no need for
+self-analysis to tell me that.  And, moreover, no self-analysis, or
+any other mental process that I knew of, could help my one doubt:
+whether she was an ordinary woman (or an extraordinary woman, for the
+matter of that) in some sore and terrible straits; or else one who
+lay under some dreadful condition, only partially alive, and not
+mistress of herself or her acts.  Whichever her condition might be,
+there was in my own feeling a superfluity of affection for her.  The
+self-analysis taught me one thing, at any rate--that I had for her,
+to start with, an infinite pity which had softened towards her my
+whole being, and had already mastered merely selfish desire.  Out of
+it I began to find excuses for her every act.  In the doing so I knew
+now, though perhaps I did not at the time the process was going on,
+that my view in its true inwardness was of her as a living woman--the
+woman I loved.
+
+In the forming of our ideas there are different methods of work, as
+though the analogy with material life holds good.  In the building of
+a house, for instance, there are many persons employed; men of
+different trades and occupations--architect, builder, masons,
+carpenters, plumbers, and a host of others--and all these with the
+officials of each guild or trade.  So in the world of thought and
+feelings:  knowledge and understanding come through various agents,
+each competent to its task.
+
+How far pity reacted with love I knew not; I only knew that whatever
+her state might be, were she living or dead, I could find in my heart
+no blame for the Lady of the Shroud.  It could not be that she was
+dead in the real conventional way; for, after all, the Dead do not
+walk the earth in corporal substance, even if there be spirits which
+take the corporal form.  This woman was of actual form and weight.
+How could I doubt that, at all events--I, who had held her in my
+arms?  Might it not be that she was not quite dead, and that it had
+been given to me to restore her to life again?  Ah! that would be,
+indeed, a privilege well worth the giving my life to accomplish.
+That such a thing may be is possible.  Surely the old myths were not
+absolute inventions; they must have had a basis somewhere in fact.
+May not the world-old story of Orpheus and Eurydice have been based
+on some deep-lying principle or power of human nature?  There is not
+one of us but has wished at some time to bring back the dead.  Ay,
+and who has not felt that in himself or herself was power in the deep
+love for our dead to make them quick again, did we but know the
+secret of how it was to be done?
+
+For myself, I have seen such mysteries that I am open to conviction
+regarding things not yet explained.  These have been, of course,
+amongst savages or those old-world people who have brought unchecked
+traditions and beliefs--ay, and powers too--down the ages from the
+dim days when the world was young; when forces were elemental, and
+Nature's handiwork was experimental rather than completed.  Some of
+these wonders may have been older still than the accepted period of
+our own period of creation.  May we not have to-day other wonders,
+different only in method, but not more susceptible of belief?  Obi-
+ism and Fantee-ism have been exercised in my own presence, and their
+results proved by the evidence of my own eyes and other senses.  So,
+too, have stranger rites, with the same object and the same success,
+in the far Pacific Islands.  So, too, in India and China, in Thibet
+and in the Golden Chersonese.  On all and each of these occasions
+there was, on my own part, enough belief to set in motion the powers
+of understanding; and there were no moral scruples to stand in the
+way of realization.  Those whose lives are so spent that they achieve
+the reputation of not fearing man or God or devil are not deterred in
+their doing or thwarted from a set purpose by things which might
+deter others not so equipped for adventure.  Whatever may be before
+them--pleasant or painful, bitter or sweet, arduous or facile,
+enjoyable or terrible, humorous or full of awe and horror--they must
+accept, taking them in the onward course as a good athlete takes
+hurdles in his stride.  And there must be no hesitating, no looking
+back.  If the explorer or the adventurer has scruples, he had better
+give up that special branch of effort and come himself to a more
+level walk in life.  Neither must there be regrets.  There is no need
+for such; savage life has this advantage:  it begets a certain
+toleration not to be found in conventional existence.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+May 2, 1907.
+
+I had heard long ago that Second Sight is a terrible gift, even to
+its possessor.  I am now inclined not only to believe, but to
+understand it.  Aunt Janet has made such a practice of it of late
+that I go in constant dread of discovery of my secret.  She seems to
+parallel me all the time, whatever I may do.  It is like a sort of
+dual existence to her; for she is her dear old self all the time, and
+yet some other person with a sort of intellectual kit of telescope
+and notebook, which are eternally used on me.  I know they are FOR
+me, too--for what she considers my good.  But all the same it makes
+an embarrassment.  Happily Second Sight cannot speak as clearly as it
+sees, or, rather, as it understands.  For the translation of the
+vague beliefs which it inculcates is both nebulous and uncertain--a
+sort of Delphic oracle which always says things which no one can make
+out at the time, but which can be afterwards read in any one of
+several ways.  This is all right, for in my case it is a kind of
+safety; but, then, Aunt Janet is a very clever woman, and some time
+she herself may be able to understand.  Then she may begin to put two
+and two together.  When she does that, it will not be long before she
+knows more than I do of the facts of the whole affair.  And her
+reading of them and of the Lady of the Shroud, round whom they
+circle, may not be the same as mine.  Well, that will be all right
+too.  Aunt Janet loves me--God knows I have good reason to know that
+all through these years--and whatever view she may take, her acts
+will be all I could wish.  But I shall come in for a good lot of
+scolding, I am sure.  By the way, I ought to think of that; if Aunt
+Janet scolds me, it is a pretty good proof that I ought to be
+scolded.  I wonder if I dare tell her all.  No!  It is too strange.
+She is only a woman, after all:  and if she knew I loved . . . I wish
+I knew her name, and thought--as I might myself do, only that I
+resist it--that she is not alive at all.  Well, what she would either
+think or do beats me.  I suppose she would want to slipper me as she
+used to do when I was a wee kiddie--in a different way, of course.
+
+May 3, 1907.
+
+I really could not go on seriously last night.  The idea of Aunt
+Janet giving me a licking as in the dear old days made me laugh so
+much that nothing in the world seemed serious then.  Oh, Aunt Janet
+is all right whatever comes.  That I am sure of, so I needn't worry
+over it.  A good thing too; there will be plenty to worry about
+without that.  I shall not check her telling me of her visions,
+however; I may learn something from them.
+
+For the last four-and-twenty hours I have, whilst awake, been looking
+over Aunt Janet's books, of which I brought a wheen down here.  Gee
+whizz!  No wonder the old dear is superstitious, when she is filled
+up to the back teeth with that sort of stuff!  There may be some
+truth in some of those yarns; those who wrote them may believe in
+them, or some of them, at all events.  But as to coherence or logic,
+or any sort of reasonable or instructive deduction, they might as
+well have been written by so many hens!  These occult book-makers
+seem to gather only a lot of bare, bald facts, which they put down in
+the most uninteresting way possible.  They go by quantity only.  One
+story of the kind, well examined and with logical comments, would be
+more convincing to a third party than a whole hecatomb of them.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+May 4, 1907.
+
+There is evidently something up in the country.  The mountaineers are
+more uneasy than they have been as yet.  There is constant going to
+and fro amongst them, mostly at night and in the grey of the morning.
+I spend many hours in my room in the eastern tower, from which I can
+watch the woods, and gather from signs the passing to and fro.  But
+with all this activity no one has said to me a word on the subject.
+It is undoubtedly a disappointment to me.  I had hoped that the
+mountaineers had come to trust me; that gathering at which they
+wanted to fire their guns for me gave me strong hopes.  But now it is
+apparent that they do not trust me in full--as yet, at all events.
+Well, I must not complain.  It is all only right and just.  As yet I
+have done nothing to prove to them the love and devotion that I feel
+to the country.  I know that such individuals as I have met trust me,
+and I believe like me.  But the trust of a nation is different.  That
+has to be won and tested; he who would win it must justify, and in a
+way that only troublous times can allow.  No nation will--can--give
+full meed of honour to a stranger in times of peace.  Why should it?
+I must not forget that I am here a stranger in the land, and that to
+the great mass of people even my name is unknown.  Perhaps they will
+know me better when Rooke comes back with that store of arms and
+ammunition that he has bought, and the little warship he has got from
+South America.  When they see that I hand over the whole lot to the
+nation without a string on them, they may begin to believe.  In the
+meantime all I can do is to wait.  It will all come right in time, I
+have no doubt.  And if it doesn't come right, well, we can only die
+once!
+
+Is that so?  What about my Lady of the Shroud?  I must not think of
+that or of her in this gallery.  Love and war are separate, and may
+not mix--cannot mix, if it comes to that.  I must be wise in the
+matter; and if I have got the hump in any degree whatever, must not
+show it.
+
+But one thing is certain:  something is up, and it must be the Turks.
+From what the Vladika said at that meeting they have some intention
+of an attack on the Blue Mountains.  If that be so, we must be ready;
+and perhaps I can help there.  The forces must be organized; we must
+have some method of communication.  In this country, where are
+neither roads nor railways nor telegraphs, we must establish a
+signalling system of some sort.  THAT I can begin at once.  I can
+make a code, or adapt one that I have used elsewhere already.  I
+shall rig up a semaphore on the top of the Castle which can be seen
+for an enormous distance around.  I shall train a number of men to be
+facile in signalling.  And then, should need come, I may be able to
+show the mountaineers that I am fit to live in their hearts . . .
+
+And all this work may prove an anodyne to pain of another kind.  It
+will help, at any rate, to keep my mind occupied whilst I am waiting
+for another visit from my Lady of the Shroud.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+May 18, 1907.
+
+The two weeks that have passed have been busy, and may, as time goes
+on, prove eventful.  I really think they have placed me in a
+different position with the Blue Mountaineers--certainly so far as
+those in this part of the country are concerned.  They are no longer
+suspicious of me--which is much; though they have not yet received me
+into their confidence.  I suppose this will come in time, but I must
+not try to hustle them.  Already they are willing, so far as I can
+see, to use me to their own ends.  They accepted the signalling idea
+very readily, and are quite willing to drill as much as I like.  This
+can be (and I think is, in its way) a pleasure to them.  They are
+born soldiers, every man of them; and practice together is only a
+realization of their own wishes and a further development of their
+powers.  I think I can understand the trend of their thoughts, and
+what ideas of public policy lie behind them.  In all that we have
+attempted together as yet they are themselves in absolute power.  It
+rests with them to carry out any ideas I may suggest, so they do not
+fear any assumption of power or governance on my part.  Thus, so long
+as they keep secret from me both their ideas of high policy and their
+immediate intentions, I am powerless to do them ill, and I MAY be of
+service should occasion arise.  Well, all told, this is much.
+Already they accept me as an individual, not merely one of the mass.
+I am pretty sure that they are satisfied of my personal bona fides.
+It is policy and not mistrust that hedges me in.  Well, policy is a
+matter of time.  They are a splendid people, but if they knew a
+little more than they do they would understand that the wisest of all
+policies is trust--when it can be given.  I must hold myself in
+check, and never be betrayed into a harsh thought towards them.  Poor
+souls! with a thousand years behind them of Turkish aggression,
+strenuously attempted by both force and fraud, no wonder they are
+suspicious.  Likewise every other nation with whom they have ever
+come in contact--except one, my own--has deceived or betrayed them.
+Anyhow, they are fine soldiers, and before long we shall have an army
+that cannot be ignored.  If I can get so that they trust me, I shall
+ask Sir Colin to come out here.  He would be a splendid head for
+their army.  His great military knowledge and tactical skill would
+come in well.  It makes me glow to think of what an army he would
+turn out of this splendid material, and one especially adapted for
+the style of fighting which would be necessary in this country.
+
+If a mere amateur like myself, who has only had experience of
+organizing the wildest kind of savages, has been able to advance or
+compact their individual style of fighting into systematic effort, a
+great soldier like MacKelpie will bring them to perfection as a
+fighting machine.  Our Highlanders, when they come out, will
+foregather with them, as mountaineers always do with each other.
+Then we shall have a force which can hold its own against any odds.
+I only hope that Rooke will be returning soon.  I want to see those
+Ingis-Malbron rifles either safely stored in the Castle or, what is
+better, divided up amongst the mountaineers--a thing which will be
+done at the very earliest moment that I can accomplish it.  I have a
+conviction that when these men have received their arms and
+ammunition from me they will understand me better, and not keep any
+secrets from me.
+
+All this fortnight when I was not drilling or going about amongst the
+mountaineers, and teaching them the code which I have now got
+perfected, I was exploring the side of the mountain nearest to here.
+I could not bear to be still.  It is torture to me to be idle in my
+present condition of mind regarding my Lady of the Shroud . . .
+Strange I do not mind mentioning the word to myself now.  I used to
+at first; but that bitterness has all gone away.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+May 19, 1907.
+
+I was so restless early this morning that before daylight I was out
+exploring on the mountain-side.  By chance I came across a secret
+place just as the day was breaking.  Indeed, it was by the change of
+light as the first sun-rays seemed to fall down the mountain-side
+that my attention was called to an opening shown by a light behind
+it.  It was, indeed, a secret place--so secret that I thought at
+first I should keep it to myself.  In such a place as this either to
+hide in or to be able to prevent anyone else hiding in might on
+occasion be an asset of safety.
+
+When, however, I saw indications rather than traces that someone had
+already used it to camp in, I changed my mind, and thought that
+whenever I should get an opportunity I would tell the Vladika of it,
+as he is a man on whose discretion I can rely.  If we ever have a war
+here or any sort of invasion, it is just such places that may be
+dangerous.  Even in my own case it is much too near the Castle to be
+neglected.
+
+The indications were meagre--only where a fire had been on a little
+shelf of rock; and it was not possible, through the results of
+burning vegetation or scorched grass, to tell how long before the
+fire had been alight.  I could only guess.  Perhaps the mountaineers
+might be able to tell or even to guess better than I could.  But I am
+not so sure of this.  I am a mountaineer myself, and with larger and
+more varied experience than any of them.  For myself, though I could
+not be certain, I came to the conclusion that whoever had used the
+place had done so not many days before.  It could not have been quite
+recently; but it may not have been very long ago.  Whoever had used
+it had covered up his tracks well.  Even the ashes had been carefully
+removed, and the place where they had lain was cleaned or swept in
+some way, so that there was no trace on the spot.  I applied some of
+my West African experience, and looked on the rough bark of the trees
+to leeward, to where the agitated air, however directed, must have
+come, unless it was wanted to call attention to the place by the
+scattered wood-ashes, however fine.  I found traces of it, but they
+were faint.  There had not been rain for several days; so the dust
+must have been blown there since the rain had fallen, for it was
+still dry.
+
+The place was a tiny gorge, with but one entrance, which was hidden
+behind a barren spur of rock--just a sort of long fissure, jagged and
+curving, in the rock, like a fault in the stratification.  I could
+just struggle through it with considerable effort, holding my breath
+here and there, so as to reduce my depth of chest.  Within it was
+tree-clad, and full of possibilities of concealment.
+
+As I came away I marked well its direction and approaches, noting any
+guiding mark which might aid in finding it by day or night.  I
+explored every foot of ground around it--in front, on each side, and
+above.  But from nowhere could I see an indication of its existence.
+It was a veritable secret chamber wrought by the hand of Nature
+itself.  I did not return home till I was familiar with every detail
+near and around it.  This new knowledge added distinctly to my sense
+of security.
+
+Later in the day I tried to find the Vladika or any mountaineer of
+importance, for I thought that such a hiding-place which had been
+used so recently might be dangerous, and especially at a time when,
+as I had learned at the meeting where they did NOT fire their guns
+that there may have been spies about or a traitor in the land.
+
+Even before I came to my own room to-night I had fully made up my
+mind to go out early in the morning and find some proper person to
+whom to impart the information, so that a watch might be kept on the
+place.  It is now getting on for midnight, and when I have had my
+usual last look at the garden I shall turn in.  Aunt Janet was uneasy
+all day, and especially so this evening.  I think it must have been
+my absence at the usual breakfast-hour which got on her nerves; and
+that unsatisfied mental or psychical irritation increased as the day
+wore on.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+May 20, 1907.
+
+The clock on the mantelpiece in my room, which chimes on the notes of
+the clock at St. James's Palace, was striking midnight when I opened
+the glass door on the terrace.  I had put out my lights before I drew
+the curtain, as I wished to see the full effect of the moonlight.
+Now that the rainy season is over, the moon is quite as beautiful as
+it was in the wet, and a great deal more comfortable.  I was in
+evening dress, with a smoking-jacket in lieu of a coat, and I felt
+the air mild and mellow on the warm side, as I stood on the terrace.
+
+But even in that bright moonlight the further corners of the great
+garden were full of mysterious shadows.  I peered into them as well
+as I could--and my eyes are pretty good naturally, and are well
+trained.  There was not the least movement.  The air was as still as
+death, the foliage as still as though wrought in stone.
+
+I looked for quite a long time in the hope of seeing something of my
+Lady.  The quarters chimed several times, but I stood on unheeding.
+At last I thought I saw far off in the very corner of the old
+defending wall a flicker of white.  It was but momentary, and could
+hardly have accounted in itself for the way my heart beat.  I
+controlled myself, and stood as though I, too, were a graven image.
+I was rewarded by seeing presently another gleam of white.  And then
+an unspeakable rapture stole over me as I realized that my Lady was
+coming as she had come before.  I would have hurried out to meet her,
+but that I knew well that this would not be in accord with her
+wishes.  So, thinking to please her, I drew back into the room.  I
+was glad I had done so when, from the dark corner where I stood, I
+saw her steal up the marble steps and stand timidly looking in at the
+door.  Then, after a long pause, came a whisper as faint and sweet as
+the music of a distant AEolian harp:
+
+"Are you there?  May I come in?  Answer me!  I am lonely and in
+fear!"  For answer I emerged from my dim corner so swiftly that she
+was startled.  I could hear from the quivering intake of her breath
+that she was striving--happily with success--to suppress a shriek.
+
+"Come in," I said quietly.  "I was waiting for you, for I felt that
+you would come.  I only came in from the terrace when I saw you
+coming, lest you might fear that anyone might see us.  That is not
+possible, but I thought you wished that I should be careful."
+
+"I did--I do," she answered in a low, sweet voice, but very firmly.
+"But never avoid precaution.  There is nothing that may not happen
+here.  There may be eyes where we least expect--or suspect them."  As
+she spoke the last words solemnly and in a low whisper, she was
+entering the room.  I closed the glass door and bolted it, rolled
+back the steel grille, and pulled the heavy curtain.  Then, when I
+had lit a candle, I went over and put a light to the fire.  In a few
+seconds the dry wood had caught, and the flames were beginning to
+rise and crackle.  She had not objected to my closing the window and
+drawing the curtain; neither did she make any comment on my lighting
+the fire.  She simply acquiesced in it, as though it was now a matter
+of course.  When I made the pile of cushions before it as on the
+occasion of her last visit, she sank down on them, and held out her
+white, trembling hands to the warmth.
+
+She was different to-night from what she had been on either of the
+two former visits.  From her present bearing I arrived at some gauge
+of her self-concern, her self-respect.  Now that she was dry, and not
+overmastered by wet and cold, a sweet and gracious dignity seemed to
+shine from her, enwrapping her, as it were, with a luminous veil.  It
+was not that she was by this made or shown as cold or distant, or in
+any way harsh or forbidding.  On the contrary, protected by this
+dignity, she seemed much more sweet and genial than before.  It was
+as though she felt that she could afford to stoop now that her
+loftiness was realized--that her position was recognized and secure.
+If her inherent dignity made an impenetrable nimbus round her, this
+was against others; she herself was not bound by it, or to be bound.
+So marked was this, so entirely and sweetly womanly did she appear,
+that I caught myself wondering in flashes of thought, which came as
+sharp periods of doubting judgment between spells of unconscious
+fascination, how I had ever come to think she was aught but perfect
+woman.  As she rested, half sitting and half lying on the pile of
+cushions, she was all grace, and beauty, and charm, and sweetness--
+the veritable perfect woman of the dreams of a man, be he young or
+old.  To have such a woman sit by his hearth and hold her holy of
+holies in his heart might well be a rapture to any man.  Even an hour
+of such entrancing joy might be well won by a lifetime of pain, by
+the balance of a long life sacrificed, by the extinction of life
+itself.  Quick behind the record of such thoughts came the answer to
+the doubt they challenged:  if it should turn out that she was not
+living at all, but one of the doomed and pitiful Un-Dead, then so
+much more on account of her very sweetness and beauty would be the
+winning of her back to Life and Heaven--even were it that she might
+find happiness in the heart and in the arms of another man.
+
+Once, when I leaned over the hearth to put fresh logs on the fire, my
+face was so close to hers that I felt her breath on my cheek.  It
+thrilled me to feel even the suggestion of that ineffable contact.
+Her breath was sweet--sweet as the breath of a calf, sweet as the
+whiff of a summer breeze across beds of mignonette.  How could anyone
+believe for a moment that such sweet breath could come from the lips
+of the dead--the dead in esse or in posse--that corruption could send
+forth fragrance so sweet and pure?  It was with satisfied happiness
+that, as I looked at her from my stool, I saw the dancing of the
+flames from the beech-logs reflected in her glorious black eyes, and
+the stars that were hidden in them shine out with new colours and new
+lustre as they gleamed, rising and falling like hopes and fears.  As
+the light leaped, so did smiles of quiet happiness flit over her
+beautiful face, the merriment of the joyous flames being reflected in
+ever-changing dimples.
+
+At first I was a little disconcerted whenever my eyes took note of
+her shroud, and there came a momentary regret that the weather had
+not been again bad, so that there might have been compulsion for her
+putting on another garment--anything lacking the loathsomeness of
+that pitiful wrapping.  Little by little, however, this feeling
+disappeared, and I found no matter for even dissatisfaction in her
+wrapping.  Indeed, my thoughts found inward voice before the subject
+was dismissed from my mind:
+
+"One becomes accustomed to anything--even a shroud!"  But the thought
+was followed by a submerging wave of pity that she should have had
+such a dreadful experience.
+
+By-and-by we seemed both to forget everything--I know I did--except
+that we were man and woman, and close together.  The strangeness of
+the situation and the circumstances did not seem of moment--not worth
+even a passing thought.  We still sat apart and said little, if
+anything.  I cannot recall a single word that either of us spoke
+whilst we sat before the fire, but other language than speech came
+into play; the eyes told their own story, as eyes can do, and more
+eloquently than lips whilst exercising their function of speech.
+Question and answer followed each other in this satisfying language,
+and with an unspeakable rapture I began to realize that my affection
+was returned.  Under these circumstances it was unrealizable that
+there should be any incongruity in the whole affair.  I was not
+myself in the mood of questioning.  I was diffident with that
+diffidence which comes alone from true love, as though it were a
+necessary emanation from that delightful and overwhelming and
+commanding passion.  In her presence there seemed to surge up within
+me that which forbade speech.  Speech under present conditions would
+have seemed to me unnecessary, imperfect, and even vulgarly overt.
+She, too, was silent.  But now that I am alone, and memory is alone
+with me, I am convinced that she also had been happy.  No, not that
+exactly.  "Happiness" is not the word to describe either her feeling
+or my own.  Happiness is more active, a more conscious enjoyment.  We
+had been content.  That expresses our condition perfectly; and now
+that I can analyze my own feeling, and understand what the word
+implies, I am satisfied of its accuracy.  "Content" has both a
+positive and negative meaning or antecedent condition.  It implies an
+absence of disturbing conditions as well as of wants; also it implies
+something positive which has been won or achieved, or which has
+accrued.  In our state of mind--for though it may be presumption on
+my part, I am satisfied that our ideas were mutual--it meant that we
+had reached an understanding whence all that might come must be for
+good.  God grant that it may be so!
+
+As we sat silent, looking into each other's eyes, and whilst the
+stars in hers were now full of latent fire, perhaps from the
+reflection of the flames, she suddenly sprang to her feet,
+instinctively drawing the horrible shroud round her as she rose to
+her full height in a voice full of lingering emotion, as of one who
+is acting under spiritual compulsion rather than personal will, she
+said in a whisper:
+
+"I must go at once.  I feel the morning drawing nigh.  I must be in
+my place when the light of day comes."
+
+She was so earnest that I felt I must not oppose her wish; so I, too,
+sprang to my feet and ran towards the window.  I pulled the curtain
+aside sufficiently far for me to press back the grille and reach the
+glass door, the latch of which I opened.  I passed behind the curtain
+again, and held the edge of it back so that she could go through.
+For an instant she stopped as she broke the long silence:
+
+"You are a true gentleman, and my friend.  You understand all I wish.
+Out of the depth of my heart I thank you."  She held out her
+beautiful high-bred hand.  I took it in both mine as I fell on my
+knees, and raised it to my lips.  Its touch made me quiver.  She,
+too, trembled as she looked down at me with a glance which seemed to
+search my very soul.  The stars in her eyes, now that the firelight
+was no longer on them, had gone back to their own mysterious silver.
+Then she drew her hand from mine very, very gently, as though it
+would fain linger; and she passed out behind the curtain with a
+gentle, sweet, dignified little bow which left me on my knees.
+
+When I heard the glass door pulled-to gently behind her, I rose from
+my knees and hurried without the curtain, just in time to watch her
+pass down the steps.  I wanted to see her as long as I could.  The
+grey of morning was just beginning to war with the night gloom, and
+by the faint uncertain light I could see dimly the white figure flit
+between shrub and statue till finally it merged in the far darkness.
+
+I stood for a long time on the terrace, sometimes looking into the
+darkness in front of me, in case I might be blessed with another
+glimpse of her; sometimes with my eyes closed, so that I might recall
+and hold in my mind her passage down the steps.  For the first time
+since I had met her she had thrown back at me a glance as she stepped
+on the white path below the terrace.  With the glamour over me of
+that look, which was all love and enticement, I could have dared all
+the powers that be.
+
+When the grey dawn was becoming apparent through the lightening of
+the sky I returned to my room.  In a dazed condition--half hypnotized
+by love--I went to bed, and in dreams continued to think, all
+happily, of my Lady of the Shroud.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+May 27, 1907.
+
+A whole week has gone since I saw my Love!  There it is; no doubt
+whatever is left in my mind about it now!  Since I saw her my passion
+has grown and grown by leaps and bounds, as novelists put it.  It has
+now become so vast as to overwhelm me, to wipe out all thought of
+doubt or difficulty.  I suppose it must be what men suffered--
+suffering need not mean pain--under enchantments in old times.  I am
+but as a straw whirled in the resistless eddies of a whirlpool.  I
+feel that I MUST see her again, even if it be but in her tomb in the
+crypt.  I must, I suppose, prepare myself for the venture, for many
+things have to be thought of.  The visit must not be at night, for in
+such case I might miss her, did she come to me again here . . .
+
+The morning came and went, but my wish and intention still remained;
+and so in the full tide of noon, with the sun in all its fiery force,
+I set out for the old church of St. Sava.  I carried with me a
+lantern with powerful lens.  I had wrapped it up secretly, for I had
+a feeling that I should not like anyone to know that I had such a
+thing with me.
+
+On this occasion I had no misgivings.  On the former visit I had for
+a moment been overwhelmed at the unexpected sight of the body of the
+woman I thought I loved--I knew it now--lying in her tomb.  But now I
+knew all, and it was to see this woman, though in her tomb, that I
+came.
+
+When I had lit my lantern, which I did as soon as I had pushed open
+the great door, which was once again unlocked, I turned my steps to
+the steps of the crypt, which lay behind the richly carven wood
+screen.  This I could see, with the better light, was a noble piece
+of work of priceless beauty and worth.  I tried to keep my heart in
+full courage with thoughts of my Lady, and of the sweetness and
+dignity of our last meeting; but, despite all, it sank down, down,
+and turned to water as I passed with uncertain feet down the narrow,
+tortuous steps.  My concern, I am now convinced, was not for myself,
+but that she whom I adored should have to endure such a fearful
+place.  As anodyne to my own pain I thought what it would be, and how
+I should feel, when I should have won for her a way out of that
+horror, at any rate.  This thought reassured me somewhat, and
+restored my courage.  It was in something of the same fashion which
+has hitherto carried me out of tight places as well as into them that
+at last I pushed open the low, narrow door at the foot of the rock-
+hewn staircase and entered the crypt.
+
+Without delay I made my way to the glass-covered tomb set beneath the
+hanging chain.  I could see by the flashing of the light around me
+that my hand which held the lantern trembled.  With a great effort I
+steadied myself, and raising the lantern, turned its light down into
+the sarcophagus.
+
+Once again the fallen lantern rang on the tingling glass, and I stood
+alone in the darkness, for an instant almost paralyzed with surprised
+disappointment.
+
+The tomb was empty!  Even the trappings of the dead had been removed.
+
+I knew not what happened till I found myself groping my way up the
+winding stair.  Here, in comparison with the solid darkness of the
+crypt, it seemed almost light.  The dim expanse of the church sent a
+few straggling rays down the vaulted steps, and as I could see, be it
+never so dimly, I felt I was not in absolute darkness.  With the
+light came a sense of power and fresh courage, and I groped my way
+back into the crypt again.  There, by now and again lighting matches,
+I found my way to the tomb and recovered my lantern.  Then I took my
+way slowly--for I wished to prove, if not my own courage, at least
+such vestiges of self-respect as the venture had left me--through the
+church, where I extinguished my lantern, and out through the great
+door into the open sunlight.  I seemed to have heard, both in the
+darkness of the crypt and through the dimness of the church,
+mysterious sounds as of whispers and suppressed breathing; but the
+memory of these did not count for much when once I was free.  I was
+only satisfied of my own consciousness and identity when I found
+myself on the broad rock terrace in front of the church, with the
+fierce sunlight beating on my upturned face, and, looking downward,
+saw far below me the rippled blue of the open sea.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+June 3, 1907.
+
+Another week has elapsed--a week full of movement of many kinds and
+in many ways--but as yet I have had no tale or tidings of my Lady of
+the Shroud.  I have not had an opportunity of going again in daylight
+to St. Sava's as I should have liked to have done.  I felt that I
+must not go at night.  The night is her time of freedom, and it must
+be kept for her--or else I may miss her, or perhaps never see her
+again.
+
+The days have been full of national movement.  The mountaineers have
+evidently been organizing themselves, for some reason which I cannot
+quite understand, and which they have hesitated to make known to me.
+I have taken care not to manifest any curiosity, whatever I may have
+felt.  This would certainly arouse suspicion, and might ultimately
+cause disaster to my hopes of aiding the nation in their struggle to
+preserve their freedom.
+
+These fierce mountaineers are strangely--almost unduly--suspicious,
+and the only way to win their confidence is to begin the trusting.  A
+young American attache of the Embassy at Vienna, who had made a
+journey through the Land of the Blue Mountains, once put it to me in
+this form:
+
+"Keep your head shut, and they'll open theirs.  If you don't, they'll
+open it for you--down to the chine!"
+
+It was quite apparent to me that they were completing some fresh
+arrangements for signalling with a code of their own.  This was
+natural enough, and in no way inconsistent with the measure of
+friendliness already shown to me.  Where there are neither
+telegraphs, railways, nor roads, any effective form of communication
+must--can only be purely personal.  And so, if they wish to keep any
+secret amongst themselves, they must preserve the secret of their
+code.  I should have dearly liked to learn their new code and their
+manner of using it, but as I want to be a helpful friend to them--and
+as this implies not only trust, but the appearance of it--I had to
+school myself to patience.
+
+This attitude so far won their confidence that before we parted at
+our last meeting, after most solemn vows of faith and secrecy, they
+took me into the secret.  This was, however, only to the extent of
+teaching me the code and method; they still withheld from me rigidly
+the fact or political secret, or whatever it was that was the
+mainspring of their united action.
+
+When I got home I wrote down, whilst it was fresh in my memory, all
+they told me.  This script I studied until I had it so thoroughly by
+heart that I COULD not forget it.  Then I burned the paper.  However,
+there is now one gain at least:  with my semaphore I can send through
+the Blue Mountains from side to side, with expedition, secrecy, and
+exactness, a message comprehensible to all.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+June 6, 1907.
+
+Last night I had a new experience of my Lady of the Shroud--in so far
+as form was concerned, at any rate.  I was in bed, and just falling
+asleep, when I heard a queer kind of scratching at the glass door of
+the terrace.  I listened acutely, my heart beating hard.  The sound
+seemed to come from low down, close to the floor.  I jumped out of
+bed, ran to the window, and, pulling aside the heavy curtains, looked
+out.
+
+The garden looked, as usual, ghostly in the moonlight, but there was
+not the faintest sign of movement anywhere, and no one was on or near
+the terrace.  I looked eagerly down to where the sound had seemed to
+come from.
+
+There, just inside the glass door, as though it had been pushed under
+the door, lay a paper closely folded in several laps.  I picked it up
+and opened it.  I was all in a tumult, for my heart told me whence it
+came.  Inside was written in English, in a large, sprawling hand,
+such as might be from an English child of seven or eight:
+
+"Meet me at the Flagstaff on the Rock!"
+
+I knew the place, of course.  On the farthermost point of the rock on
+which the Castle stands is set a high flagstaff, whereon in old time
+the banner of the Vissarion family flew.  At some far-off time, when
+the Castle had been liable to attack, this point had been strongly
+fortified.  Indeed, in the days when the bow was a martial weapon it
+must have been quite impregnable.
+
+A covered gallery, with loopholes for arrows, had been cut in the
+solid rock, running right round the point, quite surrounding the
+flagstaff and the great boss of rock on whose centre it was reared.
+A narrow drawbridge of immense strength had connected--in peaceful
+times, and still remained--the outer point of rock with an entrance
+formed in the outer wall, and guarded with flanking towers and a
+portcullis.  Its use was manifestly to guard against surprise.  From
+this point only could be seen the line of the rocks all round the
+point.  Thus, any secret attack by boats could be made impossible.
+
+Having hurriedly dressed myself, and taking with me both hunting-
+knife and revolver, I went out on the terrace, taking the precaution,
+unusual to me, of drawing the grille behind me and locking it.
+Matters around the Castle are in far too disturbed a condition to
+allow the taking of any foolish chances, either in the way of being
+unarmed or of leaving the private entrance to the Castle open.  I
+found my way through the rocky passage, and climbed by the Jacob's
+ladder fixed on the rock--a device of convenience in time of peace--
+to the foot of the flagstaff.
+
+I was all on fire with expectation, and the time of going seemed
+exceeding long; so I was additionally disappointed by the contrast
+when I did not see my Lady there when I arrived.  However, my heart
+beat freely again--perhaps more freely than ever--when I saw her
+crouching in the shadow of the Castle wall.  From where she was she
+could not be seen from any point save that alone which I occupied;
+even from there it was only her white shroud that was conspicuous
+through the deep gloom of the shadow.  The moonlight was so bright
+that the shadows were almost unnaturally black.
+
+I rushed over towards her, and when close was about to say
+impulsively, "Why did you leave your tomb?" when it suddenly struck
+me that the question would be malapropos and embarrassing in many
+ways.  So, better judgment prevailing, I said instead:
+
+"It has been so long since I saw you!  It has seemed an eternity to
+me!"  Her answer came as quickly as even I could have wished; she
+spoke impulsively and without thought:
+
+"It has been long to me too!  Oh, so long! so long!  I have asked you
+to come out here because I wanted to see you so much that I could not
+wait any longer.  I have been heart-hungry for a sight of you!"
+
+Her words, her eager attitude, the ineffable something which conveys
+the messages of the heart, the longing expression in her eyes as the
+full moonlight fell on her face, showing the stars as living gold--
+for in her eagerness she had stepped out towards me from the shadow--
+all set me on fire.  Without a thought or a word--for it was Nature
+speaking in the language of Love, which is a silent tongue--I stepped
+towards her and took her in my arms.  She yielded with that sweet
+unconsciousness which is the perfection of Love, as if it was in
+obedience to some command uttered before the beginning of the world.
+Probably without any conscious effort on either side--I know there
+was none on mine--our mouths met in the first kiss of love.
+
+At the time nothing in the meeting struck me as out of the common.
+But later in the night, when I was alone and in darkness, whenever I
+thought of it all--its strangeness and its stranger rapture--I could
+not but be sensible of the bizarre conditions for a love meeting.
+The place lonely, the time night, the man young and strong, and full
+of life and hope and ambition; the woman, beautiful and ardent though
+she was, a woman seemingly dead, clothed in the shroud in which she
+had been wrapped when lying in her tomb in the crypt of the old
+church.
+
+Whilst we were together, anyhow, there was little thought of the
+kind; no reasoning of any kind on my part.  Love has its own laws and
+its own logic.  Under the flagstaff, where the Vissarion banner was
+wont to flap in the breeze, she was in my arms; her sweet breath was
+on my face; her heart was beating against my own.  What need was
+there for reason at all?  Inter arma silent leges--the voice of
+reason is silent in the stress of passion.  Dead she may be, or Un-
+dead--a Vampire with one foot in Hell and one on earth.  But I love
+her; and come what may, here or hereafter, she is mine.  As my mate,
+we shall fare along together, whatsoever the end may be, or
+wheresoever our path may lead.  If she is indeed to be won from the
+nethermost Hell, then be mine the task!
+
+But to go back to the record.  When I had once started speaking to
+her in words of passion I could not stop.  I did not want to--if I
+could; and she did not appear to wish it either.  Can there be a
+woman--alive or dead--who would not want to hear the rapture of her
+lover expressed to her whilst she is enclosed in his arms?
+
+There was no attempt at reticence on my part now; I took it for
+granted that she knew all that I surmised, and, as she made neither
+protest nor comment, that she accepted my belief as to her
+indeterminate existence.  Sometimes her eyes would be closed, but
+even then the rapture of her face was almost beyond belief.  Then,
+when the beautiful eyes would open and gaze on me, the stars that
+were in them would shine and scintillate as though they were formed
+of living fire.  She said little, very little; but though the words
+were few, every syllable was fraught with love, and went straight to
+the very core of my heart.
+
+By-and-by, when our transport had calmed to joy, I asked when I might
+next see her, and how and where I might find her when I should want
+to.  She did not reply directly, but, holding me close in her arms,
+whispered in my ear with that breathless softness which is a lover's
+rapture of speech:
+
+"I have come here under terrible difficulties, not only because I
+love you--and that would be enough--but because, as well as the joy
+of seeing you, I wanted to warn you."
+
+"To warn me!  Why?" I queried.  Her reply came with a bashful
+hesitation, with something of a struggle in it, as of one who for
+some ulterior reason had to pick her words:
+
+"There are difficulties and dangers ahead of you.  You are beset with
+them; and they are all the greater because they are, of grim
+necessity, hidden from you.  You cannot go anywhere, look in any
+direction, do anything, say anything, but it may be a signal for
+danger.  My dear, it lurks everywhere--in the light as well as in the
+darkness; in the open as well as in the secret places; from friends
+as well as foes; when you are least prepared; when you may least
+expect it.  Oh, I know it, and what it is to endure; for I share it
+for you--for your dear sake!"
+
+"My darling!" was all I could say, as I drew her again closer to me
+and kissed her.  After a bit she was calmer; seeing this, I came back
+to the subject that she had--in part, at all events--come to me to
+speak about:
+
+"But if difficulty and danger hedge me in so everlastingly, and if I
+am to have no indication whatever of its kind or purpose, what can I
+do?  God knows I would willingly guard myself--not on my own account,
+but for your dear sake.  I have now a cause to live and be strong,
+and to keep all my faculties, since it may mean much to you.  If you
+may not tell me details, may you not indicate to me some line of
+conduct, of action, that would be most in accord with your wishes--
+or, rather, with your idea of what would be best?
+
+She looked at me fixedly before speaking--a long, purposeful, loving
+look which no man born of woman could misunderstand.  Then she spoke
+slowly, deliberately, emphatically:
+
+"Be bold, and fear not.  Be true to yourself, to me--it is the same
+thing.  These are the best guards you can use.  Your safety does not
+rest with me.  Ah, I wish it did!  I wish to God it did!"  In my
+inner heart it thrilled me not merely to hear the expression of her
+wish, but to hear her use the name of God as she did.  I understand
+now, in the calm of this place and with the sunlight before me, that
+my belief as to her being all woman--living woman--was not quite
+dead:  but though at the moment my heart did not recognize the doubt,
+my brain did.  And I made up my mind that we should not part this
+time until she knew that I had seen her, and where; but, despite my
+own thoughts, my outer ears listened greedily as she went on.
+
+"As for me, you may not find ME, but _I_ shall find YOU, be sure!
+And now we must say 'Good-night,' my dear, my dear!  Tell me once
+again that you love me, for it is a sweetness that one does not wish
+to forego--even one who wears such a garment as this--and rests where
+I must rest."  As she spoke she held up part of her cerements for me
+to see.  What could I do but take her once again in my arms and hold
+her close, close.  God knows it was all in love; but it was
+passionate love which surged through my every vein as I strained her
+dear body to mine.  But yet this embrace was not selfish; it was not
+all an expression of my own passion.  It was based on pity--the pity
+which is twin-born with true love.  Breathless from our kisses, when
+presently we released each other, she stood in a glorious rapture,
+like a white spirit in the moonlight, and as her lovely, starlit eyes
+seemed to devour me, she spoke in a languorous ecstasy:
+
+"Oh, how you love me! how you love me!  It is worth all I have gone
+through for this, even to wearing this terrible drapery."  And again
+she pointed to her shroud.
+
+Here was my chance to speak of what I knew, and I took it.  "I know,
+I know.  Moreover, I know that awful resting-place."
+
+I was interrupted, cut short in the midst of my sentence, not by any
+word, but by the frightened look in her eyes and the fear-mastered
+way in which she shrank away from me.  I suppose in reality she could
+not be paler than she looked when the colour-absorbing moonlight fell
+on her; but on the instant all semblance of living seemed to shrink
+and fall away, and she looked with eyes of dread as if in I some
+awful way held in thrall.  But for the movement of the pitiful
+glance, she would have seemed of soulless marble, so deadly cold did
+she look.
+
+The moments that dragged themselves out whilst I waited for her to
+speak seemed endless.  At length her words came in an awed whisper,
+so faint that even in that stilly night I could hardly hear it:
+
+"You know--you know my resting-place!  How--when was that?"  There
+was nothing to do now but to speak out the truth:
+
+"I was in the crypt of St. Sava.  It was all by accident.  I was
+exploring all around the Castle, and I went there in my course.  I
+found the winding stair in the rock behind the screen, and went down.
+Dear, I loved you well before that awful moment, but then, even as
+the lantern fell tingling on the glass, my love multiplied itself,
+with pity as a factor."  She was silent for a few seconds.  When she
+spoke, there was a new tone in her voice:
+
+"But were you not shocked?"
+
+"Of course I was," I answered on the spur of the moment, and I now
+think wisely.  "Shocked is hardly the word.  I was horrified beyond
+anything that words can convey that you--YOU should have to so
+endure!  I did not like to return, for I feared lest my doing so
+might set some barrier between us.  But in due time I did return on
+another day."
+
+"Well?"  Her voice was like sweet music.
+
+"I had another shock that time, worse than before, for you were not
+there.  Then indeed it was that I knew to myself how dear you were--
+how dear you are to me.  Whilst I live, you--living or dead--shall
+always be in my heart."  She breathed hard.  The elation in her eyes
+made them outshine the moonlight, but she said no word.  I went on:
+
+"My dear, I had come into the crypt full of courage and hope, though
+I knew what dreadful sight should sear my eyes once again.  But we
+little know what may be in store for us, no matter what we expect.  I
+went out with a heart like water from that dreadful desolation."
+
+"Oh, how you love me, dear!"  Cheered by her words, and even more by
+her tone, I went on with renewed courage.  There was no halting, no
+faltering in my intention now:
+
+"You and I, my dear, were ordained for each other.  I cannot help it
+that you had already suffered before I knew you.  It may be that
+there may be for you still suffering that I may not prevent,
+endurance that I may not shorten; but what a man can do is yours.
+Not Hell itself will stop me, if it be possible that I may win
+through its torments with you in my arms!"
+
+"Will nothing stop you, then?"  Her question was breathed as softly
+as the strain of an AEolian harp.
+
+"Nothing!" I said, and I heard my own teeth snap together.  There was
+something speaking within me stronger than I had ever known myself to
+be.  Again came a query, trembling, quavering, quivering, as though
+the issue was of more than life or death:
+
+"Not this?"  She held up a corner of the shroud, and as she saw my
+face and realized the answer before I spoke, went on:  "With all it
+implies?"
+
+"Not if it were wrought of the cerecloths of the damned!"  There was
+a long pause.  Her voice was more resolute when she spoke again.  It
+rang.  Moreover, there was in it a joyous note, as of one who feels
+new hope:
+
+"But do you know what men say?  Some of them, that I am dead and
+buried; others, that I am not only dead and buried, but that I am one
+of those unhappy beings that may not die the common death of man.
+Who live on a fearful life-in-death, whereby they are harmful to all.
+Those unhappy Un-dead whom men call Vampires--who live on the blood
+of the living, and bring eternal damnation as well as death with the
+poison of their dreadful kisses!
+
+"I know what men say sometimes," I answered.  "But I know also what
+my own heart says; and I rather choose to obey its calling than all
+the voices of the living or the dead.  Come what may, I am pledged to
+you.  If it be that your old life has to be rewon for you out of the
+very jaws of Death and Hell, I shall keep the faith I have pledged,
+and that here I pledge again!"  As I finished speaking I sank on my
+knees at her feet, and, putting my arms round her, drew her close to
+me.  Her tears rained down on my face as she stroked my hair with her
+soft, strong hand and whispered to me:
+
+"This is indeed to be one.  What more holy marriage can God give to
+any of His creatures?"  We were both silent for a time.
+
+I think I was the first to recover my senses.  That I did so was
+manifest by my asking her:  "When may we meet again?"--a thing I had
+never remembered doing at any of our former partings.  She answered
+with a rising and falling of the voice that was just above a whisper,
+as soft and cooing as the voice of a pigeon:
+
+"That will be soon--as soon as I can manage it, be sure.  My dear, my
+dear!"  The last four words of endearment she spoke in a low but
+prolonged and piercing tone which made me thrill with delight.
+
+"Give me some token," I said, "that I may have always close to me to
+ease my aching heart till we meet again, and ever after, for love's
+sake!"  Her mind seemed to leap to understanding, and with a purpose
+all her own.  Stooping for an instant, she tore off with swift,
+strong fingers a fragment of her shroud.  This, having kissed it, she
+handed to me, whispering:
+
+"It is time that we part.  You must leave me now.  Take this, and
+keep it for ever.  I shall be less unhappy in my terrible loneliness
+whilst it lasts if I know that this my gift, which for good or ill is
+a part of me as you know me, is close to you.  It may be, my very
+dear, that some day you may be glad and even proud of this hour, as I
+am."  She kissed me as I took it.
+
+"For life or death, I care not which, so long as I am with you!" I
+said, as I moved off.  Descending the Jacob's ladder, I made my way
+down the rock-hewn passage.
+
+The last thing I saw was the beautiful face of my Lady of the Shroud
+as she leaned over the edge of the opening.  Her eyes were like
+glowing stars as her looks followed me.  That look shall never fade
+from my memory.
+
+After a few agitating moments of thought I half mechanically took my
+way down to the garden.  Opening the grille, I entered my lonely
+room, which looked all the more lonely for the memory of the
+rapturous moments under the Flagstaff.  I went to bed as one in a
+dream.  There I lay till sunrise--awake and thinking.
+
+
+
+BOOK V:  A RITUAL AT MIDNIGHT
+
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+June 20, 1907.
+
+The time has gone as quickly as work can effect since I saw my Lady.
+As I told the mountaineers, Rooke, whom I had sent on the service,
+had made a contract for fifty thousand Ingis-Malbron rifles, and as
+many tons of ammunition as the French experts calculated to be a full
+supply for a year of warfare.  I heard from him by our secret
+telegraph code that the order had been completed, and that the goods
+were already on the way.  The morning after the meeting at the
+Flagstaff I had word that at night the vessel--one chartered by Rooke
+for the purpose--would arrive at Vissarion during the night.  We were
+all expectation.  I had always now in the Castle a signalling party,
+the signals being renewed as fast as the men were sufficiently expert
+to proceed with their practice alone or in groups.  We hoped that
+every fighting-man in the country would in time become an expert
+signaller.  Beyond these, again, we have always a few priests.  The
+Church of the country is a militant Church; its priests are soldiers,
+its Bishops commanders.  But they all serve wherever the battle most
+needs them.  Naturally they, as men of brains, are quicker at
+learning than the average mountaineers; with the result that they
+learnt the code and the signalling almost by instinct.  We have now
+at least one such expert in each community of them, and shortly the
+priests alone will be able to signal, if need be, for the nation;
+thus releasing for active service the merely fighting-man.  The men
+at present with me I took into confidence as to the vessel's arrival,
+and we were all ready for work when the man on the lookout at the
+Flagstaff sent word that a vessel without lights was creeping in
+towards shore.  We all assembled on the rocky edge of the creek, and
+saw her steal up the creek and gain the shelter of the harbour.  When
+this had been effected, we ran out the boom which protects the
+opening, and after that the great armoured sliding-gates which Uncle
+Roger had himself had made so as to protect the harbour in case of
+need.
+
+We then came within and assisted in warping the steamer to the side
+of the dock.
+
+Rooke looked fit, and was full of fire and vigour.  His
+responsibility and the mere thought of warlike action seemed to have
+renewed his youth.
+
+When we had arranged for the unloading of the cases of arms and
+ammunition, I took Rooke into the room which we call my "office,"
+where he gave me an account of his doings.  He had not only secured
+the rifles and the ammunition for them, but he had purchased from one
+of the small American Republics an armoured yacht which had been
+especially built for war service.  He grew quite enthusiastic, even
+excited, as he told me of her:
+
+"She is the last word in naval construction--a torpedo yacht.  A
+small cruiser, with turbines up to date, oil-fuelled, and fully armed
+with the latest and most perfect weapons and explosives of all kinds.
+The fastest boat afloat to-day.  Built by Thorneycroft, engined by
+Parsons, armoured by Armstrong, armed by Crupp.  If she ever comes
+into action, it will be bad for her opponent, for she need not fear
+to tackle anything less than a Dreadnought."
+
+He also told me that from the same Government, whose nation had just
+established an unlooked-for peace, he had also purchased a whole park
+of artillery of the very latest patterns, and that for range and
+accuracy the guns were held to be supreme.  These would follow before
+long, and with them their proper ammunition, with a shipload of the
+same to follow shortly after.
+
+When he had told me all the rest of his news, and handed me the
+accounts, we went out to the dock to see the debarkation of the war
+material.  Knowing that it was arriving, I had sent word in the
+afternoon to the mountaineers to tell them to come and remove it.
+They had answered the call, and it really seemed to me that the whole
+of the land must that night have been in motion.
+
+They came as individuals, grouping themselves as they came within the
+defences of the Castle; some had gathered at fixed points on the way.
+They went secretly and in silence, stealing through the forests like
+ghosts, each party when it grouped taking the place of that which had
+gone on one of the routes radiating round Vissarion.  Their coming
+and going was more than ghostly.  It was, indeed, the outward
+manifestation of an inward spirit--a whole nation dominated by one
+common purpose.
+
+The men in the steamer were nearly all engineers, mostly British,
+well conducted, and to be depended upon.  Rooke had picked them
+separately, and in the doing had used well his great experience of
+both men and adventurous life.  These men were to form part of the
+armoured yacht's crew when she should come into the Mediterranean
+waters.  They and the priests and fighting-men in the Castle worked
+well together, and with a zeal that was beyond praise.  The heavy
+cases seemed almost of their own accord to leave the holds, so fast
+came the procession of them along the gangways from deck to dock-
+wall.  It was a part of my design that the arms should be placed in
+centres ready for local distribution.  In such a country as this,
+without railways or even roads, the distribution of war material in
+any quantity is a great labour, for it has to be done individually,
+or at least from centres.
+
+But of this work the great number of mountaineers who were arriving
+made little account.  As fast as the ship's company, with the
+assistance of the priests and fighting-men, placed the cases on the
+quay, the engineers opened them and laid the contents ready for
+portage.  The mountaineers seemed to come in a continuous stream;
+each in turn shouldered his burden and passed out, the captain of his
+section giving him as he passed his instruction where to go and in
+what route.  The method had been already prepared in my office ready
+for such a distribution when the arms should arrive, and descriptions
+and quantities had been noted by the captains.  The whole affair was
+treated by all as a matter of the utmost secrecy.  Hardly a word was
+spoken beyond the necessary directions, and these were given in
+whispers.  All night long the stream of men went and came, and
+towards dawn the bulk of the imported material was lessened by half.
+On the following night the remainder was removed, after my own men
+had stored in the Castle the rifles and ammunition reserved for its
+defence if necessary.  It was advisable to keep a reserve supply in
+case it should ever be required.  The following night Rooke went away
+secretly in the chartered vessel.  He had to bring back with him the
+purchased cannon and heavy ammunition, which had been in the meantime
+stored on one of the Greek islands.  The second morning, having had
+secret word that the steamer was on the way, I had given the signal
+for the assembling of the mountaineers.
+
+A little after dark the vessel, showing no light, stole into the
+creek.  The barrier gates were once again closed, and when a
+sufficient number of men had arrived to handle the guns, we began to
+unload.  The actual deportation was easy enough, for the dock had all
+necessary appliances quite up to date, including a pair of shears for
+gun-lifting which could be raised into position in a very short time.
+
+The guns were well furnished with tackle of all sorts, and before
+many hours had passed a little procession of them disappeared into
+the woods in ghostly silence.  A number of men surrounded each, and
+they moved as well as if properly supplied with horses.
+
+In the meantime, and for a week after the arrival of the guns, the
+drilling went on without pause.  The gun-drill was wonderful.  In the
+arduous work necessary for it the great strength and stamina of the
+mountaineers showed out wonderfully.  They did not seem to know
+fatigue any more than they knew fear.
+
+For a week this went on, till a perfect discipline and management was
+obtained.  They did not practise the shooting, for this would have
+made secrecy impossible.  It was reported all along the Turkish
+frontier that the Sultan's troops were being massed, and though this
+was not on a war footing, the movement was more or less dangerous.
+The reports of our own spies, although vague as to the purpose and
+extent of the movement, were definite as to something being on foot.
+And Turkey does not do something without a purpose that bodes ill to
+someone.  Certainly the sound of cannon, which is a far-reaching
+sound, would have given them warning of our preparations, and would
+so have sadly minimized their effectiveness.
+
+When the cannon had all been disposed of--except, of course, those
+destined for defence of the Castle or to be stored there--Rooke went
+away with the ship and crew.  The ship he was to return to the
+owners; the men would be shipped on the war-yacht, of whose crew they
+would form a part.  The rest of them had been carefully selected by
+Rooke himself, and were kept in secrecy at Cattaro, ready for service
+the moment required.  They were all good men, and quite capable of
+whatever work they might be set to.  So Rooke told me, and he ought
+to know.  The experience of his young days as a private made him an
+expert in such a job.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+June 24, 1907.
+
+Last night I got from my Lady a similar message to the last, and
+delivered in a similar way.  This time, however, our meeting was to
+be on the leads of the Keep.
+
+I dressed myself very carefully before going on this adventure, lest
+by any chance of household concern, any of the servants should see
+me; for if this should happen, Aunt Janet would be sure to hear of
+it, which would give rise to endless surmises and questionings--a
+thing I was far from desiring.
+
+I confess that in thinking the matter over during the time I was
+making my hurried preparations I was at a loss to understand how any
+human body, even though it be of the dead, could go or be conveyed to
+such a place without some sort of assistance, or, at least,
+collusion, on the part of some of the inmates.  At the visit to the
+Flagstaff circumstances were different.  This spot was actually
+outside the Castle, and in order to reach it I myself had to leave
+the Castle privately, and from the garden ascend to the ramparts.
+But here was no such possibility.  The Keep was an imperium in
+imperio.  It stood within the Castle, though separated from it, and
+it had its own defences against intrusion.  The roof of it was, so
+far as I knew, as little approachable as the magazine.
+
+The difficulty did not, however, trouble me beyond a mere passing
+thought.  In the joy of the coming meeting and the longing rapture at
+the mere thought of it, all difficulties disappeared.  Love makes its
+own faith, and I never doubted that my Lady would be waiting for me
+at the place designated.  When I had passed through the little arched
+passages, and up the doubly-grated stairways contrived in the
+massiveness of the walls, I let myself out on the leads.  It was well
+that as yet the times were sufficiently peaceful not to necessitate
+guards or sentries at all such points.
+
+There, in a dim corner where the moonlight and the passing clouds
+threw deep shadows, I saw her, clothed as ever in her shroud.  Why, I
+know not.  I felt somehow that the situation was even more serious
+than ever.  But I was steeled to whatever might come.  My mind had
+been already made up.  To carry out my resolve to win the woman I
+loved I was ready to face death.  But now, after we had for a few
+brief moments held each other in our arms, I was willing to accept
+death--or more than death.  Now, more than before, was she sweet and
+dear to me.  Whatever qualms there might have been at the beginning
+of our love-making, or during the progress of it, did not now exist.
+We had exchanged vows and confidences, and acknowledged our loves.
+What, then, could there be of distrust, or even doubt, that the
+present might not set at naught?  But even had there been such doubts
+or qualms, they must have disappeared in the ardour of our mutual
+embrace.  I was by now mad for her, and was content to be so mad.
+When she had breath to speak after the strictness of our embrace, she
+said:
+
+"I have come to warn you to be more than ever careful."  It was, I
+confess, a pang to me, who thought only of love, to hear that
+anything else should have been the initiative power of her coming,
+even though it had been her concern for my own safety.  I could not
+but notice the bitter note of chagrin in my voice as I answered:
+
+"It was for love's sake that _I_ came."  She, too, evidently felt the
+undercurrent of pain, for she said quickly:
+
+"Ah, dearest, I, too, came for love's sake.  It is because I love you
+that I am so anxious about you.  What would the world--ay, or heaven-
+-be to me without you?"
+
+There was such earnest truth in her tone that the sense and
+realization of my own harshness smote me.  In the presence of such
+love as this even a lover's selfishness must become abashed.  I could
+not express myself in words, so simply raised her slim hand in mine
+and kissed it.  As it lay warm in my own I could not but notice, as
+well as its fineness, its strength and the firmness of its clasp.
+Its warmth and fervour struck into my heart--and my brain.  Thereupon
+I poured out to her once more my love for her, she listening all
+afire.  When passion had had its say, the calmer emotions had
+opportunity of expression.  When I was satisfied afresh of her
+affection, I began to value her care for my safety, and so I went
+back to the subject.  Her very insistence, based on personal
+affection, gave me more solid ground for fear.  In the moment of love
+transports I had forgotten, or did not think, of what wonderful power
+or knowledge she must have to be able to move in such strange ways as
+she did.  Why, at this very moment she was within my own gates.
+Locks and bars, even the very seal of death itself, seemed unable to
+make for her a prison-house.  With such freedom of action and
+movement, going when she would into secret places, what might she not
+know that was known to others?  How could anyone keep secret from
+such an one even an ill intent?  Such thoughts, such surmises, had
+often flashed through my mind in moments of excitement rather than of
+reflection, but never long enough to become fixed into belief.  But
+yet the consequences, the convictions, of them were with me, though
+unconsciously, though the thoughts themselves were perhaps forgotten
+or withered before development.
+
+"And you?" I asked her earnestly.  "What about danger to you?"  She
+smiled, her little pearl-white teeth gleaming in the moonlight, as
+she spoke:
+
+"There is no danger for me.  I am safe.  I am the safest person,
+perhaps the only safe person, in all this land."  The full
+significance of her words did not seem to come to me all at once.
+Some base for understanding such an assertion seemed to be wanting.
+It was not that I did not trust or believe her, but that I thought
+she might be mistaken.  I wanted to reassure myself, so in my
+distress I asked unthinkingly:
+
+"How the safest?  What is your protection?"  For several moments that
+spun themselves out endlessly she looked me straight in the face, the
+stars in her eyes seeming to glow like fire; then, lowering her head,
+she took a fold of her shroud and held it up to me.
+
+"This!"
+
+The meaning was complete and understandable now.  I could not speak
+at once for the wave of emotion which choked me.  I dropped on my
+knees, and taking her in my arms, held her close to me.  She saw that
+I was moved, and tenderly stroked my hair, and with delicate touch
+pressed down my head on her bosom, as a mother might have done to
+comfort a frightened child.
+
+Presently we got back to the realities of life again.  I murmured:
+
+"Your safety, your life, your happiness are all-in-all to me.  When
+will you let them be my care?"  She trembled in my arms, nestling
+even closer to me.  Her own arms seemed to quiver with delight as she
+said:
+
+"Would you indeed like me to be always with you?  To me it would be a
+happiness unspeakable; and to you, what would it be?"
+
+I thought that she wished to hear me speak my love to her, and that,
+woman-like, she had led me to the utterance, and so I spoke again of
+the passion that now raged in me, she listening eagerly as we
+strained each other tight in our arms.  At last there came a pause, a
+long, long pause, and our hearts beat consciously in unison as we
+stood together.  Presently she said in a sweet, low, intense whisper,
+as soft as the sighing of summer wind:
+
+"It shall be as you wish; but oh, my dear, you will have to first go
+through an ordeal which may try you terribly!  Do not ask me
+anything!  You must not ask, because I may not answer, and it would
+be pain to me to deny you anything.  Marriage with such an one as I
+am has its own ritual, which may not be foregone.  It may . . . "  I
+broke passionately into her speaking:
+
+"There is no ritual that I fear, so long as it be that it is for your
+good, and your lasting happiness.  And if the end of it be that I may
+call you mine, there is no horror in life or death that I shall not
+gladly face.  Dear, I ask you nothing.  I am content to leave myself
+in your hands.  You shall advise me when the time comes, and I shall
+be satisfied, content to obey.  Content!  It is but a poor word to
+express what I long for!  I shall shirk nothing which may come to me
+from this or any other world, so long as it is to make you mine!"
+Once again her murmured happiness was music to my ears:
+
+"Oh, how you love me! how you love me, dear, dear!"  She took me in
+her arms, and for a few seconds we hung together.  Suddenly she tore
+herself apart from me, and stood drawn up to the full height, with a
+dignity I cannot describe or express.  Her voice had a new dominance,
+as with firm utterance and in staccato manner she said:
+
+"Rupert Sent Leger, before we go a step further I must say something
+to you, ask you something, and I charge you, on your most sacred
+honour and belief, to answer me truly.  Do you believe me to be one
+of those unhappy beings who may not die, but have to live in shameful
+existence between earth and the nether world, and whose hellish
+mission is to destroy, body and soul, those who love them till they
+fall to their level?  You are a gentleman, and a brave one.  I have
+found you fearless.  Answer me in sternest truth, no matter what the
+issue may be!"
+
+She stood there in the glamorous moonlight with a commanding dignity
+which seemed more than human.  In that mystic light her white shroud
+seemed diaphanous, and she appeared like a spirit of power.  What was
+I to say?  How could I admit to such a being that I had actually had
+at moments, if not a belief, a passing doubt?  It was a conviction
+with me that if I spoke wrongly I should lose her for ever.  I was in
+a desperate strait.  In such a case there is but one solid ground
+which one may rest on--the Truth.
+
+I really felt I was between the devil and the deep sea.  There was no
+avoiding the issue, and so, out of this all-embracing, all-compelling
+conviction of truth, I spoke.
+
+For a fleeting moment I felt that my tone was truculent, and almost
+hesitated; but as I saw no anger or indignation on my Lady's face,
+but rather an eager approval, I was reassured.  A woman, after all,
+is glad to see a man strong, for all belief in him must be based on
+that.
+
+"I shall speak the truth.  Remember that I have no wish to hurt your
+feelings, but as you conjure me by my honour, you must forgive me if
+I pain.  It is true that I had at first--ay, and later, when I came
+to think matters over after you had gone, when reason came to the aid
+of impression--a passing belief that you are a Vampire.  How can I
+fail to have, even now, though I love you with all my soul, though I
+have held you in my arms and kissed you on the mouth, a doubt, when
+all the evidences seem to point to one thing?  Remember that I have
+only seen you at night, except that bitter moment when, in the broad
+noonday of the upper world, I saw you, clad as ever in a shroud,
+lying seemingly dead in a tomb in the crypt of St. Sava's Church . .
+. But let that pass.  Such belief as I have is all in you.  Be you
+woman or Vampire, it is all the same to me.  It is YOU whom I love!
+Should it be that you are--you are not woman, which I cannot believe,
+then it will be my glory to break your fetters, to open your prison,
+and set you free.  To that I consecrate my life."  For a few seconds
+I stood silent, vibrating with the passion which had been awakened in
+me.  She had by now lost the measure of her haughty isolation, and
+had softened into womanhood again.  It was really like a realization
+of the old theme of Pygmalion's statue.  It was with rather a
+pleading than a commanding voice that she said:
+
+"And shall you always be true to me?"
+
+"Always--so help me, God!" I answered, and I felt that there could be
+no lack of conviction in my voice.
+
+Indeed, there was no cause for such lack.  She also stood for a
+little while stone-still, and I was beginning to expand to the
+rapture which was in store for me when she should take me again in
+her arms.
+
+But there was no such moment of softness.  All at once she started as
+if she had suddenly wakened from a dream, and on the spur of the
+moment said:
+
+"Now go, go!"  I felt the conviction of necessity to obey, and turned
+at once.  As I moved towards the door by which I had entered, I
+asked:
+
+"When shall I see you again?"
+
+"Soon!" came her answer.  "I shall let you know soon--when and where.
+Oh, go, go!"  She almost pushed me from her.
+
+When I had passed through the low doorway and locked and barred it
+behind me, I felt a pang that I should have had to shut her out like
+that; but I feared lest there should arise some embarrassing
+suspicion if the door should be found open.  Later came the
+comforting thought that, as she had got to the roof though the door
+had been shut, she would be able to get away by the same means.  She
+had evidently knowledge of some secret way into the Castle.  The
+alternative was that she must have some supernatural quality or
+faculty which gave her strange powers.  I did not wish to pursue that
+train of thought, and so, after an effort, shut it out from my mind.
+
+When I got back to my room I locked the door behind me, and went to
+sleep in the dark.  I did not want light just then--could not bear
+it.
+
+This morning I woke, a little later than usual, with a kind of
+apprehension which I could not at once understand.  Presently,
+however, when my faculties became fully awake and in working order, I
+realized that I feared, half expected, that Aunt Janet would come to
+me in a worse state of alarm than ever apropos of some new Second-
+Sight experience of more than usual ferocity.
+
+But, strange to say, I had no such visit.  Later on in the morning,
+when, after breakfast, we walked together through the garden, I asked
+her how she had slept, and if she had dreamt.  She answered me that
+she had slept without waking, and if she had had any dreams, they
+must have been pleasant ones, for she did not remember them.  "And
+you know, Rupert," she added, "that if there be anything bad or
+fearsome or warning in dreams, I always remember them."
+
+Later still, when I was by myself on the cliff beyond the creek, I
+could not help commenting on the absence of her power of Second Sight
+on the occasion.  Surely, if ever there was a time when she might
+have had cause of apprehension, it might well have been when I asked
+the Lady whom she did not know to marry me--the Lady of whose
+identity I knew nothing, even whose name I did not know--whom I loved
+with all my heart and soul--my Lady of the Shroud.
+
+I have lost faith in Second Sight.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+July 1, 1907.
+
+Another week gone.  I have waited patiently, and I am at last
+rewarded by another letter.  I was preparing for bed a little while
+ago, when I heard the same mysterious sound at the door as on the
+last two occasions.  I hurried to the glass door, and there found
+another close-folded letter.  But I could see no sign of my Lady, or
+of any other living being.  The letter, which was without direction,
+ran as follows:
+
+"If you are still of the same mind, and feel no misgivings, meet me
+at the Church of St. Sava beyond the Creek to-morrow night at a
+quarter before midnight.  If you come, come in secret, and, of
+course, alone.  Do not come at all unless you are prepared for a
+terrible ordeal.  But if you love me, and have neither doubts nor
+fears, come.  Come!"
+
+Needless to say, I did not sleep last night.  I tried to, but without
+success.  It was no morbid happiness that kept me awake, no doubting,
+no fear.  I was simply overwhelmed with the idea of the coming
+rapture when I should call my Lady my very, very own.  In this sea of
+happy expectation all lesser things were submerged.  Even sleep,
+which is an imperative force with me, failed in its usual
+effectiveness, and I lay still, calm, content.
+
+With the coming of the morning, however, restlessness began.  I did
+not know what to do, how to restrain myself, where to look for an
+anodyne.  Happily the latter came in the shape of Rooke, who turned
+up shortly after breakfast.  He had a satisfactory tale to tell me of
+the armoured yacht, which had lain off Cattaro on the previous night,
+and to which he had brought his contingent of crew which had waited
+for her coming.  He did not like to take the risk of going into any
+port with such a vessel, lest he might be detained or otherwise
+hampered by forms, and had gone out upon the open sea before
+daylight.  There was on board the yacht a tiny torpedo-boat, for
+which provision was made both for hoisting on deck and housing there.
+This last would run into the creek at ten o'clock that evening, at
+which time it would be dark.  The yacht would then run to near
+Otranto, to which she would send a boat to get any message I might
+send.  This was to be in a code, which we arranged, and would convey
+instructions as to what night and approximate hour the yacht would
+come to the creek.
+
+The day was well on before we had made certain arrangements for the
+future; and not till then did I feel again the pressure of my
+personal restlessness.  Rooke, like a wise commander, took rest
+whilst he could.  Well he knew that for a couple of days and nights
+at least there would be little, if any, sleep for him.
+
+For myself, the habit of self-control stood to me, and I managed to
+get through the day somehow without exciting the attention of anyone
+else.  The arrival of the torpedo-boat and the departure of Rooke
+made for me a welcome break in my uneasiness.  An hour ago I said
+good-night to Aunt Janet, and shut myself up alone here.  My watch is
+on the table before me, so that I may make sure of starting to the
+moment.  I have allowed myself half an hour to reach St. Sava.  My
+skiff is waiting, moored at the foot of the cliff on the hither side,
+where the zigzag comes close to the water.  It is now ten minutes
+past eleven.
+
+I shall add the odd five minutes to the time for my journey so as to
+make safe.  I go unarmed and without a light.
+
+I shall show no distrust of anyone or anything this night.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+July 2, 1907.
+
+When I was outside the church, I looked at my watch in the bright
+moonlight, and found I had one minute to wait.  So I stood in the
+shadow of the doorway and looked out at the scene before me.  Not a
+sign of life was visible around me, either on land or sea.  On the
+broad plateau on which the church stands there was no movement of any
+kind.  The wind, which had been pleasant in the noontide, had fallen
+completely, and not a leaf was stirring.  I could see across the
+creek and note the hard line where the battlements of the Castle cut
+the sky, and where the keep towered above the line of black rock,
+which in the shadow of the land made an ebon frame for the picture.
+When I had seen the same view on former occasions, the line where the
+rock rose from the sea was a fringe of white foam.  But then, in the
+daylight, the sea was sapphire blue; now it was an expanse of dark
+blue--so dark as to seem almost black.  It had not even the relief of
+waves or ripples--simply a dark, cold, lifeless expanse, with no
+gleam of light anywhere, of lighthouse or ship; neither was there any
+special sound to be heard that one could distinguish--nothing but the
+distant hum of the myriad voices of the dark mingling in one
+ceaseless inarticulate sound.  It was well I had not time to dwell on
+it, or I might have reached some spiritually-disturbing melancholy.
+
+Let me say here that ever since I had received my Lady's message
+concerning this visit to St. Sava's I had been all on fire--not,
+perhaps, at every moment consciously or actually so, but always, as
+it were, prepared to break out into flame.  Did I want a simile, I
+might compare myself to a well-banked furnace, whose present function
+it is to contain heat rather than to create it; whose crust can at
+any moment be broken by a force external to itself, and burst into
+raging, all-compelling heat.  No thought of fear really entered my
+mind.  Every other emotion there was, coming and going as occasion
+excited or lulled, but not fear.  Well I knew in the depths of my
+heart the purpose which that secret quest was to serve.  I knew not
+only from my Lady's words, but from the teachings of my own senses
+and experiences, that some dreadful ordeal must take place before
+happiness of any kind could be won.  And that ordeal, though method
+or detail was unknown to me, I was prepared to undertake.  This was
+one of those occasions when a man must undertake, blindfold, ways
+that may lead to torture or death, or unknown terrors beyond.  But,
+then, a man--if, indeed, he have the heart of a man--can always
+undertake; he can at least make the first step, though it may turn
+out that through the weakness of mortality he may be unable to fulfil
+his own intent, or justify his belief in his own powers.  Such, I
+take it, was the intellectual attitude of the brave souls who of old
+faced the tortures of the Inquisition.
+
+But though there was no immediate fear, there was a certain doubt.
+For doubt is one of those mental conditions whose calling we cannot
+control.  The end of the doubting may not be a reality to us, or be
+accepted as a possibility.  These things cannot forego the existence
+of the doubt.  "For even if a man," says Victor Cousin, "doubt
+everything else, at least he cannot doubt that he doubts."  The doubt
+had at times been on me that my Lady of the Shroud was a Vampire.
+Much that had happened seemed to point that way, and here, on the
+very threshold of the Unknown, when, through the door which I was
+pushing open, my eyes met only an expanse of absolute blackness, all
+doubts which had ever been seemed to surround me in a legion.  I have
+heard that, when a man is drowning, there comes a time when his whole
+life passes in review during the space of time which cannot be
+computed as even a part of a second.  So it was to me in the moment
+of my body passing into the church.  In that moment came to my mind
+all that had been, which bore on the knowledge of my Lady; and the
+general tendency was to prove or convince that she was indeed a
+Vampire.  Much that had happened, or become known to me, seemed to
+justify the resolving of doubt into belief.  Even my own reading of
+the books in Aunt Janet's little library, and the dear lady's
+comments on them, mingled with her own uncanny beliefs, left little
+opening for doubt.  My having to help my Lady over the threshold of
+my house on her first entry was in accord with Vampire tradition; so,
+too, her flying at cock-crow from the warmth in which she revelled on
+that strange first night of our meeting; so, too, her swift departure
+at midnight on the second.  Into the same category came the facts of
+her constant wearing of her Shroud, even her pledging herself, and me
+also, on the fragment torn from it, which she had given to me as a
+souvenir; her lying still in the glass-covered tomb; her coming alone
+to the most secret places in a fortified Castle where every aperture
+was secured by unopened locks and bolts; her very movements, though
+all of grace, as she flitted noiselessly through the gloom of night.
+
+All these things, and a thousand others of lesser import, seemed, for
+the moment, to have consolidated an initial belief.  But then came
+the supreme recollections of how she had lain in my arms; of her
+kisses on my lips; of the beating of her heart against my own; of her
+sweet words of belief and faith breathed in my ear in intoxicating
+whispers; of . . . I paused.  No!  I could not accept belief as to
+her being other than a living woman of soul and sense, of flesh and
+blood, of all the sweet and passionate instincts of true and perfect
+womanhood.
+
+And so, in spite of all--in spite of all beliefs, fixed or
+transitory, with a mind whirling amid contesting forces and
+compelling beliefs--I stepped into the church overwhelmed with that
+most receptive of atmospheres--doubt.
+
+In one thing only was I fixed:  here at least was no doubt or
+misgiving whatever.  I intended to go through what I had undertaken.
+Moreover, I felt that I was strong enough to carry out my intention,
+whatever might be of the Unknown--however horrible, however terrible.
+
+When I had entered the church and closed the heavy door behind me,
+the sense of darkness and loneliness in all their horror enfolded me
+round.  The great church seemed a living mystery, and served as an
+almost terrible background to thoughts and remembrances of
+unutterable gloom.  My adventurous life has had its own schooling to
+endurance and upholding one's courage in trying times; but it has its
+contra in fulness of memory.
+
+I felt my way forward with both hands and feet.  Every second seemed
+as if it had brought me at last to a darkness which was actually
+tangible.  All at once, and with no heed of sequence or order, I was
+conscious of all around me, the knowledge or perception of which--or
+even speculation on the subject--had never entered my mind.  They
+furnished the darkness with which I was encompassed with all the
+crowded phases of a dream.  I knew that all around me were memorials
+of the dead--that in the Crypt deep-wrought in the rock below my feet
+lay the dead themselves.  Some of them, perhaps--one of them I knew--
+had even passed the grim portals of time Unknown, and had, by some
+mysterious power or agency, come back again to material earth.  There
+was no resting-place for thought when I knew that the very air which
+I breathed might be full of denizens of the spirit-world.  In that
+impenetrable blackness was a world of imagining whose possibilities
+of horror were endless.
+
+I almost fancied that I could see with mortal eyes down through that
+rocky floor to where, in the lonely Crypt, lay, in her tomb of
+massive stone and under that bewildering coverlet of glass, the woman
+whom I love.  I could see her beautiful face, her long black lashes,
+her sweet mouth--which I had kissed--relaxed in the sleep of death.
+I could note the voluminous shroud--a piece of which as a precious
+souvenir lay even then so close to my heart--the snowy woollen
+coverlet wrought over in gold with sprigs of pine, the soft dent in
+the cushion on which her head must for so long have lain.  I could
+see myself--within my eyes the memory of that first visit--coming
+once again with glad step to renew that dear sight--dear, though it
+scorched my eyes and harrowed my heart--and finding the greater
+sorrow, the greater desolation of the empty tomb!
+
+There!  I felt that I must think no more of that lest the thought
+should unnerve me when I should most want all my courage.  That way
+madness lay!  The darkness had already sufficient terrors of its own
+without bringing to it such grim remembrances and imaginings . . .
+And I had yet to go through some ordeal which, even to her who had
+passed and repassed the portals of death, was full of fear.
+
+It was a merciful relief to me when, in groping my way forwards
+through the darkness, I struck against some portion of the furnishing
+of the church.  Fortunately I was all strung up to tension, else I
+should never have been able to control instinctively, as I did, the
+shriek which was rising to my lips.
+
+I would have given anything to have been able to light even a match.
+A single second of light would, I felt, have made me my own man
+again.  But I knew that this would be against the implied condition
+of my being there at all, and might have had disastrous consequences
+to her whom I had come to save.  It might even frustrate my scheme,
+and altogether destroy my opportunity.  At that moment it was borne
+upon me more strongly than ever that this was not a mere fight for
+myself or my own selfish purposes--not merely an adventure or a
+struggle for only life and death against unknown difficulties and
+dangers.  It was a fight on behalf of her I loved, not merely for her
+life, but perhaps even for her soul.
+
+And yet this very thinking--understanding--created a new form of
+terror.  For in that grim, shrouding darkness came memories of other
+moments of terrible stress.
+
+Of wild, mystic rites held in the deep gloom of African forests,
+when, amid scenes of revolting horror, Obi and the devils of his kind
+seemed to reveal themselves to reckless worshippers, surfeited with
+horror, whose lives counted for naught; when even human sacrifice was
+an episode, and the reek of old deviltries and recent carnage tainted
+the air, till even I, who was, at the risk of my life, a privileged
+spectator who had come through dangers without end to behold the
+scene, rose and fled in horror.
+
+Of scenes of mystery enacted in rock-cut temples beyond the
+Himalayas, whose fanatic priests, cold as death and as remorseless,
+in the reaction of their phrenzy of passion, foamed at the mouth and
+then sank into marble quiet, as with inner eyes they beheld the
+visions of the hellish powers which they had invoked.
+
+Of wild, fantastic dances of the Devil-worshippers of Madagascar,
+where even the very semblance of humanity disappeared in the
+fantastic excesses of their orgies.
+
+Of strange doings of gloom and mystery in the rock-perched
+monasteries of Thibet.
+
+Of awful sacrifices, all to mystic ends, in the innermost recesses of
+Cathay.
+
+Of weird movements with masses of poisonous snakes by the medicine-
+men of the Zuni and Mochi Indians in the far south-west of the
+Rockies, beyond the great plains.
+
+Of secret gatherings in vast temples of old Mexico, and by dim altars
+of forgotten cities in the heart of great forests in South America.
+
+Of rites of inconceivable horror in the fastnesses of Patagonia.
+
+Of . . . Here I once more pulled myself up.  Such thoughts were no
+kind of proper preparation for what I might have to endure.  My work
+that night was to be based on love, on hope, on self-sacrifice for
+the woman who in all the world was the closest to my heart, whose
+future I was to share, whether that sharing might lead me to Hell or
+Heaven.  The hand which undertook such a task must have no trembling.
+
+Still, those horrible memories had, I am bound to say, a useful part
+in my preparation for the ordeal.  They were of fact which I had
+seen, of which I had myself been in part a sharer, and which I had
+survived.  With such experiences behind me, could there be aught
+before me more dreadful? . . .
+
+Moreover, if the coming ordeal was of supernatural or superhuman
+order, could it transcend in living horror the vilest and most
+desperate acts of the basest men? . . .
+
+With renewed courage I felt my way before me, till my sense of touch
+told me that I was at the screen behind which lay the stair to the
+Crypt.
+
+There I waited, silent, still.
+
+My own part was done, so far as I knew how to do it.  Beyond this,
+what was to come was, so far as I knew, beyond my own control.  I had
+done what I could; the rest must come from others.  I had exactly
+obeyed my instructions, fulfilled my warranty to the utmost in my
+knowledge and power.  There was, therefore, left for me in the
+present nothing but to wait.
+
+It is a peculiarity of absolute darkness that it creates its own
+reaction.  The eye, wearied of the blackness, begins to imagine forms
+of light.  How far this is effected by imagination pure and simple I
+know not.  It may be that nerves have their own senses that bring
+thought to the depository common to all the human functions, but,
+whatever may be the mechanism or the objective, the darkness seems to
+people itself with luminous entities.
+
+So was it with me as I stood lonely in the dark, silent church.  Here
+and there seemed to flash tiny points of light.
+
+In the same way the silence began to be broken now and again by
+strange muffled sounds--the suggestion of sounds rather than actual
+vibrations.  These were all at first of the minor importance of
+movement--rustlings, creakings, faint stirrings, fainter breathings.
+Presently, when I had somewhat recovered from the sort of hypnotic
+trance to which the darkness and stillness had during the time of
+waiting reduced me, I looked around in wonder.
+
+The phantoms of light and sound seemed to have become real.  There
+were most certainly actual little points of light in places--not
+enough to see details by, but quite sufficient to relieve the utter
+gloom.  I thought--though it may have been a mingling of recollection
+and imagination--that I could distinguish the outlines of the church;
+certainly the great altar-screen was dimly visible.  Instinctively I
+looked up--and thrilled.  There, hung high above me, was, surely
+enough, a great Greek Cross, outlined by tiny points of light.
+
+I lost myself in wonder, and stood still, in a purely receptive mood,
+unantagonistic to aught, willing for whatever might come, ready for
+all things, in rather a negative than a positive mood--a mood which
+has an aspect of spiritual meekness.  This is the true spirit of the
+neophyte, and, though I did not think of it at the time, the proper
+attitude for what is called by the Church in whose temple I stood a
+"neo-nymph."
+
+As the light grew a little in power, though never increasing enough
+for distinctness, I saw dimly before me a table on which rested a
+great open book, whereon were laid two rings--one of sliver, the
+other of gold--and two crowns wrought of flowers, bound at the
+joining of their stems with tissue--one of gold, the other of silver.
+I do not know much of the ritual of the old Greek Church, which is
+the religion of the Blue Mountains, but the things which I saw before
+me could be none other than enlightening symbols.  Instinctively I
+knew that I had been brought hither, though in this grim way, to be
+married.  The very idea of it thrilled me to the heart's core.  I
+thought the best thing I could do would be to stay quite still, and
+not show surprise at anything that might happen; but be sure I was
+all eyes and ears.
+
+I peered anxiously around me in every direction, but I could see no
+sign of her whom I had come to meet.
+
+Incidentally, however, I noticed that in the lighting, such as it
+was, there was no flame, no "living" light.  Whatever light there was
+came muffled, as though through some green translucent stone.  The
+whole effect was terribly weird and disconcerting.
+
+Presently I started, as, seemingly out of the darkness beside me, a
+man's hand stretched out and took mine.  Turning, I found close to me
+a tall man with shining black eyes and long black hair and beard.  He
+was clad in some kind of gorgeous robe of cloth of gold, rich with
+variety of adornment.  His head was covered with a high, over-hanging
+hat draped closely with a black scarf, the ends of which formed a
+long, hanging veil on either side.  These veils, falling over the
+magnificent robes of cloth of gold, had an extraordinarily solemn
+effect.
+
+I yielded myself to the guiding hand, and shortly found myself, so
+far as I could see, at one side of the sanctuary.
+
+In the floor close to my feet was a yawning chasm, into which, from
+so high over my head that in the uncertain light I could not
+distinguish its origin, hung a chain.  At the sight a strange wave of
+memory swept over me.  I could not but remember the chain which hung
+over the glass-covered tomb in the Crypt, and I had an instinctive
+feeling that the grim chasm in the floor of the sanctuary was but the
+other side of the opening in the roof of the crypt from which the
+chain over the sarcophagus depended.
+
+There was a creaking sound--the groaning of a windlass and the
+clanking of a chain.  There was heavy breathing close to me
+somewhere.  I was so intent on what was going on that I did not see
+that one by one, seeming to grow out of the surrounding darkness,
+several black figures in monkish garb appeared with the silence of
+ghosts.  Their faces were shrouded in black cowls, wherein were holes
+through which I could see dark gleaming eyes.  My guide held me
+tightly by the hand.  This gave me a feeling of security in the touch
+which helped to retain within my breast some semblance of calm.
+
+The strain of the creaking windlass and the clanking chain continued
+for so long that the suspense became almost unendurable.  At last
+there came into sight an iron ring, from which as a centre depended
+four lesser chains spreading wide.  In a few seconds more I could see
+that these were fixed to the corners of the great stone tomb with the
+covering of glass, which was being dragged upward.  As it arose it
+filled closely the whole aperture.  When its bottom had reached the
+level of the floor it stopped, and remained rigid.  There was no room
+for oscillation.  It was at once surrounded by a number of black
+figures, who raised the glass covering and bore it away into the
+darkness.  Then there stepped forward a very tall man, black-bearded,
+and with head-gear like my guide, but made in triple tiers, he also
+was gorgeously arrayed in flowing robes of cloth of gold richly
+embroidered.  He raised his hand, and forthwith eight other black-
+clad figures stepped forward, and bending over the stone coffin,
+raised from it the rigid form of my Lady, still clad in her Shroud,
+and laid it gently on the floor of the sanctuary.
+
+I felt it a grace that at that instant the dim lights seemed to grow
+less, and finally to disappear--all save the tiny points that marked
+the outline of the great Cross high overhead.  These only gave light
+enough to accentuate the gloom.  The hand that held mine now released
+it, and with a sigh I realized that I was alone.  After a few moments
+more of the groaning of the winch and clanking of the chain there was
+a sharp sound of stone meeting stone; then there was silence.  I
+listened acutely, but could not hear near me the slightest sound.
+Even the cautious, restrained breathing around me, of which up to
+then I had been conscious, had ceased.  Not knowing, in the
+helplessness of my ignorance, what I should do, I remained as I was,
+still and silent, for a time that seemed endless.  At last, overcome
+by some emotion which I could not at the moment understand, I slowly
+sank to my knees and bowed my head.  Covering my face with my hands,
+I tried to recall the prayers of my youth.  It was not, I am certain,
+that fear in any form had come upon me, or that I hesitated or
+faltered in my intention.  That much I know now; I knew it even then.
+It was, I believe, that the prolonged impressive gloom and mystery
+had at last touched me to the quick.  The bending of the knees was
+but symbolical of the bowing of the spirit to a higher Power.  When I
+had realized that much, I felt more content than I had done since I
+had entered the church, and with the renewed consciousness of
+courage, took my hands from my face, and lifted again my bowed head.
+
+Impulsively I sprang to my feet and stood erect--waiting.  All seemed
+to have changed since I had dropped on my knees.  The points of light
+about time church, which had been eclipsed, had come again, and were
+growing in power to a partial revealing of the dim expanse.  Before
+me was the table with the open book, on which were laid the gold and
+silver rings and the two crowns of flowers.  There were also two tall
+candles, with tiniest flames of blue--the only living light to be
+seen.
+
+Out of the darkness stepped the same tall figure in the gorgeous
+robes and the triple hat.  He led by the hand my Lady, still clad in
+her Shroud; but over it, descending from the crown of her head, was a
+veil of very old and magnificent lace of astonishing fineness.  Even
+in that dim light I could note the exquisite beauty of the fabric.
+The veil was fastened with a bunch of tiny sprays of orange-blossom
+mingled with cypress and laurel--a strange combination.  In her hand
+she carried a great bouquet of the same.  Its sweet intoxicating
+odour floated up to my nostrils.  It and the sentiment which its very
+presence evoked made me quiver.
+
+Yielding to the guiding of the hand which held hers, she stood at my
+left side before the table.  Her guide then took his place behind
+her.  At either end of the table, to right and left of us, stood a
+long-bearded priest in splendid robes, and wearing the hat with
+depending veil of black.  One of them, who seemed to be the more
+important of the two, and took the initiative, signed to us to put
+our right hands on the open book.  My Lady, of course, understood the
+ritual, and knew the words which the priest was speaking, and of her
+own accord put out her hand.  My guide at the same moment directed my
+hand to the same end.  It thrilled me to touch my Lady's hand, even
+under such mysterious conditions.
+
+After the priest had signed us each thrice on the forehead with the
+sign of the Cross, he gave to each of us a tiny lighted taper brought
+to him for the purpose.  The lights were welcome, not so much for the
+solace of the added light, great as that was, but because it allowed
+us to see a little more of each other's faces.  It was rapture to me
+to see the face of my Bride; and from the expression of her face I
+was assured that she felt as I did.  It gave me an inexpressible
+pleasure when, as her eyes rested on me, there grew a faint blush
+over the grey pallor of her cheeks.
+
+The priest then put in solemn voice to each of us in turn, beginning
+with me, the questions of consent which are common to all such
+rituals.  I answered as well as I could, following the murmured words
+of my guide.  My Lady answered out proudly in a voice which, though
+given softly, seemed to ring.  It was a concern--even a grief--to me
+that I could not, in the priest's questioning, catch her name, of
+which, strangely enough,--I was ignorant.  But, as I did not know the
+language, and as the phrases were not in accord literally with our
+own ritual, I could not make out which word was the name.
+
+After some prayers and blessings, rhythmically spoken or sung by an
+invisible choir, the priest took the rings from the open book, and,
+after signing my forehead thrice with the gold one as he repeated the
+blessing in each case, placed it on my right hand; then he gave my
+Lady the silver one, with the same ritual thrice repeated.  I suppose
+it was the blessing which is the effective point in making two into
+one.
+
+After this, those who stood behind us exchanged our rings thrice,
+taking them from one finger and placing them on the other, so that at
+the end my wife wore the gold ring and I the silver one.
+
+Then came a chant, during which the priest swung the censer himself,
+and my wife and I held our tapers.  After that he blessed us, the
+responses coming from the voices of the unseen singers in the
+darkness.
+
+After a long ritual of prayer and blessing, sung in triplicate, the
+priest took the crowns of flowers, and put one on the head of each,
+crowning me first, and with the crown tied with gold.  Then he signed
+and blessed us each thrice.  The guides, who stood behind us,
+exchanged our crowns thrice, as they had exchanged the rings; so that
+at the last, as I was glad to see, my wife wore the crown of gold,
+and I that of silver.
+
+Then there came, if it is possible to describe such a thing, a hush
+over even that stillness, as though some form of added solemnity were
+to be gone through.  I was not surprised, therefore, when the priest
+took in his hands the great golden chalice.  Kneeling, my wife and I
+partook together thrice.
+
+When we had risen from our knees and stood for a little while, the
+priest took my left hand in his right, and I, by direction of my
+guide, gave my right hand to my wife.  And so in a line, the priest
+leading, we circled round the table in rhythmic measure.  Those who
+supported us moved behind us, holding the crowns over our heads, and
+replacing them when we stopped.
+
+After a hymn, sung through the darkness, the priest took off our
+crowns.  This was evidently the conclusion of the ritual, for the
+priest placed us in each other's arms to embrace each other.  Then he
+blessed us, who were now man and wife!
+
+The lights went out at once, some as if extinguished, others slowly
+fading down to blackness.
+
+Left in the dark, my wife and I sought each other's arms again, and
+stood together for a few moments heart to heart, tightly clasping
+each other, and kissed each other fervently.
+
+Instinctively we turned to the door of the church, which was slightly
+open, so that we could see the moonlight stealing in through the
+aperture.  With even steps, she holding me tightly by the left arm--
+which is the wife's arm, we passed through the old church and out
+into the free air.
+
+Despite all that the gloom had brought me, it was sweet to be in the
+open air and together--this quite apart from our new relations to
+each other.  The moon rode high, and the full light, coming after the
+dimness or darkness in the church, seemed as bright as day.  I could
+now, for the first time, see my wife's face properly.  The glamour of
+the moonlight may have served to enhance its ethereal beauty, but
+neither moonlight nor sunlight could do justice to that beauty in its
+living human splendour.  As I gloried in her starry eyes I could
+think of nothing else; but when for a moment my eyes, roving round
+for the purpose of protection, caught sight of her whole figure,
+there was a pang to my heart.  The brilliant moonlight showed every
+detail in terrible effect, and I could see that she wore only her
+Shroud.  In the moment of darkness, after the last benediction,
+before she returned to my arms, she must have removed her bridal
+veil.  This may, of course, have been in accordance with the
+established ritual of her church; but, all the same, my heart was
+sore.  The glamour of calling her my very own was somewhat obscured
+by the bridal adornment being shorn.  But it made no difference in
+her sweetness to me.  Together we went along the path through the
+wood, she keeping equal step with me in wifely way.
+
+When we had come through the trees near enough to see the roof of the
+Castle, now gilded with the moonlight, she stopped, and looking at me
+with eyes full of love, said:
+
+"Here I must leave you!"
+
+"What?"  I was all aghast, and I felt that my chagrin was expressed
+in the tone of horrified surprise in my voice.  She went on quickly:
+
+"Alas!  It is impossible that I should go farther--at present!"
+
+"But what is to prevent you?" I queried.  "You are now my wife.  This
+is our wedding-night; and surely your place is with me!"  The wail in
+her voice as she answered touched me to the quick:
+
+"Oh, I know, I know!  There is no dearer wish in my heart--there can
+be none--than to share my husband's home.  Oh, my dear, my dear, if
+you only knew what it would be to me to be with you always!  But
+indeed I may not--not yet!  I am not free!  If you but knew how much
+that which has happened to-night has cost me--or how much cost to
+others as well as to myself may be yet to come--you would understand.
+Rupert"--it was the first time she had ever addressed me by name, and
+naturally it thrilled me through and through--"Rupert, my husband,
+only that I trust you with all the faith which is in perfect love--
+mutual love, I dare not have done what I have done this night.  But,
+dear, I know that you will bear me out; that your wife's honour is
+your honour, even as your honour is mine.  My honour is given to
+this; and you can help me--the only help I can have at present--by
+trusting me.  Be patient, my beloved, be patient!  Oh, be patient for
+a little longer!  It shall not be for long.  So soon as ever my soul
+is freed I shall come to you, my husband; and we shall never part
+again.  Be content for a while!  Believe me that I love you with my
+very soul; and to keep away from your dear side is more bitter for me
+than even it can be for you!  Think, my dear one, I am not as other
+women are, as some day you shall clearly understand.  I am at the
+present, and shall be for a little longer, constrained by duties and
+obligations put upon me by others, and for others, and to which I am
+pledged by the most sacred promises--given not only by myself, but by
+others--and which I must not forgo.  These forbid me to do as I wish.
+Oh, trust me, my beloved--my husband!"
+
+She held out her hands appealingly.  The moonlight, falling through
+the thinning forest, showed her white cerements.  Then the
+recollection of all she must have suffered--the awful loneliness in
+that grim tomb in the Crypt, the despairing agony of one who is
+helpless against the unknown--swept over me in a wave of pity.  What
+could I do but save her from further pain?  And this could only be by
+showing her my faith and trust.  If she was to go back to that
+dreadful charnel-house, she would at least take with her the
+remembrance that one who loved her and whom she loved--to whom she
+had been lately bound in the mystery of marriage--trusted her to the
+full.  I loved her more than myself--more than my own soul; and I was
+moved by pity so great that all possible selfishness was merged in
+its depths.  I bowed my head before her--my Lady and my Wife--as I
+said:
+
+"So be it, my beloved.  I trust you to the full, even as you trust
+me.  And that has been proven this night, even to my own doubting
+heart.  I shall wait; and as I know you wish it, I shall wait as
+patiently as I can.  But till you come to me for good and all, let me
+see you or hear from you when you can.  The time, dear wife, must go
+heavily with me as I think of you suffering and lonely.  So be good
+to me, and let not too long a time elapse between my glimpses of
+hope.  And, sweetheart, when you DO come to me, it shall be for
+ever!"  There was something in the intonation of the last sentence--I
+felt its sincerity myself--some implied yearning for a promise, that
+made her beautiful eyes swim.  The glorious stars in them were
+blurred as she answered with a fervour which seemed to me as more
+than earthly:
+
+"For ever!  I swear it!"
+
+With one long kiss, and a straining in each others arms, which left
+me tingling for long after we had lost sight of each other, we
+parted.  I stood and watched her as her white figure, gliding through
+the deepening gloom, faded as the forest thickened.  It surely was no
+optical delusion or a phantom of the mind that her shrouded arm was
+raised as though in blessing or farewell before the darkness
+swallowed her up.
+
+
+
+BOOK VI:  THE PURSUIT IN THE FOREST
+
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+July 3, 1907.
+
+There is no anodyne but work to pain of the heart; and my pain is all
+of the heart.  I sometimes feel that it is rather hard that with so
+much to make me happy I cannot know happiness.  How can I be happy
+when my wife, whom I fondly love, and who I know loves me, is
+suffering in horror and loneliness of a kind which is almost beyond
+human belief?  However, what is my loss is my country's gain, for the
+Land of the Blue Mountains is my country now, despite the fact that I
+am still a loyal subject of good King Edward.  Uncle Roger took care
+of that when he said I should have the consent of the Privy Council
+before I might be naturalized anywhere else.
+
+When I got home yesterday morning I naturally could not sleep.  The
+events of the night and the bitter disappointment that followed my
+exciting joy made such a thing impossible.  When I drew the curtain
+over the window, the reflection of the sunrise was just beginning to
+tinge the high-sailing clouds in front of me.  I laid down and tried
+to rest, but without avail.  However, I schooled myself to lie still,
+and at last, if I did not sleep, was at least quiescent.
+
+Disturbed by a gentle tap at the door, I sprang up at once and threw
+on a dressing gown.  Outside, when I opened the door, was Aunt Janet.
+She was holding a lighted candle in her hand, for though it was
+getting light in the open, the passages were still dark.  When she
+saw me she seemed to breathe more freely, and asked if she might come
+in.
+
+Whilst she sat on the edge of my bed, in her old-time way, she said
+in a hushed voice:
+
+"Oh, laddie, laddie, I trust yer burden is no too heavy to bear."
+
+"My burden!  What on earth do you mean, Aunt Janet?" I said in reply.
+I did not wish to commit myself by a definite answer, for it was
+evident that she had been dreaming or Second Sighting again.  She
+replied with the grim seriousness usual to her when she touched on
+occult matters:
+
+"I saw your hairt bleeding, laddie.  I kent it was yours, though how
+I kent it I don't know.  It lay on a stone floor in the dark, save
+for a dim blue light such as corpse-lights are.  On it was placed a
+great book, and close around were scattered many strange things,
+amongst them two crowns o' flowers--the one bound wi' silver, the
+other wi' gold.  There was also a golden cup, like a chalice,
+o'erturned.  The red wine trickled from it an' mingled wi' yer
+hairt's bluid; for on the great book was some vast dim weight wrapped
+up in black, and on it stepped in turn many men all swathed in black.
+An' as the weight of each came on it the bluid gushed out afresh.
+And oh, yer puir hairt, my laddie, was quick and leaping, so that at
+every beat it raised the black-clad weight!  An' yet that was not
+all, for hard by stood a tall imperial shape o' a woman, all arrayed
+in white, wi' a great veil o' finest lace worn o'er a shrood.  An'
+she was whiter than the snow, an' fairer than the morn for beauty;
+though a dark woman she was, wi' hair like the raven, an' eyes black
+as the sea at nicht, an' there was stars in them.  An' at each beat
+o' yer puir bleeding hairt she wrung her white hands, an' the manin'
+o' her sweet voice rent my hairt in twain.  Oh, laddie, laddie! what
+does it mean?"
+
+I managed to murmur:  "I'm sure I don't know, Aunt Janet.  I suppose
+it was all a dream!"
+
+"A dream it was, my dear.  A dream or a veesion, whilka matters nane,
+for a' such are warnin's sent frae God . . . "  Suddenly she said in
+a different voice:
+
+"Laddie, hae ye been fause to any lassie?  I'm no blamin' ye.  For ye
+men are different frae us women, an' yer regard on recht and wrang
+differs from oors.  But oh, laddie, a woman's tears fa' heavy when
+her hairt is for sair wi' the yieldin' to fause words.  'Tis a heavy
+burden for ony man to carry wi' him as he goes, an' may well cause
+pain to ithers that he fain would spare."  She stopped, and in dead
+silence waited for me to speak.  I thought it would be best to set
+her poor loving heart at rest, and as I could not divulge my special
+secret, spoke in general terms:
+
+"Aunt Janet, I am a man, and have led a man's life, such as it is.
+But I can tell you, who have always loved me and taught me to be
+true, that in all the world there is no woman who must weep for any
+falsity of mine.  If close there be any who, sleeping or waking, in
+dreams or visions or in reality, weeps because of me, it is surely
+not for my doing, but because of something outside me.  It may be
+that her heart is sore because I must suffer, as all men must in some
+degree; but she does not weep for or through any act of mine."
+
+She sighed happily at my assurance, and looked up through her tears,
+for she was much moved; and after tenderly kissing my forehead and
+blessing me, stole away.  She was more sweet and tender than I have
+words to say, and the only regret that I have in all that is gone is
+that I have not been able to bring my wife to her, and let her share
+in the love she has for me.  But that, too, will come, please God!
+
+In the morning I sent a message to Rooke at Otranto, instructing him
+by code to bring the yacht to Vissarion in the coming night.
+
+All day I spent in going about amongst the mountaineers, drilling
+them and looking after their arms.  I COULD not stay still.  My only
+chance of peace was to work, my only chance of sleep to tire myself
+out.  Unhappily, I am very strong, so even when I came home at dark I
+was quite fresh.  However, I found a cable message from Rooke that
+the yacht would arrive at midnight.
+
+There was no need to summon the mountaineers, as the men in the
+Castle would be sufficient to make preparations for the yacht's
+coming.
+
+LATER.
+
+The yacht has come.  At half-past eleven the lookout signalled that a
+steamer without lights was creeping in towards the Creek.  I ran out
+to the Flagstaff, and saw her steal in like a ghost.  She is painted
+a steely blue-grey, and it is almost impossible to see her at any
+distance.  She certainly goes wonderfully.  Although there was not
+enough throb from the engines to mar the absolute stillness, she came
+on at a fine speed, and within a few minutes was close to the boom.
+I had only time to run down to give orders to draw back the boom when
+she glided in and stopped dead at the harbour wall.  Rooke steered
+her himself, and he says he never was on a boat that so well or so
+quickly answered her helm.  She is certainly a beauty, and so far as
+I can see at night perfect in every detail.  I promise myself a few
+pleasant hours over her in the daylight.  The men seem a splendid
+lot.
+
+But I do not feel sleepy; I despair of sleep to-night.  But work
+demands that I be fit for whatever may come, and so I shall try to
+sleep--to rest, at any rate.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL.--Continued.
+July 4, 1907.
+
+I was up with the first ray of sunrise, so by the time I had my bath
+and was dressed there was ample light.  I went down to the dock at
+once, and spent the morning looking over the vessel, which fully
+justifies Rooke's enthusiasm about her.  She is built on lovely
+lines, and I can quite understand that she is enormously fast.  Her
+armour I can only take on the specifications, but her armament is
+really wonderful.  And there are not only all the very newest devices
+of aggressive warfare--indeed, she has the newest up-to-date
+torpedoes and torpedo-guns--but also the old-fashioned rocket-tubes,
+which in certain occasions are so useful.  She has electric guns and
+the latest Massillon water-guns, and Reinhardt electro-pneumatic
+"deliverers" for pyroxiline shells.  She is even equipped with war-
+balloons easy of expansion, and with compressible Kitson aeroplanes.
+I don't suppose that there is anything quite like her in the world.
+
+The crew are worthy of her.  I can't imagine where Rooke picked up
+such a splendid lot of men.  They are nearly all man-of-warsmen; of
+various nationalities, but mostly British.  All young men--the oldest
+of them hasn't got into the forties--and, so far as I can learn, all
+experts of one kind or another in some special subject of warfare.
+It will go hard with me, but I shall keep them together.
+
+How I got through the rest of the day I know not.  I tried hard not
+to create any domestic trouble by my manner, lest Aunt Janet should,
+after her lurid dream or vision of last night, attach some new
+importance to it.  I think I succeeded, for she did not, so far as I
+could tell, take any special notice of me.  We parted as usual at
+half-past ten, and I came here and made this entry in my journal.  I
+am more restless than ever to-night, and no wonder.  I would give
+anything to be able to pay a visit to St. Sava's, and see my wife
+again--if it were only sleeping in her tomb.  But I dare not do even
+that, lest she should come to see me here, and I should miss her.  So
+I have done what I can.  The glass door to the Terrace is open, so
+that she can enter at once if she comes.  The fire is lit, and the
+room is warm.  There is food ready in case she should care for it.  I
+have plenty of light in the room, so that through the aperture where
+I have not fully drawn the curtain there may be light to guide her.
+
+Oh, how the time drags!  The clock has struck midnight.  One, two!
+Thank goodness, it will shortly be dawn, and the activity of the day
+may begin!  Work may again prove, in a way, to be an anodyne.  In the
+meantime I must write on, lest despair overwhelm me.
+
+Once during the night I thought I heard a footstep outside.  I rushed
+to the window and looked out, but there was nothing to see, no sound
+to hear.  That was a little after one o'clock.  I feared to go
+outside, lest that should alarm her; so I came back to my table.  I
+could not write, but I sat as if writing for a while.  But I could
+not stand it, so rose and walked about the room.  As I walked I felt
+that my Lady--it gives me a pang every time I remember that I do not
+know even her name--was not quite so far away from me.  It made my
+heart beat to think that it might mean that she was coming to me.
+Could not I as well as Aunt Janet have a little Second Sight!  I went
+towards the window, and, standing behind the curtain, listened.  Far
+away I thought I heard a cry, and ran out on the Terrace; but there
+was no sound to be heard, and no sign of any living thing anywhere;
+so I took it for granted that it was the cry of some night bird, and
+came back to my room, and wrote at my journal till I was calm.  I
+think my nerves must be getting out of order, when every sound of the
+night seems to have a special meaning for me.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+July 7, 1907
+
+When the grey of the morning came, I gave up hope of my wife
+appearing, and made up my mind that, so soon as I could get away
+without exciting Aunt Janet's attention, I would go to St. Sava's.  I
+always eat a good breakfast, and did I forgo it altogether, it would
+be sure to excite her curiosity--a thing I do not wish at present.
+As there was still time to wait, I lay down on my bed as I was, and--
+such is the way of Fate--shortly fell asleep.
+
+I was awakened by a terrific clattering at my door.  When I opened it
+I found a little group of servants, very apologetic at awaking me
+without instructions.  The chief of them explained that a young
+priest had come from the Vladika with a message so urgent that he
+insisted on seeing me immediately at all hazards.  I came out at
+once, and found him in the hall of the Castle, standing before the
+great fire, which was always lit in the early morning.  He had a
+letter in his hand, but before giving it to me he said:
+
+"I am sent by the Vladika, who pressed on me that I was not to lose a
+single instant in seeing you; that time is of golden price--nay,
+beyond price.  This letter, amongst other things, vouches for me.  A
+terrible misfortune has occurred.  The daughter of our leader has
+disappeared during last night--the same, he commanded me to remind
+you, that he spoke of at the meeting when he would not let the
+mountaineers fire their guns.  No sign of her can be found, and it is
+believed that she has been carried off by the emissaries of the
+Sultan of Turkey, who once before brought our nations to the verge of
+war by demanding her as a wife.  I was also to say that the Vladika
+Plamenac would have come himself, but that it was necessary that he
+should at once consult with the Archbishop, Stevan Palealogue, as to
+what step is best to take in this dire calamity.  He has sent out a
+search-party under the Archimandrite of Spazac, Petrof Vlastimir, who
+is to come on here with any news he can get, as you have command of
+the signalling, and can best spread the news.  He knows that you,
+Gospodar, are in your great heart one of our compatriots, and that
+you have already proved your friendship by many efforts to strengthen
+our hands for war.  And as a great compatriot, he calls on you to aid
+us in our need."  He then handed me the letter, and stood by
+respectfully whilst I broke the seal and read it.  It was written in
+great haste, and signed by the Vladika.
+
+"Come with us now in our nation's peril.  Help us to rescue what we
+most adore, and henceforth we shall hold you in our hearts.  You
+shall learn how the men of the Blue Mountains can love faith and
+valour.  Come!"
+
+This was a task indeed--a duty worthy of any man.  It thrilled me to
+the core to know that the men of the Blue Mountains had called on me
+in their dire need.  It woke all the fighting instinct of my Viking
+forbears, and I vowed in my heart that they should be satisfied with
+my work.  I called to me the corps of signallers who were in the
+house, and led them to the Castle roof, taking with me the young
+messenger-priest.
+
+"Come with me," I said to him, "and see how I answer the Vladika's
+command."
+
+The National flag was run up--the established signal that the nation
+was in need.  Instantly on every summit near and far was seen the
+flutter of an answering flag.  Quickly followed the signal that
+commanded the call to arms.
+
+One by one I gave the signallers orders in quick succession, for the
+plan of search unfolded itself to me as I went on.  The arms of the
+semaphore whirled in a way that made the young priest stare.  One by
+one, as they took their orders, the signallers seemed to catch fire.
+Instinctively they understood the plan, and worked like demigods.
+They knew that so widespread a movement had its best chance in
+rapidity and in unity of action.
+
+From the forest which lay in sight of the Castle came a wild
+cheering, which seemed to interpret the former stillness of the
+hills.  It was good to feel that those who saw the signals--types of
+many--were ready.  I saw the look of expectation on the face of the
+messenger-priest, and rejoiced at the glow that came as I turned to
+him to speak.  Of course, he wanted to know something of what was
+going on.  I saw the flashing of my own eyes reflected in his as I
+spoke:
+
+"Tell the Vladika that within a minute of his message being read the
+Land of the Blue Mountains was awake.  The mountaineers are already
+marching, and before the sun is high there will be a line of guards
+within hail of each other round the whole frontier--from Angusa to
+Ilsin; from Ilsin to Bajana; from Bajana to Ispazar; from Ispazar to
+Volok; from Volok to Tatra; from Tatra to Domitan; from Domitan to
+Gravaja; and from Gravaja back to Angusa.  The line is double.  The
+old men keep guard on the line, and the young men advance.  These
+will close in at the advancing line, so that nothing can escape them.
+They will cover mountain-top and forest depth, and will close in
+finally on the Castle here, which they can behold from afar.  My own
+yacht is here, and will sweep the coast from end to end.  It is the
+fastest boat afloat, and armed against a squadron.  Here will all
+signals come.  In an hour where we stand will be a signal bureau,
+where trained eyes will watch night and day till the lost one has
+been found and the outrage has been avenged.  The robbers are even
+now within a ring of steel, and cannot escape."
+
+The young priest, all on fire, sprang on the battlements and shouted
+to the crowd, which was massing round the Castle in the gardens far
+below.  The forest was giving up its units till they seemed like the
+nucleus of an army.  The men cheered lustily, till the sound swung
+high up to us like the roaring of a winter sea.  With bared heads
+they were crying:
+
+"God and the Blue Mountains!  God and the Blue Mountains!"
+
+I ran down to them as quickly as I could, and began to issue their
+instructions.  Within a time to be computed by minutes the whole
+number, organized by sections, had started to scour the neighbouring
+mountains.  At first they had only understood the call to arms for
+general safety.  But when they learned that the daughter of a chief
+had been captured, they simply went mad.  From something which the
+messenger first said, but which I could not catch or did not
+understand, the blow seemed to have for them some sort of personal
+significance which wrought them to a frenzy.
+
+When the bulk of the men had disappeared, I took with me a few of my
+own men and several of the mountaineers whom I had asked to remain,
+and together we went to the hidden ravine which I knew.  We found the
+place empty; but there were unmistakable signs that a party of men
+had been encamped there for several days.  Some of our men, who were
+skilled in woodcraft and in signs generally, agreed that there must
+have been some twenty of them.  As they could not find any trail
+either coming to or going from the place, they came to the conclusion
+that they must have come separately from different directions and
+gathered there, and that they must have departed in something of the
+same mysterious way.
+
+However, this was, at any rate, some sort of a beginning, and the men
+separated, having agreed amongst themselves to make a wide cast round
+the place in the search for tracks.  Whoever should find a trail was
+to follow with at least one comrade, and when there was any definite
+news, it was to be signalled to the Castle.
+
+I myself returned at once, and set the signallers to work to spread
+amongst our own people such news as we had.
+
+When presently such discoveries as had been made were signalled with
+flags to the Castle, it was found that the marauders had, in their
+flight, followed a strangely zigzag course.  It was evident that, in
+trying to baffle pursuit, they had tried to avoid places which they
+thought might be dangerous to them.  This may have been simply a
+method to disconcert pursuit.  If so, it was, in a measure,
+excellent, for none of those immediately following could possibly
+tell in what direction they were heading.  It was only when we worked
+the course on the great map in the signaller's room (which was the
+old guard room of the Castle) that we could get an inkling of the
+general direction of their flight.  This gave added trouble to the
+pursuit; for the men who followed, being ignorant of their general
+intent, could not ever take chance to head them off, but had to be
+ready to follow in any or every direction.  In this manner the
+pursuit was altogether a stern chase, and therefore bound to be a
+long one.
+
+As at present we could not do anything till the intended route was
+more marked, I left the signalling corps to the task of receiving and
+giving information to the moving bands, so that, if occasion served,
+they might head off the marauders.  I myself took Rooke, as captain
+of the yacht, and swept out of the creek.  We ran up north to
+Dalairi, then down south to Olesso, and came back to Vissarion.  We
+saw nothing suspicious except, far off to the extreme southward, one
+warship which flew no flag.  Rooke, however, who seemed to know ships
+by instinct, said she was a Turk; so on our return we signalled along
+the whole shore to watch her.  Rooke held The Lady--which was the
+name I had given the armoured yacht--in readiness to dart out in case
+anything suspicious was reported.  He was not to stand on any
+ceremony, but if necessary to attack.  We did not intend to lose a
+point in this desperate struggle which we had undertaken.  We had
+placed in different likely spots a couple of our own men to look
+after the signalling.
+
+When I got back I found that the route of the fugitives, who had now
+joined into one party, had been definitely ascertained.  They had
+gone south, but manifestly taking alarm from the advancing line of
+guards, had headed up again to the north-east, where the country was
+broader and the mountains wilder and less inhabited.
+
+Forthwith, leaving the signalling altogether in the hands of the
+fighting priests, I took a small chosen band of the mountaineers of
+our own district, and made, with all the speed we could, to cut
+across the track of the fugitives a little ahead of them.  The
+Archimandrite (Abbot) of Spazac, who had just arrived, came with us.
+He is a splendid man--a real fighter as well as a holy cleric, as
+good with his handjar as with his Bible, and a runner to beat the
+band.  The marauders were going at a fearful pace, considering that
+they were all afoot; so we had to go fast also!  Amongst these
+mountains there is no other means of progressing.  Our own men were
+so aflame with ardour that I could not but notice that they, more
+than any of the others whom I had seen, had some special cause for
+concern.
+
+When I mentioned it to the Archimandrite, who moved by my side, he
+answered:
+
+"All natural enough; they are not only fighting for their country,
+but for their own!"  I did not quite understand his answer, and so
+began to ask him some questions, to the effect that I soon began to
+understand a good deal more than he did.
+
+
+Letter from Archbishop Stevan Palealogue, Head of the Eastern Church
+of the Blue Mountains, to the Lady Janet MacKelpie, Vissarion.
+Written July 9, 1907.
+
+HONOURED LADY,
+
+As you wish for an understanding regarding the late lamentable
+occurrence in which so much danger was incurred to this our Land of
+the Blue Mountains, and one dear to us, I send these words by request
+of the Gospodar Rupert, beloved of our mountaineers.
+
+When the Voivode Peter Vissarion made his journey to the great nation
+to whom we looked in our hour of need, it was necessary that he
+should go in secret.  The Turk was at our gates, and full of the
+malice of baffled greed.  Already he had tried to arrange a marriage
+with the Voivodin, so that in time to come he, as her husband, might
+have established a claim to the inheritance of the land.  Well he
+knew, as do all men, that the Blue Mountaineers owe allegiance to
+none that they themselves do not appoint to rulership.  This has been
+the history in the past.  But now and again an individual has arisen
+or come to the front adapted personally for such government as this
+land requires.  And so the Lady Teuta, Voivodin of the Blue
+Mountains, was put for her proper guarding in the charge of myself as
+Head of the Eastern Church in the Land of the Blue Mountains, steps
+being taken in such wise that no capture of her could be effected by
+unscrupulous enemies of this our Land.  This task and guardianship
+was gladly held as an honour by all concerned.  For the Voivodin
+Teuta of Vissarion must be taken as representing in her own person
+the glory of the old Serb race, inasmuch as being the only child of
+the Voivode Vissarion, last male of his princely race--the race which
+ever, during the ten centuries of our history, unflinchingly gave
+life and all they held for the protection, safety, and well-being of
+the Land of the Blue Mountains.  Never during those centuries had any
+one of the race been known to fail in patriotism, or to draw back
+from any loss or hardship enjoined by high duty or stress of need.
+Moreover, this was the race of that first Voivode Vissarion, of whom,
+in legend, it was prophesied that he--once known as "The Sword of
+Freedom," a giant amongst men--would some day, when the nation had
+need of him, come forth from his water-tomb in the lost Lake of Reo,
+and lead once more the men of the Blue Mountains to lasting victory.
+This noble race, then, had come to be known as the last hope of the
+Land.  So that when the Voivode was away on his country's service,
+his daughter should be closely guarded.  Soon after the Voivode had
+gone, it was reported that he might be long delayed in his
+diplomacies, and also in studying the system of Constitutional
+Monarchy, for which it had been hoped to exchange our imperfect
+political system.  I may say inter alia that he was mentioned as to
+be the first king when the new constitution should have been
+arranged.
+
+Then a great misfortune came on us; a terrible grief overshadowed the
+land.  After a short illness, the Voivodin Teuta Vissarion died
+mysteriously of a mysterious ailment.  The grief of the mountaineers
+was so great that it became necessary for the governing Council to
+warn them not to allow their sorrow to be seen.  It was imperatively
+necessary that the fact of her death should be kept secret.  For
+there were dangers and difficulties of several kinds.  In the first
+place it was advisable that even her father should be kept in
+ignorance of his terrible loss.  It was well known that he held her
+as the very core of his heart and that if he should hear of her
+death, he would be too much prostrated to be able to do the intricate
+and delicate work which he had undertaken.  Nay, more:  he would
+never remain afar off, under the sad circumstances, but would
+straightway return, so as to be in the land where she lay.  Then
+suspicions would crop up, and the truth must shortly be known afield,
+with the inevitable result that the Land would become the very centre
+of a war of many nations.
+
+In the second place, if the Turks were to know that the race of
+Vissarion was becoming extinct, this would encourage them to further
+aggression, which would become immediate should they find out that
+the Voivode was himself away.  It was well known that they were
+already only suspending hostilities until a fitting opportunity
+should arise.  Their desire for aggression had become acute after the
+refusal of the nation, and of the girl herself, that she should
+become a wife of the Sultan.
+
+The dead girl had been buried in the Crypt of the church of St. Sava,
+and day after day and night after night, singly and in parties, the
+sorrowing mountaineers had come to pay devotion and reverence at her
+tomb.  So many had wished to have a last glimpse of her face that the
+Vladika had, with my own consent as Archbishop, arranged for a glass
+cover to be put over the stone coffin wherein her body lay.
+
+After a little time, however, there came a belief to all concerned in
+the guarding of the body--these, of course, being the priests of
+various degrees of dignity appointed to the task--that the Voivodin
+was not really dead, but only in a strangely-prolonged trance.
+Thereupon a new complication arose.  Our mountaineers are, as perhaps
+you know, by nature deeply suspicious--a characteristic of all brave
+and self-sacrificing people who are jealous of their noble heritage.
+Having, as they believed, seen the girl dead, they might not be
+willing to accept the fact of her being alive.  They might even
+imagine that there was on foot some deep, dark plot which was, or
+might be, a menace, now or hereafter, to their independence.  In any
+case, there would be certain to be two parties on the subject, a
+dangerous and deplorable thing in the present condition of affairs.
+
+As the trance, or catalepsy, whatever it was, continued for many
+days, there had been ample time for the leaders of the Council, the
+Vladika, the priesthood represented by the Archimandrite of Spazac,
+myself as Archbishop and guardian of the Voivodin in her father's
+absence, to consult as to a policy to be observed in case of the girl
+awaking.  For in such case the difficulty of the situation would be
+multiplied indefinitely.  In the secret chambers of St. Sava's we had
+many secret meetings, and were finally converging on agreement when
+the end of the trance came.
+
+The girl awoke!
+
+She was, of course, terribly frightened when she found herself in a
+tomb in the Crypt.  It was truly fortunate that the great candles
+around her tomb had been kept lighted, for their light mitigated the
+horror of the place.  Had she waked in darkness, her reason might
+have become unseated.
+
+She was, however, a very noble girl; brave, with extraordinary will,
+and resolution, and self-command, and power of endurance.  When she
+had been taken into one of the secret chambers of the church, where
+she was warmed and cared for, a hurried meeting was held by the
+Vladika, myself, and the chiefs of the National Council.  Word had
+been at once sent to me of the joyful news of her recovery; and with
+the utmost haste I came, arriving in time to take a part in the
+Council.
+
+At the meeting the Voivodin was herself present, and full confidence
+of the situation was made to her.  She herself proposed that the
+belief in her death should be allowed to prevail until the return of
+her father, when all could be effectively made clear.  To this end
+she undertook to submit to the terrific strain which such a
+proceeding would involve.  At first we men could not believe that any
+woman could go through with such a task, and some of us did not
+hesitate to voice our doubts--our disbelief.  But she stood to her
+guns, and actually down-faced us.  At the last we, remembering things
+that had been done, though long ages ago, by others of her race, came
+to believe not merely in her self-belief and intention, but even in
+the feasibility of her plan.  She took the most solemn oaths not to
+betray the secret under any possible stress.
+
+The priesthood undertook through the Vladika and myself to further a
+ghostly belief amongst the mountaineers which would tend to prevent a
+too close or too persistent observation.  The Vampire legend was
+spread as a protection against partial discovery by any mischance,
+and other weird beliefs were set afoot and fostered.  Arrangements
+were made that only on certain days were the mountaineers to be
+admitted to the Crypt, she agreeing that for these occasions she was
+to take opiates or carry out any other aid to the preservation of the
+secret.  She was willing, she impressed upon us, to make any personal
+sacrifice which might be deemed necessary for the carrying out her
+father's task for the good of the nation.
+
+Of course, she had at first terrible frights lying alone in the
+horror of the Crypt.  But after a time the terrors of the situation,
+if they did not cease, were mitigated.  There are secret caverns off
+the Crypt, wherein in troublous times the priests and others of high
+place have found safe retreat.  One of these was prepared for the
+Voivodin, and there she remained, except for such times as she was on
+show--and certain other times of which I shall tell you.  Provision
+was made for the possibility of any accidental visit to the church.
+At such times, warned by an automatic signal from the opening door,
+she was to take her place in the tomb.  The mechanism was so arranged
+that the means to replace the glass cover, and to take the opiate,
+were there ready to her hand.  There was to be always a watch of
+priests at night in the church, to guard her from ghostly fears as
+well as from more physical dangers; and if she was actually in her
+tomb, it was to be visited at certain intervals.  Even the draperies
+which covered her in the sarcophagus were rested on a bridge placed
+from side to side just above her, so as to hide the rising and
+falling of her bosom as she slept under the narcotic.
+
+After a while the prolonged strain began to tell so much on her that
+it was decided that she should take now and again exercise out of
+doors.  This was not difficult, for when the Vampire story which we
+had spread began to be widely known, her being seen would be accepted
+as a proof of its truth.  Still, as there was a certain danger in her
+being seen at all, we thought it necessary to exact from her a solemn
+oath that so long as her sad task lasted she should under no
+circumstances ever wear any dress but her shroud--this being the only
+way to insure secrecy and to prevail against accident.
+
+There is a secret way from the Crypt to a sea cavern, whose entrance
+is at high-tide under the water-line at the base of the cliff on
+which the church is built.  A boat, shaped like a coffin, was
+provided for her; and in this she was accustomed to pass across the
+creek whenever she wished to make excursion.  It was an excellent
+device, and most efficacious in disseminating the Vampire belief.
+
+This state of things had now lasted from before the time when the
+Gospodar Rupert came to Vissarion up to the day of the arrival of the
+armoured yacht.
+
+That night the priest on duty, on going his round of the Crypt just
+before dawn, found the tomb empty.  He called the others, and they
+made full search.  The boat was gone from the cavern, but on making
+search they found it on the farther side of the creek, close to the
+garden stairs.  Beyond this they could discover nothing.  She seemed
+to have disappeared without leaving a trace.
+
+Straightway they went to the Vladika, and signalled to me by the
+fire-signal at the monastery at Astrag, where I then was.  I took a
+band of mountaineers with me, and set out to scour the country.  But
+before going I sent an urgent message to the Gospodar Rupert, asking
+him, who showed so much interest and love to our Land, to help us in
+our trouble.  He, of course, knew nothing then of all have now told
+you.  Nevertheless, he devoted himself whole-heartedly to our needs--
+as doubtless you know.
+
+But the time had now come close when the Voivode Vissarion was about
+to return from his mission; and we of the council of his daughter's
+guardianship were beginning to arrange matters so that at his return
+the good news of her being still alive could be made public.  With
+her father present to vouch for her, no question as to truth could
+arise.
+
+But by some means the Turkish "Bureau of Spies" must have got
+knowledge of the fact already.  To steal a dead body for the purpose
+of later establishing a fictitious claim would have been an
+enterprise even more desperate than that already undertaken.  We
+inferred from many signs, made known to us in an investigation, that
+a daring party of the Sultan's emissaries had made a secret incursion
+with the object of kidnapping the Voivodin.  They must have been bold
+of heart and strong of resource to enter the Land of the Blue
+Mountains on any errand, let alone such a desperate one as this.  For
+centuries we have been teaching the Turk through bitter lessons that
+it is neither a safe task nor an easy one to make incursion here.
+
+How they did it we know not--at present; but enter they did, and,
+after waiting in some secret hiding-place for a favourable
+opportunity, secured their prey.  We know not even now whether they
+had found entrance to the Crypt and stole, as they thought, the dead
+body, or whether, by some dire mischance, they found her abroad--
+under her disguise as a ghost.  At any rate, they had captured her,
+and through devious ways amongst the mountains were bearing her back
+to Turkey.  It was manifest that when she was on Turkish soil the
+Sultan would force a marriage on her so as eventually to secure for
+himself or his successors as against all other nations a claim for
+the suzerainty or guardianship of the Blue Mountains.
+
+Such was the state of affairs when the Gospodar Rupert threw himself
+into the pursuit with fiery zeal and the Berserk passion which he
+inherited from Viking ancestors, whence of old came "The Sword of
+Freedom" himself.
+
+But at that very time was another possibility which the Gospodar was
+himself the first to realize.  Failing the getting the Voivodin safe
+to Turkish soil, the ravishers might kill her!  This would be
+entirely in accord with the base traditions and history of the
+Moslems.  So, too, it would accord with Turkish customs and the
+Sultan's present desires.  It would, in its way, benefit the ultimate
+strategetic ends of Turkey.  For were once the Vissarion race at an
+end, the subjection of the Land of the Blue Mountains might, in their
+view, be an easier task than it had yet been found to be.
+
+Such, illustrious lady, were the conditions of affairs when the
+Gospodar Rupert first drew his handjar for the Blue Mountains and
+what it held most dear.
+
+PALEALOGUE,
+Archbishop of the Eastern Church, in the Land of the Blue Mountains.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+July 8, 1907.
+
+I wonder if ever in the long, strange history of the world had there
+come to any other such glad tidings as came to me--and even then
+rather inferentially than directly--from the Archimandrite's answers
+to my questioning.  Happily I was able to restrain myself, or I
+should have created some strange confusion which might have evoked
+distrust, and would certainly have hampered us in our pursuit.  For a
+little I could hardly accept the truth which wove itself through my
+brain as the true inwardness of each fact came home to me and took
+its place in the whole fabric.  But even the most welcome truth has
+to be accepted some time by even a doubting heart.  My heart,
+whatever it may have been, was not then a doubting heart, but a very,
+very grateful one.  It was only the splendid magnitude of the truth
+which forbade its immediate acceptance.  I could have shouted for
+joy, and only stilled myself by keeping my thoughts fixed on the
+danger which my wife was in.  My wife!  My wife!  Not a Vampire; not
+a poor harassed creature doomed to terrible woe, but a splendid
+woman, brave beyond belief, patriotic in a way which has but few
+peers even in the wide history of bravery!  I began to understand the
+true meaning of the strange occurrences that have come into my life.
+Even the origin and purpose of that first strange visit to my room
+became clear.  No wonder that the girl could move about the Castle in
+so mysterious a manner.  She had lived there all her life, and was
+familiar with the secret ways of entrance and exit.  I had always
+believed that the place must have been honeycombed with secret
+passages.  No wonder that she could find a way to the battlements,
+mysterious to everybody else.  No wonder that she could meet me at
+the Flagstaff when she so desired.
+
+To say that I was in a tumult would be to but faintly express my
+condition.  I was rapt into a heaven of delight which had no measure
+in all my adventurous life--the lifting of the veil which showed that
+my wife--mine--won in all sincerity in the very teeth of appalling
+difficulties and dangers--was no Vampire, no corpse, no ghost or
+phantom, but a real woman of flesh and blood, of affection, and love,
+and passion.  Now at last would my love be crowned indeed when,
+having rescued her from the marauders, I should bear her to my own
+home, where she would live and reign in peace and comfort and honour,
+and in love and wifely happiness if I could achieve such a blessing
+for her--and for myself.
+
+But here a dreadful thought flashed across me, which in an instant
+turned my joy to despair, my throbbing heart to ice:
+
+"As she is a real woman, she is in greater danger than ever in the
+hands of Turkish ruffians.  To them a woman is in any case no more
+than a sheep; and if they cannot bring her to the harem of the
+Sultan, they may deem it the next wisest step to kill her.  In that
+way, too, they might find a better chance of escape.  Once rid of her
+the party could separate, and there might be a chance of some of them
+finding escape as individuals that would not exist for a party.  But
+even if they did not kill her, to escape with her would be to condemn
+her to the worst fate of all the harem of the Turk!  Lifelong misery
+and despair--however long that life might be--must be the lot of a
+Christian woman doomed to such a lot.  And to her, just happily
+wedded, and after she had served her country in such a noble way as
+she had done, that dreadful life of shameful slavery would be a
+misery beyond belief.
+
+"She must be rescued--and quickly!  The marauders must be caught
+soon, and suddenly, so that they may have neither time nor
+opportunity to harm her, as they would be certain to do if they have
+warning of immediate danger.
+
+"On! on!"
+
+And "on" it was all through that terrible night as well as we could
+through the forest.
+
+It was a race between the mountaineers and myself as to who should be
+first.  I understood now the feeling that animated them, and which
+singled them out even from amongst their fiery comrades, when the
+danger of the Voivodin became known.  These men were no mean
+contestants even in such a race, and, strong as I am, it took my
+utmost effort to keep ahead of them.  They were keen as leopards, and
+as swift.  Their lives had been spent among the mountains, and their
+hearts and souls on were in the chase.  I doubt not that if the death
+of any one of us could have through any means effected my wife's
+release, we should, if necessary, have fought amongst ourselves for
+the honour.
+
+From the nature of the work before us our party had to keep to the
+top of the hills.  We had not only to keep observation on the flying
+party whom we followed, and to prevent them making discovery of us,
+but we had to be always in a position to receive and answer signals
+made to us from the Castle, or sent to us from other eminences.
+
+
+Letter from Petrof Vlastimir, Archimandrite of Spazac, to the Lady
+Janet MacKelpie, of Vissarion.
+Written July 8, 1907.
+
+GREAT LADY,
+
+I am asked to write by the Vladika, and have permission of the
+Archbishop.  I have the honour of transmitting to you the record of
+the pursuit of the Turkish spies who carried off the Voivodin Teuta,
+of the noble House of Vissarion.  The pursuit was undertaken by the
+Gospodar Rupert, who asked that I would come with his party, since
+what he was so good as to call my "great knowledge of the country and
+its people" might serve much.  It is true that I have had much
+knowledge of the Land of the Blue Mountains and its people, amongst
+which and whom my whole life has been passed.  But in such a cause no
+reason was required.  There was not a man in the Blue Mountains who
+would not have given his life for the Voivodin Teuta, and when they
+heard that she had not been dead, as they thought, but only in a
+trance, and that it was she whom the marauders had carried off, they
+were in a frenzy.  So why should I--to whom has been given the great
+trust of the Monastery of Spazac--hesitate at such a time?  For
+myself, I wanted to hurry on, and to come at once to the fight with
+my country's foes; and well I knew that the Gospodar Rupert, with a
+lion's heart meet for his giant body, would press on with a matchless
+speed.  We of the Blue Mountains do not lag when our foes are in
+front of us; most of all do we of the Eastern Church press on when
+the Crescent wars against the Cross!
+
+We took with us no gear or hamper of any kind; no coverings except
+what we stood in; no food--nothing but our handjars and our rifles,
+with a sufficiency of ammunition.  Before starting, the Gospodar gave
+hurried orders by signal from the Castle to have food and ammunition
+sent to us (as we might signal) by the nearest hamlet.
+
+It was high noon when we started, only ten strong--for our leader
+would take none but approved runners who could shoot straight and use
+the handjar as it should be used.  So as we went light, we expected
+to go fast.  By this time we knew from the reports signalled to
+Vissarion that the enemies were chosen men of no despicable prowess.
+
+The Keeper of the Green Flag of Islam is well served, and as though
+the Turk is an infidel and a dog, he is sometimes brave and strong.
+Indeed, except when he passes the confines of the Blue Mountains, he
+has been known to do stirring deeds.  But as none who have dared to
+wander in amongst our hills ever return to their own land, we may not
+know of how they speak at home of their battles here.  Still, these
+men were evidently not to be despised; and our Gospodar, who is a
+wise man as well as a valiant, warned us to be prudent, and not to
+despise our foes over much.  We did as he counselled, and in proof we
+only took ten men, as we had only twenty against us.  But then there
+was at stake much beyond life, and we took no risks.  So, as the
+great clock at Vissarion clanged of noon, the eight fastest runners
+of the Blue Mountains, together with the Gospodar Rupert and myself,
+swept out on our journey.  It had been signalled to us that the
+course which the marauders had as yet taken in their flight was a
+zigzag one, running eccentrically at all sorts of angles in all sorts
+of directions.  But our leader had marked out a course where we might
+intercept our foes across the main line of their flight; and till we
+had reached that region we paused not a second, but went as fast as
+we could all night long.  Indeed, it was amongst us a race as was the
+Olympic race of old Greece, each one vying with his fellows, though
+not in jealous emulation, but in high spirit, to best serve his
+country and the Voivodin Teuta.  Foremost amongst us went the
+Gospodar, bearing himself as a Paladin of old, his mighty form
+pausing for no obstacle.  Perpetually did he urge us on.  He would
+not stop or pause for a moment, but often as he and I ran together--
+for, lady, in my youth I was the fleetest of all in the race, and
+even that now can head a battalion when duty calls--he would ask me
+certain questions as to the Lady Teuta and of the strange manner of
+her reputed death, as it was gradually unfolded in my answers to his
+questioning.  And as each new phase of knowledge came to him, he
+would rush on as one possessed of fiends:  whereat our mountaineers,
+who seem to respect even fiends for their thoroughness, would strive
+to keep pace with him till they too seemed worked into diabolic
+possession.  And I myself, left alone in the calmness of sacerdotal
+office, forgot even that.  With surging ears and eyes that saw blood,
+I rushed along with best of them.
+
+Then truly the spirit of a great captain showed itself in the
+Gospodar, for when others were charged with fury he began to force
+himself into calm, so that out of his present self-command and the
+memory of his exalted position came a worthy strategy and thought for
+every contingency that might arise.  So that when some new direction
+was required for our guidance, there was no hesitation in its coming.
+We, nine men of varying kinds, all felt that we had a master; and so,
+being willing to limit ourselves to strict obedience, we were free to
+use such thoughts as well as such powers as we had to the best
+advantage of the doing.
+
+We came across the trail of the flying marauders on the second
+morning after the abduction, a little before noon.  It was easy
+enough to see, for by this time the miscreants were all together, and
+our people, who were woodlanders, were able to tell much of the party
+that passed.  These were evidently in a terrified hurry, for they had
+taken no precautions such as are necessary baffle pursuit, and all of
+which take time.  Our foresters said that two went ahead and two
+behind.  In the centre went the mass, moving close together, as
+though surrounding their prisoner.  We caught not even a single
+glimpse her--could not have, they encompassed her so closely.  But
+our foresters saw other than the mass; the ground that had been
+passed was before them.  They knew that the prisoner had gone
+unwillingly--nay, more:  one of them said as he rose from his knees,
+where he had been examining of the ground:
+
+"The misbegotten dogs have been urging her on with their yataghans!
+There are drops of blood, though there are no blood-marks on her
+feet."
+
+Whereupon the Gospodar flamed with passion.  His teeth ground
+together, and with a deep-breathed "On, on!" he sprang off again,
+handjar in hand, on the track.
+
+Before long we saw the party in the distance.  They this were far
+below us in a deep valley, although the track of their going passed
+away to the right hand.  They were making for the base of the great
+cliff, which rose before us all.  Their reason was twofold, as we
+soon knew.  Far off down the valley which they were crossing we saw
+signs of persons coming in haste, who must be of the search party
+coming from the north.  Though the trees hid them, we could not
+mistake the signs.  I was myself forester enough to have no doubt.
+Again, it was evident that the young Voivodin could travel no longer
+at the dreadful pace at which they had been going.  Those blood-marks
+told their own tale!  They meant to make a last stand here in case
+they should be discovered.
+
+Then it was that he, who amongst us all had been most fierce and most
+bent on rapid pursuit, became the most the calm.  Raising his hand
+for silence--though, God knows, we were and had been silent enough
+during that long rush through the forest--he said, in a low, keen
+whisper which cut the silence like a knife:
+
+"My friends, the time is come for action.  God be thanked, who has
+now brought us face to face with our foes!  But we must be careful
+here--not on our own account, for we wish nothing more than to rush
+on and conquer or die--but for the sake of her whom you love, and
+whom I, too, love.  She is in danger from anything which may give
+warning to those fiends.  If they know or even suspect for an instant
+that we are near, they will murder her . . . "
+
+Here his voice broke for an instant with the extremity of his passion
+or the depth of his feeling--I hardly know which; I think both acted
+on him.
+
+"We know from those blood-marks what they can do--even to her."  His
+teeth ground together again, but he went on without stopping further:
+
+"Let us arrange the battle.  Though we are but little distance from
+them as the crow flies, the way is far to travel.  There is, I can
+see, but one path down to the valley from this side.  That they have
+gone by, and that they will sure to guard--to watch, at any rate.
+Let us divide, as to surround them.  The cliff towards which they
+make runs far to the left without a break.  That to the right we
+cannot see from this spot; but from the nature of the ground it is
+not unlikely that it turns round in this direction, making the hither
+end of the valley like a vast pocket or amphitheatre.  As they have
+studied the ground in other places, they may have done so in this,
+and have come hither as to a known refuge.  Let one man, a marksman,
+stay here."
+
+As he spoke a man stepped to the front.  He was, I knew, an excellent
+shot.
+
+"Let two others go to the left and try to find a way down the cliff
+before us.  When they have descended to the level of the valley--path
+or no path--let them advance cautiously and secretly, keeping their
+guns in readiness.  But they must not fire till need.  Remember, my
+brothers," said, turning to those who stepped out a pace or two to
+the left, "that the first shot gives the warning which will be the
+signal for the Voivodin's death.  These men will not hesitate.  You
+must judge yourselves of the time to shoot.  The others of us will
+move to the right and try to find a path on that side.  If the valley
+be indeed a pocket between the cliffs, we must find a way down that
+is not a path!"
+
+As he spoke thus there was a blaze in his eyes that betokened no good
+to aught that might stand in his way.  I ran by his side as we moved
+to the right.
+
+It was as he surmised about the cliff.  When we got a little on our
+way we saw how the rocky formation trended to our right, till,
+finally, with a wide curve, it came round to the other side.
+
+It was a fearful valley that, with its narrow girth and its towering
+walls that seemed to topple over.  On the farther side from us the
+great trees that clothed the slope of the mountain over it grew down
+to the very edge of the rock, so that their spreading branches hung
+far over the chasm.  And, so far as we could understand, the same
+condition existed on our own side.  Below us the valley was dark even
+in the daylight.  We could best tell the movement of the flying
+marauders by the flashes of the white shroud of their captive in the
+midst of them.
+
+From where we were grouped, amid the great tree-trunks on the very
+brow of the cliff, we could, when our eyes were accustomed to the
+shadow, see them quite well.  In great haste, and half dragging, half
+carrying the Voivodin, they crossed the open space and took refuge in
+a little grassy alcove surrounded, save for its tortuous entrance, by
+undergrowth.  From the valley level it was manifestly impossible to
+see them, though we from our altitude could see over the stunted
+undergrowth.  When within the glade, they took their hands from her.
+She, shuddering instinctively, withdrew to a remote corner of the
+dell.
+
+And then, oh, shame on their manhood!--Turks and heathens though they
+were--we could see that they had submitted her to the indignity of
+gagging her and binding her hands!
+
+Our Voivodin Teuta bound!  To one and all of us it was like lashing
+us across the face.  I heard the Gospodar's teeth grind again.  But
+once more he schooled himself to calmness ere he said:
+
+"It is, perhaps, as well, great though the indignity be.  They are
+seeking their own doom, which is coming quickly . . . Moreover, they
+are thwarting their own base plans.  Now that she is bound they will
+trust to their binding, so that they will delay their murderous
+alternative to the very last moment.  Such is our chance of rescuing
+her alive!"
+
+For a few moments he stood as still as a stone, as though revolving
+something in his mind whilst he watched.  I could see that some grim
+resolution was forming in his mind, for his eyes ranged to the top of
+the trees above cliff, and down again, very slowly this time, as
+though measuring and studying the detail of what was in front of him.
+Then he spoke:
+
+"They are in hopes that the other pursuing party may not come across
+them.  To know that, they are waiting.  If those others do not come
+up the valley, they will proceed on their way.  They will return up
+the path the way they came.  There we can wait them, charge into the
+middle of them when she is opposite, and cut down those around her.
+Then the others will open fire, and we shall be rid of them!
+
+Whilst he was speaking, two of the men of our party, who I knew to be
+good sharpshooters, and who had just before lain on their faces and
+had steadied their rifles to shoot, rose to their feet.
+
+"Command us, Gospodar!" they said simply, as they stood to attention.
+"Shall we go to the head of the ravine road and there take hiding?"
+He thought for perhaps a minute, whilst we all stood as silent as
+images.  I could hear our hearts beating.  Then he said:
+
+"No, not yet.  There is time for that yet.  They will not--cannot
+stir or make plans in any way till they know whether the other party
+is coming towards them or not.  From our height here we can see what
+course the others are taking long before those villains do.  Then we
+can make our plans and be ready in time.
+
+We waited many minutes, but could see no further signs the other
+pursuing party.  These had evidently adopted greater caution in their
+movements as they came closer to where they expected to find the
+enemy.  The marauders began to grow anxious.  Even at our distance we
+could gather as much from their attitude and movements.
+
+Presently, when the suspense of their ignorance grew too much for
+them, they drew to the entrance of the glade, which was the farthest
+place to which, without exposing themselves to anyone who might come
+to the valley, they could withdraw from their captive.  Here they
+consulted together.  We could follow from their gestures what they
+were saying, for as they did not wish their prisoner to hear, their
+gesticulation was enlightening to us as to each other.  Our people,
+like all mountaineers, have good eyes, and the Gospodar is himself an
+eagle in this as in other ways.  Three men stood back from the rest.
+They stacked their rifles so that they could seize them easily.  Then
+they drew their scimitars, and stood ready, as though on guard.
+
+These were evidently the appointed murderers.  Well they knew their
+work; for though they stood in a desert place with none within long
+distance except the pursuing party, of whose approach they would have
+good notice, they stood so close to their prisoner that no marksman
+in the world--now or that ever had been; not William Tell himself--
+could have harmed any of them without at least endangering her.  Two
+of them turned the Voivodin round so that her face was towards the
+precipice--in which position she could not see what was going on--
+whilst he who was evidently leader of the gang explained, in gesture,
+that the others were going to spy upon the pursuing party.  When they
+had located them he, or one of his men, would come out of the opening
+of the wood wherein they had had evidence of them, and hold up his
+hand.
+
+That was to be the signal for the cutting of the victim's throat--
+such being the chosen method (villainous even for heathen murderers)
+of her death.  There was not one of our men who did not grind his
+teeth when we witnessed the grim action, only too expressive, of the
+Turk as he drew his right hand, clenched as though he held a yataghan
+in it, across his throat.
+
+At the opening of the glade all the spying party halted whilst the
+leader appointed to each his place of entry of the wood, the front of
+which extended in an almost straight across the valley from cliff to
+cliff.
+
+The men, stooping low when in the open, and taking instant advantage
+of every little obstacle on the ground, seemed to fade like spectres
+with incredible swiftness across the level mead, and were swallowed
+up in the wood.
+
+When they had disappeared the Gospodar Rupert revealed to us the
+details of the plan of action which he had revolving in his mind.  He
+motioned us to follow him:  we threaded a way between the tree-
+trunks, keeping all the while on the very edge of the cliff, so that
+the space below was all visible to us.  When we had got round the
+curve sufficiently to see the whole of the wood on the valley level,
+without losing sight of the Voivodin and her appointed assassins, we
+halted under his direction.  There was an added advantage of this
+point over the other, for we could see directly the rising of the
+hill-road, up which farther side ran the continuation of the mountain
+path which the marauders had followed.  It was somewhere on that path
+that the other pursuing party had hoped to intercept the fugitives.
+The Gospodar spoke quickly, though in a voice of command which true
+soldiers love to hear:
+
+"Brothers, the time has come when we can strike a blow for Teuta and
+the Land.  Do you two, marksmen, take position here facing the wood."
+The two men here lay down and got their rifles ready.  "Divide the
+frontage of the wood between you; arrange between yourselves the
+limits of your positions.  The very instant one of the marauders
+appears, cover him; drop him before he emerges from the wood.  Even
+then still watch and treat similarly whoever else may take his place.
+Do this if they come singly till not a man is left.  Remember,
+brothers, that brave hearts alone will not suffice at this grim
+crisis.  In this hour the best safety of the Voivodin is in the calm
+spirit and the steady eye!"  Then he turned to the rest of us, and
+spoke to me:
+
+"Archimandrite of Plazac, you who are interpreter to God of the
+prayers of so many souls, my own hour has come.  If I do not return,
+convey my love to my Aunt Janet--Miss MacKelpie, at Vissarion.  There
+is but one thing left to us if we wish to save the Voivodin.  Do you,
+when the time comes, take these men and join the watcher at the top
+of the ravine road.  When the shots are fired, do you out handjar,
+and rush the ravine and across the valley.  Brothers, you may be in
+time to avenge the Voivodin, if you cannot save her.  For me there
+must be a quicker way, and to it I go.  As there is not, and will not
+be, time to traverse the path, I must take a quicker way.  Nature
+finds me a path that man has made it necessary for me to travel.  See
+that giant beech-tree that towers above the glade where the Voivodin
+is held?  There is my path!  When you from here have marked the
+return of the spies, give me a signal with your hat--do not use a
+handkerchief, as others might see its white, and take warning.  Then
+rush that ravine.  I shall take that as the signal for my descent by
+the leafy road.  If I can do naught else, I can crush the murderers
+with my falling weight, even if I have to kill her too.  At least we
+shall die together--and free.  Lay us together in the tomb at St.
+Sava's.  Farewell, if it be the last!"
+
+He threw down the scabbard in which he carried his handjar, adjusted
+the naked weapon in his belt behind his back, and was gone!
+
+We who were not watching the wood kept our eyes fixed on the great
+beech-tree, and with new interest noticed the long trailing branches
+which hung low, and swayed even in the gentle breeze.  For a few
+minutes, which seemed amazingly long, we saw no sign of him.  Then,
+high up on one of the great branches which stood clear of obscuring
+leaves, we saw something crawling flat against the bark.  He was well
+out on the branch, hanging far over the precipice.  He was looking
+over at us, and I waved my hand so that he should know we saw him.
+He was clad in green--his usual forest dress--so that there was not
+any likelihood of any other eyes noticing him.  I took off my hat,
+and held it ready to signal with when the time should come.  I
+glanced down at the glade and saw the Voivodin standing, still safe,
+with her guards so close to her as to touch.  Then I, too, fixed my
+eyes on the wood.
+
+Suddenly the man standing beside me seized my arm and pointed.  I
+could just see through the trees, which were lower than elsewhere in
+the front of the wood, a Turk moving stealthily; so I waved my hat.
+At the same time a rifle underneath me cracked.  A second or two
+later the spy pitched forward on his face and lay still.  At the same
+instant my eyes sought the beech-tree, and I saw the close-lying
+figure raise itself and slide forward to a joint of the branch.  Then
+the Gospodar, as he rose, hurled himself forward amid the mass of the
+trailing branches.  He dropped like a stone, and my heart sank.
+
+But an instant later he seemed in poise.  He had clutched the thin,
+trailing branches as he fell; and as he sank a number of leaves which
+his motion had torn off floated out round him.
+
+Again the rifle below me cracked, and then again, and again, and
+again.  The marauders had taken warning, and were coming out in mass.
+But my own eyes were fixed on the tree.  Almost as a thunderbolt
+falls fell the giant body of the Gospodar, his size lost in the
+immensity of his surroundings.  He fell in a series of jerks, as he
+kept clutching the trailing beech-branches whilst they lasted, and
+then other lesser verdure growing out from the fissures in the rock
+after the lengthening branches had with all their elasticity reached
+their last point.
+
+At length--for though this all took place in a very few seconds the
+gravity of the crisis prolonged them immeasurably--there came a large
+space of rock some three times his own length.  He did not pause, but
+swung himself to one side, so that he should fall close to the
+Voivodin and her guards.  These men did not seem to notice, for their
+attention was fixed on the wood whence they expected their messenger
+to signal.  But they raised their yataghans in readiness.  The shots
+had alarmed them; and they meant to do the murder now--messenger or
+no messenger
+
+But though the men did not see the danger from above, the Voivodin
+did.  She raised her eyes quickly at the first sound, and even from
+where we were, before we began to run towards the ravine path, I
+could see the triumphant look in her glorious eyes when she
+recognized the identity of the man who was seemingly coming straight
+down from Heaven itself to help her--as, indeed, she, and we too, can
+very well imagine that he did; for if ever heaven had a hand in a
+rescue on earth, it was now.
+
+Even during the last drop from the rocky foliage the Gospodar kept
+his head.  As he fell he pulled his handjar free, and almost as he
+was falling its sweep took off the head of one of the assassins.  As
+he touched ground he stumbled for an instant, but it was towards his
+enemies.  Twice with lightning rapidity the handjar swept the air,
+and at each sweep a head rolled on the sward.
+
+The Voivodin held up her tied hands.  Again the handjar flashed, this
+time downwards, and the lady was free.  Without an instant's pause
+the Gospodar tore off the gag, and with his left arm round her and
+handjar in right hand, stood face toward his living foes.  The
+Voivodin stooped suddenly, and then, raising the yataghan which had
+fallen from the hand of one of the dead marauders, stood armed beside
+him.
+
+The rifles were now cracking fast, as the marauders--those that were
+left of them--came rushing out into the open.  But well the marksmen
+knew their work.  Well they bore in mind the Gospodar's command
+regarding calmness.  They kept picking off the foremost men only, so
+that the onward rush never seemed to get more forward.
+
+As we rushed down the ravine we could see clearly all before us.  But
+now, just as we were beginning to fear lest some mischance might
+allow some of them to reach the glade, there was another cause of
+surprise--of rejoicing.
+
+From the face of the wood seemed to burst all at once a body of men,
+all wearing the national cap, so we knew them as our own.  They were
+all armed with the handjar only, and they came like tigers.  They
+swept on the rushing Turks as though, for all their swiftness, they
+were standing still--literally wiping them out as a child wipes a
+lesson from its slate.
+
+A few seconds later these were followed by a tall figure with long
+hair and beard of black mingled with grey.  Instinctively we all, as
+did those in the valley, shouted with joy.  For this was the Vladika
+Milosh Plamenac himself.
+
+I confess that, knowing what I knew, I was for a short space of time
+anxious lest, in the terrific excitement in which we were all lapped,
+someone might say or do something which might make for trouble later
+on.  The Gospodar's splendid achievement, which was worthy of any
+hero of old romance, had set us all on fire.  He himself must have
+been wrought to a high pitch of excitement to dare such an act; and
+it is not at such a time that discretion must be expected from any
+man.  Most of all did I fear danger from the womanhood of the
+Voivodin.  Had I not assisted at her marriage, I might not have
+understood then what it must have been to her to be saved from such a
+doom at such a time by such a man, who was so much to her, and in
+such a way.  It would have been only natural if at such a moment of
+gratitude and triumph she had proclaimed the secret which we of the
+Council of the Nation and her father's Commissioners had so
+religiously kept.  But none of us knew then either the Voivodin or
+the Gospodar Rupert as we do now.  It was well that they were as they
+are, for the jealousy and suspicion of our mountaineers might, even
+at such a moment, and even whilst they throbbed at such a deed, have
+so manifested themselves as to have left a legacy of distrust.  The
+Vladika and I, who of all (save the two immediately concerned) alone
+knew, looked at each other apprehensively.  But at that instant the
+Voivodin, with a swift glance at her husband, laid a finger on her
+lip; and he, with quick understanding, gave assurance by a similar
+sign.  Then she sank before him on one knee, and, raising his hand to
+her lips, kissed it, and spoke:
+
+"Gospodar Rupert, I owe you all that a woman may owe, except to God.
+You have given me life and honour!  I cannot thank you adequately for
+what you have done; my father will try to do so when he returns.  But
+I am right sure that the men of the Blue Mountains, who so value
+honour, and freedom, and liberty, and bravery, will hold you in their
+hearts for ever!"
+
+This was so sweetly spoken, with lips that trembled and eyes that
+swam in tears, so truly womanly and so in accord with the custom of
+our nation regarding the reverence that women owe to men, that the
+hearts of our mountaineers were touched to the quick.  Their noble
+simplicity found expression in tears.  But if the gallant Gospodar
+could have for a moment thought that so to weep was unmanly, his
+error would have had instant correction.  When the Voivodin had risen
+to her feet, which she did with queenly dignity, the men around
+closed in on the Gospodar like a wave of the sea, and in a second
+held him above their heads, tossing on their lifted hands as if on
+stormy breakers.  It was as though the old Vikings of whom we have
+heard, and whose blood flows in Rupert's veins, were choosing a chief
+in old fashion.  I was myself glad that the men were so taken up with
+the Gospodar that they did not see the glory of the moment in the
+Voivodin's starry eyes; for else they might have guessed the secret.
+I knew from the Vladika's look that he shared my own satisfaction,
+even as he had shared my anxiety.
+
+As the Gospodar Rupert was tossed high on the lifted hands of the
+mountaineers, their shouts rose to such a sudden volume that around
+us, as far as I could see, the frightened birds rose from the forest,
+and their noisy alarm swelled the tumult.
+
+The Gospodar, ever thoughtful for others, was the first to calm
+himself.
+
+"Come, brothers," he said, "let us gain the hilltop, where we can
+signal to the Castle.  It is right that the whole nation should share
+in the glad tidings that the Voivodin Teuta of Vissarion is free.
+But before we go, let us remove the arms and clothing of these
+carrion marauders.  We may have use for them later on."
+
+The mountaineers set him down, gently enough.  And he, taking the
+Voivodin by the hand, and calling the Vladika and myself close to
+them, led the way up the ravine path which the marauders had
+descended, and thence through the forest to the top of the hill that
+dominated the valley.  Here we could, from an opening amongst the
+trees, catch a glimpse far off of the battlements of Vissarion.
+Forthwith the Gospodar signalled; and on the moment a reply of their
+awaiting was given.  Then the Gospodar signalled the glad news.  It
+was received with manifest rejoicing.  We could not hear any sound so
+far away, but we could see the movement of lifted faces and waving
+hands, and knew that it was well.  But an instant after came a calm
+so dread that we knew before the semaphore had begun to work that
+there was bad news in store for us.  When the news did come, a bitter
+wailing arose amongst us; for the news that was signalled ran:
+
+"The Voivode has been captured by the Turks on his return, and is
+held by them at Ilsin."
+
+In an instant the temper of the mountaineers changed.  It was as
+though by a flash summer had changed to winter, as though the yellow
+glory of the standing corn had been obliterated by the dreary waste
+of snow.  Nay, more:  it was as when one beholds the track of the
+whirlwind when the giants of the forest are levelled with the sward.
+For a few seconds there was silence; and then, with an angry roar, as
+when God speaks in the thunder, came the fierce determination of the
+men of the Blue Mountains:
+
+"To Ilsin!  To Ilsin!" and a stampede in the direction of the south
+began.  For, Illustrious Lady, you, perhaps, who have been for so
+short a time at Vissarion, may not know that at the extreme southern
+point of the Land of the Blue Mountains lies the little port of
+Ilsin, which long ago we wrested from the Turk.
+
+The stampede was checked by the command, "Halt!" spoken in a
+thunderous voice by the Gospodar.  Instinctively all stopped.  The
+Gospodar Rupert spoke again:
+
+"Had we not better know a little more before we start on our journey?
+I shall get by semaphore what details are known.  Do you all proceed
+in silence and as swiftly as possible.  The Vladika and I will wait
+here till we have received the news and have sent some instructions,
+when we shall follow, and, if we can, overtake you.  One thing:  be
+absolutely silent on what has been.  Be secret of every detail--even
+as to the rescue of the Voivodin--except what I send."
+
+Without a word--thus showing immeasurable trust--the whole body--not
+a very large one, it is true--moved on, and the Gospodar began
+signalling.  As I was myself expert in the code, I did not require
+any explanation, but followed question and answer on either side.
+The first words the Gospodar Rupert signalled were:
+
+"Silence, absolute and profound, as to everything which has been."
+Then he asked for details of the capture of the Voivode.  The answer
+ran:
+
+"He was followed from Flushing, and his enemies advised by the spies
+all along the route.  At Ragusa quite a number of strangers--
+travellers seemingly--went on board the packet.  When he got out, the
+strangers debarked too, and evidently followed him, though, as yet,
+we have no details.  He disappeared at Ilsin from the Hotel Reo,
+whither he had gone.  All possible steps are being taken to trace his
+movements, and strictest silence and secrecy are observed."
+
+His answer was:
+
+"Good!  Keep silent and secret.  Am hurrying back.  Signal request to
+Archbishop and all members of National Council to come to Gadaar with
+all speed.  There the yacht will meet him.  Tell Rooke take yacht all
+speed to Gadaar; there meet Archbishop and Council--give him list of
+names--and return full speed.  Have ready plenty arms, six flying
+artillery.  Two hundred men, provisions three days.  Silence,
+silence.  All depends on that.  All to go on as usual at Castle,
+except to those in secret."
+
+When the receipt of his message had been signalled, we three--for, of
+course, the Voivodin was with us; she had refused to leave the
+Gospodar--set out hot-foot after our comrades.  But by the time we
+had descended the hill it was evident that the Voivodin could not
+keep up the terrific pace at which we were going.  She struggled
+heroically, but the long journey she had already taken, and the
+hardship and anxiety she had suffered, had told on her.  The Gospodar
+stopped, and said that it would be better that he should press on--it
+was, perhaps, her father's life--and said he would carry her.
+
+"No, no!" she answered.  "Go on!  I shall follow with the Vladika.
+And then you can have things ready to get on soon after the
+Archbishop and Council arrive."  They kissed each other after, on her
+part, a shy glance at me; and he went on the track of our comrades at
+a great pace.  I could see him shortly after catch them up,--though
+they, too, were going fast.  For a few minutes they ran together, he
+speaking--I could note it from the way they kept turning their heads
+towards him.  Then he broke away from them hurriedly.  He went like a
+stag breaking covert, and was soon out of sight.  They halted a
+moment or two.  Then some few ran on, and all the rest came back
+towards us.  Quickly they improvised a litter with cords and
+branches, and insisted that the Voivodin should use it.  In an
+incredibly short time we were under way again, and proceeding with
+great rapidity towards Vissarion.  The men took it in turns to help
+with the litter; I had the honour of taking a hand in the work
+myself.
+
+About a third of the way out from Vissarion a number of our people
+met us.  They were fresh, and as they carried the litter, we who were
+relieved were free for speed.  So we soon arrived at the Castle.
+
+Here we found all humming like a hive of bees.  The yacht, which
+Captain Rooke had kept fired ever since the pursuing party under the
+Gospodar had left Vissarion, was already away, and tearing up the
+coast at a fearful rate.  The rifles and ammunition were stacked on
+the quay.  The field-guns, too, were equipped, and the cases of
+ammunition ready to ship.  The men, two hundred of them, were paraded
+in full kit, ready to start at a moment's notice.  The provision for
+three days was all ready to put aboard, and barrels of fresh water to
+trundle aboard when the yacht should return.  At one end of the quay,
+ready to lift on board, stood also the Gospodar's aeroplane, fully
+equipped, and ready, if need were, for immediate flight.
+
+I was glad to see that the Voivodin seemed none the worse for her
+terrible experience.  She still wore her shroud; but no one seemed to
+notice it as anything strange.  The whisper had evidently gone round
+of what had been.  But discretion ruled the day.  She and the
+Gospodar met as two who had served and suffered in common; but I was
+glad to notice that both kept themselves under such control that none
+of those not already in the secret even suspected that there was any
+love between them, let alone marriage.
+
+We all waited with what patience we could till word was signalled
+from the Castle tower that the yacht had appeared over the northern
+horizon, and was coming down fast, keeping inshore as she came.
+
+When she arrived, we heard to our joy that all concerned had done
+their work well.  The Archbishop was aboard, and of the National
+Council not one was missing.  The Gospodar hurried them all into the
+great hall of the Castle, which had in the meantime been got ready.
+I, too, went with him, but the Voivodin remained without.
+
+When all were seated, he rose and said:
+
+"My Lord Archbishop, Vladika, and Lords of the Council all, I have
+dared to summon you in this way because time presses, and the life of
+one you all love--the Voivode Vissarion--is at stake.  This audacious
+attempt of the Turk is the old aggression under a new form.  It is a
+new and more daring step than ever to try to capture your chief and
+his daughter, the Voivodin, whom you love.  Happily, the latter part
+of the scheme is frustrated.  The Voivodin is safe and amongst us.
+But the Voivode is held prisoner--if, indeed, he be still alive.  He
+must be somewhere near Ilsin--but where exactly we know not as yet.
+We have an expedition ready to start the moment we receive your
+sanction--your commands.  We shall obey your wishes with our lives.
+But as the matter is instant, I would venture to ask one question,
+and one only:  'Shall we rescue the Voivode at any cost that may
+present itself?'  I ask this, for the matter has now become an
+international one, and, if our enemies are as earnest as we are, the
+issue is war!
+
+Having so spoken, and with a dignity and force which is
+inexpressible, he withdrew; and the Council, having appointed a
+scribe--the monk Cristoferos, whom I had suggested--began its work.
+
+The Archbishop spoke:
+
+"Lords of the Council of the Blue Mountains, I venture to ask you
+that the answer to the Gospodar Rupert be an instant 'Yes!' together
+with thanks and honour to that gallant Englisher, who has made our
+cause his own, and who has so valiantly rescued our beloved Voivodin
+from the ruthless hands of our enemies."  Forthwith the oldest member
+of the Council--Nicolos of Volok--rose, and, after throwing a
+searching look round the faces of all, and seeing grave nods of
+assent--for not a word was spoken--said to him who held the door:
+"Summon the Gospodar Rupert forthwith!"  When Rupert entered, he
+spoke to him:
+
+"Gospodar Rupert, the Council of the Blue Mountains has only one
+answer to give:  Proceed!  Rescue the Voivode Vissarion, whatever the
+cost may be!  You hold henceforth in your hand the handjar of our
+nation, as already, for what you have done in your valiant rescue of
+our beloved Voivodin, your breast holds the heart of our people.
+Proceed at once!  We give you, I fear, little time; but we know that
+such is your own wish.  Later, we shall issue formal authorization,
+so that if war may ensue, our allies may understand that you have
+acted for the nation, and also such letters credential as may be
+required by you in this exceptional service.  These shall follow you
+within an hour.  For our enemies we take no account.  See, we draw
+the handjar that we offer you."  As one man all in the hall drew
+their handjars, which flashed as a blaze of lightning.
+
+There did not seem to be an instant's delay.  The Council broke up,
+and its members, mingling with the people without, took active part
+in the preparations.  Not many minutes had elapsed when the yacht,
+manned and armed and stored as arranged, was rushing out of the
+creek.  On the bridge, beside Captain Rooke, stood the Gospodar
+Rupert and the still-shrouded form of the Voivodin Teuta.  I myself
+was on the lower deck with the soldiers, explaining to certain of
+them the special duties which they might be called on to fulfil.  I
+held the list which the Gospodar Rupert had prepared whilst we were
+waiting for the yacht to arrive from Gadaar.
+
+PETROF VLASTIMIR.
+
+
+FROM RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+July 9, 1907.
+
+We went at a terrific pace down the coast, keeping well inshore so as
+to avoid, if possible, being seen from the south.  Just north of
+Ilsin a rocky headland juts out, and that was our cover.  On the
+north of the peninsula is a small land-locked bay, with deep water.
+It is large enough to take the yacht, though a much larger vessel
+could not safely enter.  We ran in, and anchored close to the shore,
+which has a rocky frontage--a natural shelf of rock, which is
+practically the same as a quay.  Here we met the men who had come
+from Ilsin and the neighbourhood in answer to our signalling earlier
+in the day.  They gave us the latest information regarding the
+kidnapping of the Voivode, and informed us that every man in that
+section of the country was simply aflame about it.  They assured us
+that we could rely on them, not merely to fight to the death, but to
+keep silence absolutely.  Whilst the seamen, under the direction of
+Rooke, took the aeroplane on shore and found a suitable place for it,
+where it was hidden from casual view, but from which it could be
+easily launched, the Vladika and I--and, of course, my wife--were
+hearing such details as were known of the disappearance of her
+father.
+
+It seems that he travelled secretly in order to avoid just such a
+possibility as has happened.  No one knew of his coming till he came
+to Fiume, whence he sent a guarded message to the Archbishop, which
+the latter alone would understand.  But this Turkish agents were
+evidently on his track all the time, and doubtless the Bureau of
+Spies was kept well advised.  He landed at Ilsin from a coasting
+steamer from Ragusa to the Levant.
+
+For two days before his coming there had been quite an unusual number
+of arrivals at the little port, at which arrivals are rare.  And it
+turned out that the little hotel--the only fairly good one in Ilsin--
+was almost filled up.  Indeed, only one room was left, which the
+Voivode took for the night.  The innkeeper did not know the Voivode
+in his disguise, but suspected who it was from the description.  He
+dined quietly, and went to bed.  His room was at the back, on the
+ground-floor, looking out on the bank of the little River Silva,
+which here runs into the harbour.  No disturbance was heard in the
+night.  Late in the morning, when the elderly stranger had not made
+his appearance, inquiry was made at his door.  He did not answer, so
+presently the landlord forced the door, and found the room empty.
+His luggage was seemingly intact, only the clothes which he had worn
+were gone.  A strange thing was that, though the bed had been slept
+in and his clothes were gone, his night-clothes were not to be found,
+from which it was argued by the local authorities, when they came to
+make inquiry, that he had gone or been taken from the room in his
+night-gear, and that his clothes had been taken with him.  There was
+evidently some grim suspicion on the part of the authorities, for
+they had commanded absolute silence on all in the house.  When they
+came to make inquiry as to the other guests, it was found that one
+and all had gone in the course of the morning, after paying their
+bills.  None of them had any heavy luggage, and there was nothing
+remaining by which they might be traced or which would afford any
+clue to their identity.  The authorities, having sent a confidential
+report to the seat of government, continued their inquiries, and even
+now all available hands were at work on the investigation.  When I
+had signalled to Vissarion, before my arrival there, word had been
+sent through the priesthood to enlist in the investigation the
+services of all good men, so that every foot of ground in that
+section of the Blue Mountains was being investigated.  The port-
+master was assured by his watchmen that no vessel, large or small,
+had heft the harbour during the night.  The inference, therefore, was
+that the Voivode's captors had made inland with him--if, indeed, they
+were not already secreted in or near the town.
+
+Whilst we were receiving the various reports, a hurried message came
+that it was now believed that the whole party were in the Silent
+Tower.  This was a well-chosen place for such an enterprise.  It was
+a massive tower of immense strength, built as a memorial--and also as
+a "keep"--after one of the massacres of the invading Turks.
+
+It stood on the summit of a rocky knoll some ten miles inland from
+the Port of Ilsin.  It was a place shunned as a rule, and the country
+all around it was so arid and desolate that there were no residents
+near it.  As it was kept for state use, and might be serviceable in
+time of war, it was closed with massive iron doors, which were kept
+locked except upon certain occasions.  The keys were at the seat of
+government at Plazac.  If, therefore, it had been possible to the
+Turkish marauders to gain entrance and exit, it might be a difficult
+as well as a dangerous task to try to cut the Voivode out.  His
+presence with them was a dangerous menace to any force attacking
+them, for they would hold his life as a threat.
+
+I consulted with the Vladika at once as to what was best to be done.
+And we decided that, though we should put a cordon of guards around
+it at a safe distance to prevent them receiving warning, we should at
+present make no attack.
+
+We made further inquiry as to whether there had been any vessel seen
+in the neighbourhood during the past few days, and were informed that
+once or twice a warship had been seen on the near side of the
+southern horizon.  This was evidently the ship which Rooke had seen
+on his rush down the coast after the abduction of the Voivodin, and
+which he had identified as a Turkish vessel.  The glimpses of her
+which had been had were all in full daylight--there was no proof that
+she had not stolen up during the night-time without lights.  But the
+Vladika and I were satisfied that the Turkish vessel was watching--
+was in league with both parties of marauders--and was intended to
+take off any of the strangers, or their prey, who might reach Ilsin
+undetected.  It was evidently with this view that the kidnappers of
+Teuta had, in the first instance, made with all speed for the south.
+It was only when disappointed there that they headed up north,
+seeking in desperation for some chance of crossing the border.  That
+ring of steel had so far well served its purpose.
+
+I sent for Rooke, and put the matter before him.  He had thought it
+out for himself to the same end as we had.  His deduction was:
+
+"Let us keep the cordon, and watch for any signal from the Silent
+Tower.  The Turks will tire before we shall.  I undertake to watch
+the Turkish warship.  During the night I shall run down south,
+without lights, and have a look at her, even if I have to wait till
+the grey of the dawn to do so.  She may see us; but if she does I
+shall crawl away at such pace that she shall not get any idea of our
+speed.  She will certainly come nearer before a day is over, for be
+sure the bureau of spies is kept advised, and they know that when the
+country is awake each day increases the hazard of them and their
+plans being discovered.  From their caution I gather that they do not
+court discovery; and from that that they do not wish for an open
+declaration of war.  If this be so, why should we not come out to
+them and force an issue if need be?"
+
+When Teuta and I got a chance to be alone, we discussed the situation
+in every phase.  The poor girl was in a dreadful state of anxiety
+regarding her father's safety.  At first she was hardly able to
+speak, or even to think, coherently.  Her utterance was choked, and
+her reasoning palsied with indignation.  But presently the fighting
+blood of her race restored her faculties, and then her woman's quick
+wit was worth the reasoning of a camp full of men.  Seeing that she
+was all on fire with the subject, I sat still and waited, taking care
+not to interrupt her.  For quite a long time she sat still, whilst
+the coming night thickened.  When she spoke, the whole plan of
+action, based on subtle thinking, had mapped itself out in her mind:
+
+"We must act quickly.  Every hour increases the risk to my father."
+Here her voice broke for an instant; but she recovered herself and
+went on:
+
+"If you go to the ship, I must not go with you.  It would not do for
+me to be seen.  The Captain doubtless knows of both attempts:  that
+to carry me off as well as that against my father.  As yet he is in
+ignorance of what has happened.  You and your party of brave, loyal
+men did their work so well that no news could go forth.  So long,
+therefore, as the naval Captain is ignorant, he must delay till the
+last.  But if he saw me he would know that THAT branch of the venture
+had miscarried.  He would gather from our being here that we had news
+of my father's capture, and as he would know that the marauders would
+fail unless they were relieved by force, he would order the captive
+to be slain."
+
+"Yes, dear, to-morrow you had, perhaps, better see the Captain, but
+to-night we must try to rescue my father.  Here I think I see a way.
+You have your aeroplane.  Please take me with you into the Silent
+Tower."
+
+"Not for a world of chrysolite!" said I, horrified.  She took my hand
+and held it tight whilst she went on:
+
+"Dear, I know, I know!  Be satisfied.  But it is the only way.  You
+can, I know, get there, and in the dark.  But if you were to go in
+it, it would give warning to the enemies, and besides, my father
+would not understand.  Remember, he does not know you; he has never
+seen you, and does not, I suppose, even know as yet of your
+existence.  But he would know me at once, and in any dress.  You can
+manage to lower me into the Tower by a rope from the aeroplane.  The
+Turks as yet do not know of our pursuit, and doubtless rely, at all
+events in part, on the strength and security of the Tower.  Therefore
+their guard will be less active than it would at first or later on.
+I shall post father in all details, and we shall be ready quickly.
+Now, dear, let us think out the scheme together.  Let your man's wit
+and experience help my ignorance, and we shall save my father!"
+
+How could I have resisted such pleading--even had it not seemed wise?
+But wise it was; and I, who knew what the aeroplane could do under my
+own guidance, saw at once the practicalities of the scheme.  Of
+course there was a dreadful risk in case anything should go wrong.
+But we are at present living in a world of risks--and her father's
+life was at stake.  So I took my dear wife in my arms, and told her
+that my mind was hers for this, as my soul and body already were.
+And I cheered her by saying that I thought it might be done.
+
+I sent for Rooke, and told him of the new adventure, and he quite
+agreed with me in the wisdom of it.  I then told him that he would
+have to go and interview the Captain of the Turkish warship in the
+morning, if I did not turn up.  "I am going to see the Vladika," I
+said.  "He will lead our own troops in the attack on the Silent
+Tower.  But it will rest with you to deal with the warship.  Ask the
+Captain to whom or what nation the ship belongs.  He is sure to
+refuse to tell.  In such case mention to him that if he flies no
+nation's flag, his vessel is a pirate ship, and that you, who are in
+command of the navy of the Blue Mountains, will deal with him as a
+pirate is dealt with--no quarter, no mercy.  He will temporize, and
+perhaps try a bluff; but when things get serious with him he will
+land a force, or try to, and may even prepare to shell the town.  He
+will threaten to, at any rate.  In such case deal with him as you
+think best, or as near to it as you can."  He answered:
+
+"I shall carry out your wishes with my life.  It is a righteous task.
+Not that anything of that sort would ever stand in my way.  If he
+attacks our nation, either as a Turk or a pirate, I shall wipe him
+out.  We shall see what our own little packet can do.  Moreover, any
+of the marauders who have entered the Blue Mountains, from sea or
+otherwise, shall never get out by sea!  I take it that we of my
+contingent shall cover the attacking party.  It will be a sorry time
+for us all if that happens without our seeing you and the Voivodin;
+for in such case we shall understand the worst!"  Iron as he was, the
+man trembled.
+
+"That is so, Rooke," I said.  "We are taking a desperate chance, we
+know.  But the case is desperate!  But we all have our duty to do,
+whatever happens.  Ours and yours is stern; but when we have done it,
+the result will be that life will be easier for others--for those
+that are left."
+
+Before he left, I asked him to send up to me three suits of the
+Masterman bullet-proof clothes of which we had a supply on the yacht.
+
+"Two are for the Voivodin and myself," I said; "the third is for the
+Voivode to put on.  The Voivodin will take it with her when she
+descends from the aeroplane into the Tower."
+
+Whilst any daylight was left I went out to survey the ground.  My
+wife wanted to come with me, but I would not let her.  "No," said I;
+"you will have at the best a fearful tax on your strength and your
+nerves.  You will want to be as fresh as is possible when you get on
+the aeroplane."  Like a good wife, she obeyed, and lay down to rest
+in the little tent provided for her.
+
+I took with me a local man who knew the ground, and who was trusted
+to be silent.  We made a long detour when we had got as near the
+Silent Tower as we could without being noticed.  I made notes from my
+compass as to directions, and took good notice of anything that could
+possibly serve as a landmark.  By the time we got home I was pretty
+well satisfied that if all should go well I could easily sail over
+the Tower in the dark.  Then I had a talk with my wife, and gave her
+full instructions:
+
+"When we arrive over the Tower," I said, "I shall lower you with a
+long rope.  You will have a parcel of food and spirit for your father
+in case he is fatigued or faint; and, of course, the bullet-proof
+suit, which he must put on at once.  You will also have a short rope
+with a belt at either end--one for your father, the other for you.
+When I turn the aeroplane and come back again, you will have ready
+the ring which lies midway between the belts.  This you will catch
+into the hook at the end of the lowered rope.  When all is secure,
+and I have pulled you both up by the windlass so as to clear the top,
+I shall throw out ballast which we shall carry on purpose, and away
+we go!  I am sorry it must be so uncomfortable for you both, but
+there is no other way.  When we get well clear of the Tower, I shall
+take you both up on the platform.  If necessary, I shall descend to
+do it--and then we shall steer for Ilsin."
+
+"When all is safe, our men will attack the Tower.  We must let them
+do it, for they expect it.  A few men in the clothes and arms which
+we took from your captors will be pursued by some of ours.  It is all
+arranged.  They will ask the Turks to admit them, and if the latter
+have not learned of your father's escape, perhaps they will do so.
+Once in, our men will try to open the gate.  The chances are against
+them, poor fellows! but they are all volunteers, and will die
+fighting.  If they win out, great glory will be theirs."
+
+"The moon does not rise to-night till just before midnight, so we
+have plenty of time.  We shall start from here at ten.  If all be
+well, I shall place you in the Tower with your father in less than a
+quarter-hour from that.  A few minutes will suffice to clothe him in
+bullet-proof and get on his belt.  I shall not be away from the Tower
+more than a very few minutes, and, please God, long before eleven we
+shall be safe.  Then the Tower can be won in an attack by our
+mountaineers.  Perhaps, when the guns are heard on the ship of war--
+for there is sure to be firing--the Captain may try to land a shore
+party.  But Rooke will stand in the way, and if I know the man and
+The Lady, we shall not be troubled with many Turks to-night.  By
+midnight you and your father can be on the way to Vissarion.  I can
+interview the naval Captain in the morning."
+
+My wife's marvellous courage and self-possession stood to her.  At
+half an hour before the time fixed she was ready for our adventure.
+She had improved the scheme in one detail.  She had put on her own
+belt and coiled the rope round her waist, so the only delay would be
+in bringing her father's belt.  She would keep the bullet-proof dress
+intended to be his strapped in a packet on her back, so that if
+occasion should be favourable he would not want to put it on till he
+and she should have reached the platform of the aeroplane.  In such
+case, I should not steer away from the Tower at all, but would pass
+slowly across it and take up the captive and his brave daughter
+before leaving.  I had learned from local sources that the Tower was
+in several stories.  Entrance was by the foot, where the great iron-
+clad door was; then came living-rooms and storage, and an open space
+at the top.  This would probably be thought the best place for the
+prisoner, for it was deep-sunk within the massive walls, wherein was
+no loophole of any kind.  This, if it should so happen, would be the
+disposition of things best for our plan.  The guards would at this
+time be all inside the Tower--probably resting, most of them--so that
+it was possible that no one might notice the coming of the airship.
+I was afraid to think that all might turn out so well, for in such
+case our task would be a simple enough one, and would in all human
+probability be crowned with success.
+
+At ten o'clock we started.  Teuta did not show the smallest sign of
+fear or even uneasiness, though this was the first time she had even
+seen an aeroplane at work.  She proved to be an admirable passenger
+for an airship.  She stayed quite still, holding herself rigidly in
+the position arranged, by the cords which I had fixed for her.
+
+When I had trued my course by the landmarks and with the compass lit
+by the Tiny my electric light in the dark box, I had time to look
+about me.  All seemed quite dark wherever I looked--to land, or sea,
+or sky.  But darkness is relative, and though each quarter and spot
+looked dark in turn, there was not such absolute darkness as a whole.
+I could tell the difference, for instance, between land and sea, no
+matter how far off we might be from either.  Looking upward, the sky
+was dark; yet there was light enough to see, and even distinguish
+broad effects.  I had no difficulty in distinguishing the Tower
+towards which we were moving, and that, after all, was the main
+thing.  We drifted slowly, very slowly, as the air was still, and I
+only used the minimum pressure necessary for the engine.  I think I
+now understood for the first time the extraordinary value of the
+engine with which my Kitson was equipped.  It was noiseless, it was
+practically of no weight, and it allowed the machine to progress as
+easily as the old-fashioned balloon used to drift before a breeze.
+Teuta, who had naturally very fine sight, seemed to see even better
+than I did, for as we drew nearer to the Tower, and its round, open
+top began to articulate itself, she commenced to prepare for her part
+of the task.  She it was who uncoiled the long drag-rope ready for
+her lowering.  We were proceeding so gently that she as well as I had
+hopes that I might be able to actually balance the machine on the top
+of the curving wall--a thing manifestly impossible on a straight
+surface, though it might have been possible on an angle.
+
+On we crept--on, and on!  There was no sign of light about the Tower,
+and not the faintest sound to be heard till we were almost close to
+the line of the rising wall; then we heard a sound of something like
+mirth, but muffled by distance and thick walls.  From it we took
+fresh heart, for it told us that our enemies were gathered in the
+lower chambers.  If only the Voivode should be on the upper stage,
+all would be well.
+
+Slowly, almost inch by inch, and with a suspense that was agonizing,
+we crossed some twenty or thirty feet above the top of the wall.  I
+could see as we came near the jagged line of white patches where the
+heads of the massacred Turks placed there on spikes in old days
+seemed to give still their grim warning.  Seeing that they made in
+themselves a difficulty of landing on the wall, I deflected the plane
+so that, as we crept over the wall, we might, if they became
+displaced, brush them to the outside of the wall.  A few seconds
+more, and I was able to bring the machine to rest with the front of
+the platform jutting out beyond the Tower wall.  Here I anchored her
+fore and aft with clamps which had been already prepared.
+
+Whilst I was doing so Teuta had leaned over the inner edge of the
+platform, and whispered as softly as the sigh of a gentle breeze
+
+"Hist! hist!"  The answer came in a similar sound from some twenty
+feet below us, and we knew that the prisoner was alone.  Forthwith,
+having fixed the hook of the rope in the ring to which was attached
+her belt, I lowered my wife.  Her father evidently knew her whisper,
+and was ready.  The hollow Tower--a smooth cylinder within--sent up
+the voices from it faint as were the whispers:
+
+"Father, it is I--Teuta!"
+
+"My child, my brave daughter!"
+
+"Quick, father; strap the belt round you.  See that it is secure.  We
+have to be lifted into the air if necessary.  Hold together.  It will
+be easier for Rupert to lift us to the airship."
+
+"Rupert?"
+
+"Yes; I shall explain later.  Quick, quick!  There is not a moment to
+lose.  He is enormously strong, and can lift us together; but we must
+help him by being still, so he won't have to use the windlass, which
+might creak."  As she spoke she jerked slightly at the rope, which
+was our preconcerted signal that I was to lift.  I was afraid the
+windlass might creak, and her thoughtful hint decided me.  I bent my
+back to the task, and in a few seconds they were on the platform on
+which they, at Teuta's suggestion, lay flat, one at each side of my
+seat, so as to keep the best balance possible.
+
+I took off the clamps, lifted the bags of ballast to the top of the
+wall, so that there should be no sound of falling, and started the
+engine.  The machine moved forward a few inches, so that it tilted
+towards the outside of the wall.  I threw my weight on the front part
+of the platform, and we commenced our downward fall at a sharp angle.
+A second enlarged the angle, and without further ado we slid away
+into the darkness.  Then, ascending as we went, when the engine began
+to work at its strength, we turned, and presently made straight for
+Ilsin.
+
+The journey was short--not many minutes.  It almost seemed as if no
+time whatever had elapsed till we saw below us the gleam of lights,
+and by them saw a great body of men gathered in military array.  We
+slackened and descended.  The crowd kept deathly silence, but when we
+were amongst them we needed no telling that it was not due to lack of
+heart or absence of joy.  The pressure of their hands as they
+surrounded us, and the devotion with which they kissed the hands and
+feet of both the Voivode and his daughter, were evidence enough for
+me, even had I not had my own share of their grateful rejoicing.
+
+In the midst of it all the low, stern voice of Rooke, who had burst a
+way to the front beside the Vladika, said:
+
+"Now is the time to attack the Tower.  Forward, brothers, but in
+silence.  Let there not be a sound till you are near the gate; then
+play your little comedy of the escaping marauders.  And 'twill be no
+comedy for them in the Tower.  The yacht is all ready for the
+morning, Mr. Sent Leger, in case I do not come out of the scrimmage
+if the bluejackets arrive.  In such case you will have to handle her
+yourself.  God keep you, my Lady; and you, too, Voivode!  Forward!"
+
+In a ghostly silence the grim little army moved forwards.  Rooke and
+the men with him disappeared into the darkness in the direction of
+the harbour of Ilsin.
+
+
+FROM THE SCRIPT OF THE VOIVODE, PETER VISSARION,
+July 7, 1907.
+
+I had little idea, when I started on my homeward journey, that it
+would have such a strange termination.  Even I, who ever since my
+boyhood have lived in a whirl of adventure, intrigue, or diplomacy--
+whichever it may be called--statecraft, and war, had reason to be
+surprised.  I certainly thought that when I locked myself into my
+room in the hotel at Ilsin that I would have at last a spell, however
+short, of quiet.  All the time of my prolonged negotiations with the
+various nationalities I had to be at tension; so, too, on my homeward
+journey, lest something at the last moment should happen adversely to
+my mission.  But when I was safe on my own Land of the Blue
+Mountains, and laid my head on my pillow, where only friends could be
+around me, I thought I might forget care.
+
+But to wake with a rude hand over my mouth, and to feel myself
+grasped tight by so many hands that I could not move a limb, was a
+dreadful shock.  All after that was like a dreadful dream.  I was
+rolled in a great rug so tightly that I could hardly breathe, let
+alone cry out.  Lifted by many hands through the window, which I
+could hear was softly opened and shut for the purpose, and carried to
+a boat.  Again lifted into some sort of litter, on which I was borne
+a long distance, but with considerable rapidity.  Again lifted out
+and dragged through a doorway opened on purpose--I could hear the
+clang as it was shut behind me.  Then the rug was removed, and I
+found myself, still in my night-gear, in the midst of a ring of men.
+There were two score of them, all Turks, all strong-looking, resolute
+men, armed to the teeth.  My clothes, which had been taken from my
+room, were thrown down beside me, and I was told to dress.  As the
+Turks were going from the room--shaped like a vault--where we then
+were, the last of them, who seemed to be some sort of officer, said:
+
+"If you cry out or make any noise whatever whilst you are in this
+Tower, you shall die before your time!"  Presently some food and
+water were brought me, and a couple of blankets.  I wrapped myself up
+and slept till early in the morning.  Breakfast was brought, and the
+same men filed in.  In the presence of them all the same officer
+said:
+
+"I have given instructions that if you make any noise or betray your
+presence to anyone outside this Tower, the nearest man is to restore
+you to immediate quiet with his yataghan.  It you promise me that you
+will remain quiet whilst you are within the Tower, I can enlarge your
+liberties somewhat.  Do you promise?"  I promised as he wished; there
+was no need to make necessary any stricter measure of confinement.
+Any chance of escape lay in having the utmost freedom allowed to me.
+Although I had been taken away with such secrecy, I knew that before
+long there would be pursuit.  So I waited with what patience I could.
+I was allowed to go on the upper platform--a consideration due, I am
+convinced, to my captors' wish for their own comfort rather than for
+mine.
+
+It was not very cheering, for during the daytime I had satisfied
+myself that it would be quite impossible for even a younger and more
+active man than I am to climb the walls.  They were built for prison
+purposes, and a cat could not find entry for its claws between the
+stones.  I resigned myself to my fate as well as I could.  Wrapping
+my blanket round me, I lay down and looked up at the sky.  I wished
+to see it whilst I could.  I was just dropping to sleep--the
+unutterable silence of the place broken only now and again by some
+remark by my captors in the rooms below me--when there was a strange
+appearance just over me--an appearance so strange that I sat up, and
+gazed with distended eyes.
+
+Across the top of the tower, some height above, drifted, slowly and
+silently, a great platform.  Although the night was dark, it was so
+much darker where I was within the hollow of the Tower that I could
+actually see what was above me.  I knew it was an aeroplane--one of
+which I had seen in Washington.  A man was seated in the centre,
+steering; and beside him was a silent figure of a woman all wrapped
+in white.  It made my heart beat to see her, for she was figured
+something like my Teuta, but broader, less shapely.  She leaned over,
+and a whispered "Ssh!" crept down to me.  I answered in similar way.
+Whereupon she rose, and the man lowered her down into the Tower.
+Then I saw that it was my dear daughter who had come in this
+wonderful way to save me.  With infinite haste she helped me to
+fasten round my waist a belt attached to a rope, which was coiled
+round her; and then the man, who was a giant in strength as well as
+stature, raised us both to the platform of the aeroplane, which he
+set in motion without an instant's delay.
+
+Within a few seconds, and without any discovery being made of my
+escape, we were speeding towards the sea.  The lights of Ilsin were
+in front of us.  Before reaching the town, however, we descended in
+the midst of a little army of my own people, who were gathered ready
+to advance upon the Silent Tower, there to effect, if necessary, my
+rescue by force.  Small chance would there have been of my life in
+case of such a struggle.  Happily, however, the devotion and courage
+of my dear daughter and of her gallant companion prevented such a
+necessity.  It was strange to me to find such joyous reception
+amongst my friends expressed in such a whispered silence.  There was
+no time for comment or understanding or the asking of questions--I
+was fain to take things as they stood, and wait for fuller
+explanation.
+
+This came later, when my daughter and I were able to converse alone.
+
+When the expedition went out against the Silent Tower, Teuta and I
+went to her tent, and with us came her gigantic companion, who seemed
+not wearied, but almost overcome with sleep.  When we came into the
+tent, over which at a little distance a cordon of our mountaineers
+stood on guard, he said to me:
+
+"May I ask you, sir, to pardon me for a time, and allow the Voivodin
+to explain matters to you?  She will, I know, so far assist me, for
+there is so much work still to be done before we are free of the
+present peril.  For myself, I am almost overcome with sleep.  For
+three nights I have had no sleep, but all during that time much
+labour and more anxiety.  I could hold on longer; but at daybreak I
+must go out to the Turkish warship that lies in the offing.  She is a
+Turk, though she does not confess to it; and she it is who has
+brought hither the marauders who captured both your daughter and
+yourself.  It is needful that I go, for I hold a personal authority
+from the National Council to take whatever step may be necessary for
+our protection.  And when I go I should be clear-headed, for war may
+rest on that meeting.  I shall be in the adjoining tent, and shall
+come at once if I am summoned, in case you wish for me before dawn."
+Here my daughter struck in:
+
+"Father, ask him to remain here.  We shall not disturb him, I am
+sure, in our talking.  And, moreover, if you knew how much I owe to
+him--to his own bravery and his strength--you would understand how
+much safer I feel when he is close to me, though we are surrounded by
+an army of our brave mountaineers."
+
+"But, my daughter," I said, for I was as yet all in ignorance, "there
+are confidences between father and daughter which none other may
+share.  Some of what has been I know, but I want to know all, and it
+might be better that no stranger--however valiant he may be, or no
+matter in what measure we are bound to him--should be present."  To
+my astonishment, she who had always been amenable to my lightest wish
+actually argued with me:
+
+"Father, there are other confidences which have to be respected in
+like wise.  Bear with me, dear, till I have told you all, and I am
+right sure that you will agree with me.  I ask it, father."
+
+That settled the matter, and as I could see that the gallant
+gentleman who had rescued me was swaying on his feet as he waited
+respectfully, I said to him:
+
+"Rest with us, sir.  We shall watch over your sleep."
+
+Then I had to help him, for almost on the instant he sank down, and I
+had to guide him to the rugs spread on the ground.  In a few seconds
+he was in a deep sleep.  As I stood looking at him, till I had
+realized that he vas really asleep, I could not help marvelling at
+the bounty of Nature that could uphold even such a man as this to the
+last moment of work to be done, and then allow so swift a collapse
+when all was over, and he could rest peacefully.
+
+He was certainly a splendid fellow.  I think I never saw so fine a
+man physically in my life.  And if the lesson of his physiognomy be
+true, he is as sterling inwardly as his external is fair.  "Now,"
+said I to Teuta, "we are to all intents quite alone.  Tell me all
+that has been, so that I may understand."
+
+Whereupon my daughter, making me sit down, knelt beside me, and told
+me from end to end the most marvellous story I had ever heard or read
+of.  Something of it I had already known from the Archbishop
+Paleologue's later letters, but of all else I was ignorant.  Far away
+in the great West beyond the Atlantic, and again on the fringe of the
+Eastern seas, I had been thrilled to my heart's core by the heroic
+devotion and fortitude of my daughter in yielding herself for her
+country's sake to that fearful ordeal of the Crypt; of the grief of
+the nation at her reported death, news of which was so mercifully and
+wisely withheld from me as long as possible; of the supernatural
+rumours that took root so deep; but no word or hint had come to me of
+a man who had come across the orbit of her life, much less of all
+that has resulted from it.  Neither had I known of her being carried
+off, or of the thrice gallant rescue of her by Rupert.  Little wonder
+that I thought so highly of him even at the first moment I had a
+clear view of him when he sank down to sleep before me.  Why, the man
+must be a marvel.  Even our mountaineers could not match such
+endurance as his.  In the course of her narrative my daughter told me
+of how, being wearied with her long waiting in the tomb, and waking
+to find herself alone when the floods were out, and even the Crypt
+submerged, she sought safety and warmth elsewhere; and how she came
+to the Castle in the night, and found the strange man alone.  I said:
+"That was dangerous, daughter, if not wrong.  The man, brave and
+devoted as he is, must answer me--your father."  At that she was
+greatly upset, and before going on with her narrative, drew me close
+in her arms, and whispered to me:
+
+"Be gentle to me, father, for I have had much to bear.  And be good
+to him, for he holds my heart in his breast!"  I reassured her with a
+gentle pressure--there was no need to speak.  She then went on to
+tell me about her marriage, and how her husband, who had fallen into
+the belief that she was a Vampire, had determined to give even his
+soul for her; and how she had on the night of the marriage left him
+and gone back to the tomb to play to the end the grim comedy which
+she had undertaken to perform till my return; and how, on the second
+night after her marriage, as she was in the garden of the Castle--
+going, as she shyly told me, to see if all was well with her husband-
+-she was seized secretly, muffled up, bound, and carried off.  Here
+she made a pause and a digression.  Evidently some fear lest her
+husband and myself should quarrel assailed her, for she said:
+
+"Do understand, father, that Rupert's marriage to me was in all ways
+regular, and quite in accord with our customs.  Before we were
+married I told the Archbishop of my wish.  He, as your representative
+during your absence, consented himself, and brought the matter to the
+notice of the Vladika and the Archimandrites.  All these concurred,
+having exacted from me--very properly, I think--a sacred promise to
+adhere to my self-appointed task.  The marriage itself was orthodox
+in all ways--though so far unusual that it was held at night, and in
+darkness, save for the lights appointed by the ritual.  As to that,
+the Archbishop himself, or the Archimandrite of Spazac, who assisted
+him, or the Vladika, who acted as Paranymph, will, all or any of
+them, give you full details.  Your representative made all inquiries
+as to Rupert Sent Leger, who lived in Vissarion, though he did not
+know who I was, or from his point of view who I had been.  But I must
+tell you of my rescue."
+
+And so she went on to tell me of that unavailing journey south by her
+captors; of their bafflement by the cordon which Rupert had
+established at the first word of danger to "the daughter of our
+leader," though he little knew who the "leader" was, or who was his
+"daughter"; of how the brutal marauders tortured her to speed with
+their daggers; and how her wounds left blood-marks on the ground as
+she passed along; then of the halt in the valley, when the marauders
+came to know that their road north was menaced, if not already
+blocked; of the choosing of the murderers, and their keeping ward
+over her whilst their companions went to survey the situation; and of
+her gallant rescue by that noble fellow, her husband--my son I shall
+call him henceforth, and thank God that I may have that happiness and
+that honour!
+
+Then my daughter went on to tell me of the race back to Vissarion,
+when Rupert went ahead of all--as a leader should do; of the
+summoning of the Archbishop and the National Council; and of their
+placing the nation's handjar in Rupert's hand; of the journey to
+Ilsin, and the flight of my daughter--and my son--on the aeroplane.
+
+The rest I knew.
+
+As she finished, the sleeping man stirred and woke--broad awake in a
+second--sure sign of a man accustomed to campaign and adventure.  At
+a glance he recalled everything that had been, and sprang to his
+feet.  He stood respectfully before me for a few seconds before
+speaking.  Then he said, with an open, engaging smile:
+
+"I see, sir, you know all.  Am I forgiven--for Teuta's sake as well
+as my own?"  By this time I was also on my feet.  A man like that
+walks straight into my heart.  My daughter, too, had risen, and stood
+by my side.  I put out my hand and grasped his, which seemed to leap
+to meet me--as only the hand of a swordsman can do.
+
+"I am glad you are my son!" I said.  It was all I could say, and I
+meant it and all it implied.  We shook hands warmly.  Teuta was
+pleased; she kissed me, and then stood holding my arm with one hand,
+whilst she linked her other hand in the arm of her husband.
+
+He summoned one of the sentries without, and told him to ask Captain
+Rooke to come to him.  The latter had been ready for a call, and came
+at once.  When through the open flap of the tent we saw him coming,
+Rupert--as I must call him now, because Teuta wishes it; and I like
+to do it myself--said:
+
+"I must be off to board the Turkish vessel before it comes inshore.
+Good-bye, sir, in case we do not meet again."  He said the last few
+words in so low a voice that I only could hear them.  Then he kissed
+his wife, and told her he expected to be back in time for breakfast,
+and was gone.  He met Rooke--I am hardly accustomed to call him
+Captain as yet, though, indeed, he well deserves it--at the edge of
+the cordon of sentries, and they went quickly together towards the
+port, where the yacht was lying with steam up.
+
+
+
+BOOK VII:  THE EMPIRE OF THE AIR
+
+
+
+FROM THE REPORT OF CRISTOFEROS, WAR-SCRIBE TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL.
+July 7, 1907.
+
+When the Gospodar Rupert and Captain Rooke came within hailing
+distance of the strange ship, the former hailed her, using one after
+another the languages of England, Germany, France, Russia, Turkey,
+Greece, Spain, Portugal, and another which I did not know; I think it
+must have been American.  By this time the whole line of the bulwark
+was covered by a row of Turkish faces.  When, in Turkish, the
+Gospodar asked for the Captain, the latter came to the gangway, which
+had been opened, and stood there.  His uniform was that of the
+Turkish navy--of that I am prepared to swear--but he made signs of
+not understanding what had been said; whereupon the Gospodar spoke
+again, but in French this time.  I append the exact conversation
+which took place, none other joining in it.  I took down in shorthand
+the words of both as they were spoken:
+
+THE GOSPODAR.  "Are you the Captain of this ship?"
+
+THE CAPTAIN.  "I am."
+
+GOSPODAR.  "To what nationality do you belong?"
+
+CAPTAIN.  "It matters not.  I am Captain of this ship."
+
+GOSPODAR.  "I alluded to your ship.  What national flag is she
+under?"
+
+CAPTAIN (throwing his eye over the top-hamper).  "I do not see that
+any flag is flying."
+
+GOSPODAR.  "I take it that, as commander, you can allow me on board
+with my two companions?"
+
+CAPTAIN.  "I can, upon proper request being made!"
+
+GOSPODAR (taking off his cap).  "I ask your courtesy, Captain.  I am
+the representative and accredited officer of the National Council of
+the Land of the Blue Mountains, in whose waters you now are; and on
+their account I ask for a formal interview on urgent matters."
+
+The Turk, who was, I am bound to say, in manner most courteous as
+yet, gave some command to his officers, whereupon the companion-
+ladders and stage were lowered and the gangway manned, as is usual
+for the reception on a ship of war of an honoured guest.
+
+CAPTAIN.  "You are welcome, sir--you and your two companions--as you
+request."
+
+The Gospodar bowed.  Our companion-ladder was rigged on the instant,
+and a launch lowered.  The Gospodar and Captain Rooke--taking me with
+them--entered, and rowed to the warship, where we were all honourably
+received.  There were an immense number of men on board, soldiers as
+well as seamen.  It looked more like a warlike expedition than a
+fighting-ship in time of peace.  As we stepped on the deck, the
+seamen and marines, who were all armed as at drill, presented arms.
+The Gospodar went first towards the Captain, and Captain Rooke and I
+followed close behind him.  The Gospodar spoke:
+
+"I am Rupert Sent Leger, a subject of his Britannic Majesty,
+presently residing at Vissarion, in the Land of the Blue Mountains.
+I am at present empowered to act for the National Council in all
+matters.  Here is my credential!"  As he spoke he handed to the
+Captain a letter.  It was written in five different languages--
+Balkan, Turkish, Greek, English, and French.  The Captain read it
+carefully all through, forgetful for the moment that he had seemingly
+been unable to understand the Gospodar's question spoken in the
+Turkish tongue.  Then he answered:
+
+"I see the document is complete.  May I ask on what subject you wish
+to see me?"
+
+GOSPODAR.  "You are here in a ship of war in Blue Mountain waters,
+yet you fly no flag of any nation.  You have sent armed men ashore in
+your boats, thus committing an act of war.  The National Council of
+the Land of the Blue Mountains requires to know what nation you
+serve, and why the obligations of international law are thus broken."
+
+The Captain seemed to wait for further speech, but the Gospodar
+remained silent; whereupon the former spoke.
+
+CAPTAIN.  "I am responsible to my own--chiefs.  I refuse to answer
+your question."
+
+The Gospodar spoke at once in reply.
+
+GOSPODAR.  "Then, sir, you, as commander of a ship--and especially a
+ship of war--must know that in thus violating national and maritime
+laws you, and all on board this ship, are guilty of an act of piracy.
+This is not even piracy on the high seas.  You are not merely within
+territorial waters, but you have invaded a national port.  As you
+refuse to disclose the nationality of your ship, I accept, as you
+seem to do, your status as that of a pirate, and shall in due season
+act accordingly."
+
+CAPTAIN (with manifest hostility).  "I accept the responsibility of
+my own acts.  Without admitting your contention, I tell you now that
+whatever action you take shall be at your own peril and that of your
+National Council.  Moreover, I have reason to believe that my men who
+were sent ashore on special service have been beleaguered in a tower
+which can be seen from the ship.  Before dawn this morning firing was
+heard from that direction, from which I gather that attack was made
+on them.  They, being only a small party, may have been murdered.  If
+such be so, I tell you that you and your miserable little nation, as
+you call it, shall pay such blood-money as you never thought of.  I
+am responsible for this, and, by Allah! there shall be a great
+revenge.  You have not in all your navy--if navy you have at all--
+power to cope with even one ship like this, which is but one of many.
+My guns shall be trained on Ilsin, to which end I have come inshore.
+You and your companions have free conduct back to port; such is due
+to the white flag which you fly.  Fifteen minutes will bring you back
+whence you came.  Go!  And remember that whatever you may do amongst
+your mountain defiles, at sea you cannot even defend yourselves."
+
+GOSPODAR (slowly and in a ringing voice).  "The Land of the Blue
+Mountains has its own defences on sea and land.  Its people know how
+to defend themselves."
+
+CAPTAIN (taking out his watch).  "It is now close on five bells.  At
+the first stroke of six bells our guns shall open fire."
+
+GOSPODAR (calmly).  "It is my last duty to warn you, sir--and to warn
+all on this ship--that much may happen before even the first stroke
+of six bells.  Be warned in time, and give over this piratical
+attack, the very threat of which may be the cause of much bloodshed."
+
+CAPTAIN (violently).  "Do you dare to threaten me, and, moreover, my
+ship's company?  We are one, I tell you, in this ship; and the last
+man shall perish like the first ere this enterprise fail.  Go!"
+
+With a bow, the Gospodar turned and went down the ladder, we
+following him.  In a couple of minutes the yacht was on her way to
+the port.
+
+
+FROM RUPERT'S JOURNAL.
+July 10, 1907.
+
+When we turned shoreward after my stormy interview with the pirate
+Captain--I can call him nothing else at present, Rooke gave orders to
+a quartermaster on the bridge, and The Lady began to make to a little
+northward of Ilsin port.  Rooke himself went aft to the wheel-house,
+taking several men with him.
+
+When we were quite near the rocks--the water is so deep here that
+there is no danger--we slowed down, merely drifting along southwards
+towards the port.  I was myself on the bridge, and could see all over
+the decks.  I could also see preparations going on upon the warship.
+Ports were opened, and the great guns on the turrets were lowered for
+action.  When we were starboard broadside on to the warship, I saw
+the port side of the steering-house open, and Rooke's men sliding out
+what looked like a huge grey crab, which by tackle from within the
+wheel-house was lowered softly into the sea.  The position of the
+yacht hid the operation from sight of the warship.   The doors were
+shut again, and the yacht's pace began to quicken.  We ran into the
+port.  I had a vague idea that Rooke had some desperate project on
+hand.  Not for nothing had he kept the wheel-house locked on that
+mysterious crab.
+
+All along the frontage was a great crowd of eager men.  But they had
+considerately left the little mole at the southern entrance, whereon
+was a little tower, on whose round top a signal-gun was placed, free
+for my own use.  When I was landed on this pier I went along to the
+end, and, climbing the narrow stair within, went out on the sloping
+roof.  I stood up, for I was determined to show the Turks that I was
+not afraid for myself, as they would understand when the bombardment
+should begin.  It was now but a very few minutes before the fatal
+hour--six bells.  But all the same I was almost in a state of
+despair.  It was terrible to think of all those poor souls in the
+town who had done nothing wrong, and who were to be wiped out in the
+coming blood-thirsty, wanton attack.  I raised my glasses to see how
+preparations were going on upon the warship.
+
+As I looked I had a momentary fear that my eyesight was giving way.
+At one moment I had the deck of the warship focussed with my glasses,
+and could see every detail as the gunners waited for the word to
+begin the bombardment with the great guns of the barbettes.  The next
+I saw nothing but the empty sea.  Then in another instant there was
+the ship as before, but the details were blurred.  I steadied myself
+against the signal-gun, and looked again.  Not more than two, or at
+the most three, seconds had elapsed.  The ship was, for the moment,
+full in view.  As I looked, she gave a queer kind of quick shiver,
+prow and stern, and then sideways.  It was for all the world like a
+rat shaken in the mouth of a skilled terrier.  Then she remained
+still, the one placid thing to be seen, for all around her the sea
+seemed to shiver in little independent eddies, as when water is
+broken without a current to guide it.
+
+I continued to look, and when the deck was, or seemed, quite still--
+for the shivering water round the ship kept catching my eyes through
+the outer rays of the lenses--I noticed that nothing was stirring.
+The men who had been at the guns were all lying down; the men in the
+fighting-tops had leaned forward or backward, and their arms hung
+down helplessly.  Everywhere was desolation--in so far as life was
+concerned.  Even a little brown bear, which had been seated on the
+cannon which was being put into range position, had jumped or fallen
+on deck, and lay there stretched out--and still.  It was evident that
+some terrible shock had been given to the mighty war-vessel.  Without
+a doubt or a thought why I did so, I turned my eyes towards where The
+Lady lay, port broadside now to the inside, in the harbour mouth.  I
+had the key now to the mystery of Rooke's proceedings with the great
+grey crab.
+
+As I looked I saw just outside the harbour a thin line of cleaving
+water.  This became more marked each instant, till a steel disc with
+glass eyes that shone in the light of the sun rose above the water.
+It was about the size of a beehive, and was shaped like one.  It made
+a straight line for the aft of the yacht.  At the same moment, in
+obedience to some command, given so quietly that I did not hear it,
+the men went below--all save some few, who began to open out doors in
+the port side of the wheel-house.  The tackle was run out through an
+opened gangway on that side, and a man stood on the great hook at the
+lower end, balancing himself by hanging on the chain.  In a few
+seconds he came up again.  The chain tightened and the great grey
+crab rose over the edge of the deck, and was drawn into the wheel-
+house, the doors of which were closed, shutting in a few only of the
+men.
+
+I waited, quite quiet.  After a space of a few minutes, Captain Rooke
+in his uniform walked out of the wheel-house.  He entered a small
+boat, which had been in the meantime lowered for the purpose, and was
+rowed to the steps on the mole.  Ascending these, he came directly
+towards the signal-tower.  When he had ascended and stood beside me,
+he saluted.
+
+"Well?" I asked.
+
+"All well, sir," he answered.  "We shan't have any more trouble with
+that lot, I think.  You warned that pirate--I wish he had been in
+truth a clean, honest, straightforward pirate, instead of the measly
+Turkish swab he was--that something might occur before the first
+stroke of six bells.  Well, something has occurred, and for him and
+all his crew that six bells will never sound.  So the Lord fights for
+the Cross against the Crescent!  Bismillah.  Amen!"  He said this in
+a manifestly formal way, as though declaiming a ritual.  The next
+instant he went on in the thoroughly practical conventional way which
+was usual to him:
+
+"May I ask a favour, Mr. Sent Leger?"
+
+"A thousand, my dear Rooke," I said.  "You can't ask me anything
+which I shall not freely grant.  And I speak within my brief from the
+National Council.  You have saved Ilsin this day, and the Council
+will thank you for it in due time."
+
+"Me, sir?" he said, with a look of surprise on his face which seemed
+quite genuine.  "If you think that, I am well out of it.  I was
+afraid, when I woke, that you might court-martial me!"
+
+"Court-martial you!  What for?" I asked, surprised in my turn.
+
+"For going to sleep on duty, sir!  And the fact is, I was worn out in
+the attack on the Silent Tower last night, and when you had your
+interview with the pirate--all good pirates forgive me for the
+blasphemy!  Amen!--and I knew that everything was going smoothly, I
+went into the wheel-house and took forty winks."  He said all this
+without moving so much as an eyelid, from which I gathered that he
+wished absolute silence to be observed on my part.  Whilst I was
+revolving this in my mind he went on:
+
+"Touching that request, sir.  When I have left you and the Voivode--
+and the Voivodin, of course--at Vissarion, together with such others
+as you may choose to bring there with you, may I bring the yacht back
+here for a spell?  I rather think that there is a good deal of
+cleaning up to be done, and the crew of The Lady with myself are the
+men to do it.  We shall be back by nightfall at the creek."
+
+"Do as you think best, Admiral Rooke," I said.
+
+"Admiral?"
+
+"Yes, Admiral.  At present I can only say that tentatively, but by
+to-morrow I am sure the National Council will have confirmed it.  I
+am afraid, old friend, that your squadron will be only your flagship
+for the present; but later we may do better."
+
+"So long as I am Admiral, your honour, I shall have no other flagship
+than The Lady.  I am not a young man, but, young or old, my pennon
+shall float over no other deck.  Now, one other favour, Mr. Sent
+Leger?  It is a corollary of the first, so I do not hesitate to ask.
+May I appoint Lieutenant Desmond, my present First Officer, to the
+command of the battleship?  Of course, he will at first only command
+the prize crew; but in such case he will fairly expect the
+confirmation of his rank later.  I had better, perhaps, tell you,
+sir, that he is a very capable seaman, learned in all the sciences
+that pertain to a battleship, and bred in the first navy in the
+world."
+
+"By all means, Admiral.  Your nomination shall, I think I may promise
+you, be confirmed."
+
+Not another word we spoke.  I returned with him in his boat to The
+Lady, which was brought to the dock wall, where we were received with
+tumultuous cheering.
+
+I hurried off to my Wife and the Voivode.  Rooke, calling Desmond to
+him, went on the bridge of The Lady, which turned, and went out at
+terrific speed to the battleship, which was already drifting up
+northward on the tide.
+
+
+FROM THE REPORT OF CRISTOFEROS, SCRIBE OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE
+LAND OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.
+July 8, 1907.
+
+The meeting of the National Council, July 6, was but a continuation
+of that held before the rescue of the Voivodin Vissarion, the members
+of the Council having been during the intervening night housed in the
+Castle of Vissarion.   When, in the early morning, they met, all were
+jubilant; for late at night the fire-signal had flamed up from Ilsin
+with the glad news that the Voivode Peter Vissarion was safe, having
+been rescued with great daring on an aeroplane by his daughter and
+the Gospodar Rupert, as the people call him--Mister Rupert Sent
+Leger, as he is in his British name and degree.
+
+Whilst the Council was sitting, word came that a great peril to the
+town of Ilsin had been averted.  A war-vessel acknowledging to no
+nationality, and therefore to be deemed a pirate, had threatened to
+bombard the town; but just before the time fixed for the fulfilment
+of her threat, she was shaken to such an extent by some sub-aqueous
+means that, though she herself was seemingly uninjured, nothing was
+left alive on board.  Thus the Lord preserves His own!  The
+consideration of this, as well as the other incident, was postponed
+until the coming Voivode and the Gospodar Rupert, together with who
+were already on their way hither.
+
+
+THE SAME (LATER IN THE SAME DAY).
+
+The Council resumed its sitting at four o'clock.  The Voivode Peter
+Vissarion and the Voivodin Teuta had arrived with the "Gospodar
+Rupert," as the mountaineers call him (Mr. Rupert Sent Leger) on the
+armoured yacht he calls The Lady.  The National Council showed great
+pleasure when the Voivode entered the hall in which the Council met.
+He seemed much gratified by the reception given to him.  Mr. Rupert
+Sent Leger, by the express desire of the Council, was asked to be
+present at the meeting.  He took a seat at the bottom of the hall,
+and seemed to prefer to remain there, though asked by the President
+of the Council to sit at the top of the table with himself and the
+Voivode.
+
+When the formalities of such Councils had been completed, the Voivode
+handed to the President a memorandum of his report on his secret
+mission to foreign Courts on behalf of the National Council.  He then
+explained at length, for the benefit of the various members of the
+Council, the broad results of his mission.  The result was, he said,
+absolutely satisfactory.  Everywhere he had been received with
+distinguished courtesy, and given a sympathetic hearing.  Several of
+the Powers consulted had made delay in giving final answers, but
+this, he explained, was necessarily due to new considerations arising
+from the international complications which were universally dealt
+with throughout the world as "the Balkan Crisis."  In time, however
+(the Voivode went on), these matters became so far declared as to
+allow the waiting Powers to form definite judgment--which, of course,
+they did not declare to him--as to their own ultimate action.  The
+final result--if at this initial stage such tentative setting forth
+of their own attitude in each case can be so named--was that he
+returned full of hope (founded, he might say, upon a justifiable
+personal belief) that the Great Powers throughout the world--North,
+South, East, and West--were in thorough sympathy with the Land of the
+Blue Mountains in its aspirations for the continuance of its freedom.
+"I also am honoured," he continued, "to bring to you, the Great
+Council of the nation, the assurance of protection against unworthy
+aggression on the part of neighbouring nations of present greater
+strength."
+
+Whilst he was speaking, the Gospodar Rupert was writing a few words
+on a strip of paper, which he sent up to the President.  When the
+Voivode had finished speaking, there was a prolonged silence.  The
+President rose, and in a hush said that the Council would like to
+hear Mr. Rupert Sent Leger, who had a communication to make regarding
+certain recent events.
+
+Mr. Rupert Sent Leger rose, and reported how, since he had been
+entrusted by the Council with the rescue of the Voivode Peter of
+Vissarion, he had, by aid of the Voivodin, effected the escape of the
+Voivode from the Silent Tower; also that, following this happy event,
+the mountaineers, who had made a great cordon round the Tower so soon
+as it was known that the Voivode had been imprisoned within it, had
+stormed it in the night.  As a determined resistance was offered by
+the marauders, who had used it as a place of refuge, none of these
+escaped.  He then went on to tell how he sought interview with the
+Captain of the strange warship, which, without flying any flag,
+invaded our waters.  He asked the President to call on me to read the
+report of that meeting.  This, in obedience to his direction, I did.
+The acquiescent murmuring of the Council showed how thoroughly they
+endorsed Mr. Sent Leger's words and acts.
+
+When I resumed my seat, Mr. Sent Leger described how, just before the
+time fixed by the "pirate Captain"--so he designated him, as did
+every speaker thereafter--the warship met with some under-sea
+accident, which had a destructive effect on all on board her.  Then
+he added certain words, which I give verbatim, as I am sure that
+others will some time wish to remember them in their exactness:
+
+"By the way, President and Lords of the Council, I trust I may ask
+you to confirm Captain Rooke, of the armoured yacht The Lady, to be
+Admiral of the Squadron of the Land of the Blue Mountains, and also
+Captain (tentatively) Desmond, late First-Lieutenant of The Lady, to
+the command of the second warship of our fleet--the as yet unnamed
+vessel, whose former Captain threatened to bombard Ilsin.  My Lords,
+Admiral Rooke has done great service to the Land of the Blue
+Mountains, and deserves well at your hands.  You will have in him, I
+am sure, a great official.  One who will till his last breath give
+you good and loyal service."
+
+He had sat down, the President put to the Council resolutions, which
+were passed by acclamation.  Admiral Rooke was given command of the
+navy, and Captain Desmond confirmed in his appointment to the
+captaincy of the new ship, which was, by a further resolution, named
+The Gospodar Rupert.
+
+In thanking the Council for acceding to his request, and for the
+great honour done him in the naming of the ship, Mr. Sent Leger said:
+
+"May I ask that the armoured yacht The Lady be accepted by you, the
+National Council, on behalf of the nation, as a gift on behalf of the
+cause of freedom from the Voivodin Teuta?"
+
+In response to the mighty cheer of the Council with which the
+splendid gift was accepted the Gospodar Rupert--Mr. Sent Leger--
+bowed, and went quietly out of the room.
+
+As no agenda of the meeting had been prepared, there was for a time,
+not silence, but much individual conversation.  In the midst of it
+the Voivode rose up, whereupon there was a strict silence.  All
+listened with an intensity of eagerness whilst he spoke.
+
+"President and Lords of the Council, Archbishop, and Vladika, I
+should but ill show my respect did I hesitate to tell you at this the
+first opportunity I have had of certain matters personal primarily to
+myself, but which, in the progress of recent events, have come to
+impinge on the affairs of the nation.  Until I have done so, I shall
+not feel that I have done a duty, long due to you or your
+predecessors in office, and which I hope you will allow me to say
+that I have only kept back for purposes of statecraft.  May I ask
+that you will come back with me in memory to the year 1890, when our
+struggle against Ottoman aggression, later on so successfully brought
+to a close, was begun.  We were then in a desperate condition.  Our
+finances had run so low that we could not purchase even the bread
+which we required.  Nay, more, we could not procure through the
+National Exchequer what we wanted more than bread--arms of modern
+effectiveness; for men may endure hunger and yet fight well, as the
+glorious past of our country has proved again and again and again.
+But when our foes are better armed than we are, the penalty is
+dreadful to a nation small as our own is in number, no matter how
+brave their hearts.  In this strait I myself had to secretly raise a
+sufficient sum of money to procure the weapons we needed.  To this
+end I sought the assistance of a great merchant-prince, to whom our
+nation as well as myself was known.  He met me in the same generous
+spirit which he had shown to other struggling nationalities
+throughout a long and honourable career.  When I pledged to him as
+security my own estates, he wished to tear up the bond, and only
+under pressure would he meet my wishes in this respect.  Lords of the
+Council, it was his money, thus generously advanced, which procured
+for us the arms with which we hewed out our freedom.
+
+"Not long ago that noble merchant--and here I trust you will pardon
+me that I am so moved as to perhaps appear to suffer in want of
+respect to this great Council--this noble merchant passed to his
+account--leaving to a near kinsman of his own the royal fortune which
+he had amassed.  Only a few hours ago that worthy kinsman of the
+benefactor of our nation made it known to me that in his last will he
+had bequeathed to me, by secret trust, the whole of those estates
+which long ago I had forfeited by effluxion of time, inasmuch as I
+had been unable to fulfil the terms of my voluntary bond.  It grieves
+me to think that I have had to keep you so long in ignorance of the
+good thought and wishes and acts of this great man.
+
+"But it was by his wise counsel, fortified by my own judgment, that I
+was silent; for, indeed, I feared, as he did, lest in our troublous
+times some doubting spirit without our boundaries, or even within it,
+might mistrust the honesty of my purposes for public good, because I
+was no longer one whose whole fortune was invested within our
+confines.  This prince-merchant, the great English Roger Melton--let
+his name be for ever graven on the hearts of our people!--kept silent
+during his own life, and enjoined on others to come after him to keep
+secret from the men of the Blue Mountains that secret loan made to me
+on their behalf, lest in their eyes I, who had striven to be their
+friend and helper, should suffer wrong repute.  But, happily, he has
+left me free to clear myself in your eyes.  Moreover, by arranging to
+have--under certain contingencies, which have come to pass--the
+estates which were originally my own retransferred to me, I have no
+longer the honour of having given what I could to the national cause.
+All such now belongs to him; for it was his money--and his only--
+which purchased our national armament.
+
+"His worthy kinsman you already know, for he has not only been
+amongst you for many months, but has already done you good service in
+his own person.  He it was who, as a mighty warrior, answered the
+summons of the Vladika when misfortune came upon my house in the
+capture by enemies of my dear daughter, the Voivodin Teuta, whom you
+hold in your hearts; who, with a chosen band of our brothers, pursued
+the marauders, and himself, by a deed of daring and prowess, of which
+poets shall hereafter sing, saved her, when hope itself seemed to be
+dead, from their ruthless hands, and brought her back to us; who
+administered condign punishment to the miscreants who had dared to so
+wrong her.  He it was who later took me, your servant, out of the
+prison wherein another band of Turkish miscreants held me captive;
+rescued me, with the help of my dear daughter, whom he had already
+freed, whilst I had on my person the documents of international
+secrecy of which I have already advised you--rescued me whilst I had
+been as yet unsubjected to the indignity of search.
+
+"Beyond this you know now that of which I was in partial ignorance:
+how he had, through the skill and devotion of your new Admiral,
+wrought destruction on a hecatomb of our malignant foes.  You who
+have received for the nation the splendid gift of the little warship,
+which already represents a new era in naval armament, can understand
+the great-souled generosity of the man who has restored the vast
+possessions of my House.  On our way hither from Ilsin, Rupert Sent
+Leger made known to me the terms of the trust of his noble uncle,
+Roger Melton, and--believe me that he did so generously, with a joy
+that transcended my own--restored to the last male of the Vissarion
+race the whole inheritance of a noble line.
+
+"And now, my Lords of the Council, I come to another matter, in which
+I find myself in something of a difficulty, for I am aware that in
+certain ways you actually know more of it than even I myself do.  It
+is regarding the marriage of my daughter to Rupert Sent Leger.  It is
+known to me that the matter has been brought before you by the
+Archbishop, who, as guardian of my daughter during my absence on the
+service of the nation, wished to obtain your sanction, as till my
+return he held her safety in trust.  This was so, not from any merit
+of mine, but because she, in her own person, had undertaken for the
+service of our nation a task of almost incredible difficulty.  My
+Lords, were she child of another father, I should extol to the skies
+her bravery, her self-devotion, her loyalty to the land she loves.
+Why, then, should I hesitate to speak of her deeds in fitting terms,
+since it is my duty, my glory, to hold them in higher honour than can
+any in this land?  I shall not shame her--or even myself--by being
+silent when such a duty urges me to speak, as Voivode, as trusted
+envoy of our nation, as father.  Ages hence loyal men and women of
+our Land of the Blue Mountains will sing her deeds in song and tell
+them in story.  Her name, Teuta, already sacred in these regions,
+where it was held by a great Queen, and honoured by all men, will
+hereafter be held as a symbol and type of woman's devotion.  Oh, my
+Lords, we pass along the path of life, the best of us but a little
+time marching in the sunlight between gloom and gloom, and it is
+during that march that we must be judged for the future.  This brave
+woman has won knightly spurs as well as any Paladin of old.  So is it
+meet that ere she might mate with one worthy of her you, who hold in
+your hands the safety and honour of the State, should give your
+approval.  To you was it given to sit in judgment on the worth of
+this gallant Englisher, now my son.  You judged him then, before you
+had seen his valour, his strength, and skill exercised on behalf of a
+national cause.  You judged wisely, oh, my brothers, and out of a
+grateful heart I thank you one and all for it.  Well has he justified
+your trust by his later acts.  When, in obedience to the summons of
+the Vladika, he put the nation in a blaze and ranged our boundaries
+with a ring of steel, he did so unknowing that what was dearest to
+him in the world was at stake.  He saved my daughter's honour and
+happiness, and won her safety by an act of valour that outvies any
+told in history.  He took my daughter with him to bring me out from
+the Silent Tower on the wings of the air, when earth had for me no
+possibility of freedom--I, that had even then in my possession the
+documents involving other nations which the Soldan would fain have
+purchased with the half of his empire.
+
+"Henceforth to me, Lords of the Council, this brave man must ever be
+as a son of my heart, and I trust that in his name grandsons of my
+own may keep in bright honour the name which in glorious days of old
+my fathers made illustrious.  Did I know how adequately to thank you
+for your interest in my child, I would yield up to you my very soul
+in thanks."
+
+The speech of the Voivode was received with the honour of the Blue
+Mountains--the drawing and raising of handjars
+
+
+FROM RUPERT'S JOURNAL.
+July 14, 1907.
+
+For nearly a week we waited for some message from Constantinople,
+fully expecting either a declaration of war, or else some inquiry so
+couched as to make war an inevitable result.  The National Council
+remained on at Vissarion as the guests of the Voivode, to whom, in
+accordance with my uncle's will, I had prepared to re-transfer all
+his estates.  He was, by the way, unwilling at first to accept, and
+it was only when I showed him Uncle Roger's letter, and made him read
+the Deed of Transfer prepared in anticipation by Mr. Trent, that he
+allowed me to persuade him.  Finally he said:
+
+"As you, my good friends, have so arranged, I must accept, be it only
+in honour to the wishes of the dead.  But remember, I only do so but
+for the present, reserving to myself the freedom to withdraw later if
+I so desire."
+
+But Constantinople was silent.  The whole nefarious scheme was one of
+the "put-up jobs" which are part of the dirty work of a certain order
+of statecraft--to be accepted if successful; to be denied in case of
+failure.
+
+The matter stood thus:  Turkey had thrown the dice--and lost.  Her
+men were dead; her ship was forfeit.  It was only some ten days after
+the warship was left derelict with every living thing--that is,
+everything that had been living--with its neck broken, as Rooke
+informed me, when he brought the ship down the creek, and housed it
+in the dock behind the armoured gates--that we saw an item in The
+Roma copied from The Constantinople Journal of July 9:
+
+
+"LOSS OF AN OTTOMAN IRONCLAD WITH ALL HANDS.
+
+"News has been received at Constantinople of the total loss, with all
+hands, of one of the newest and finest warships in the Turkish fleet-
+-The Mahmoud, Captain Ali Ali--which foundered in a storm on the
+night of July 5, some distance off Cabrera, in the Balearic Isles.
+There were no survivors, and no wreckage was discovered by the ships
+which went in relief--the Pera and the Mustapha--or reported from
+anywhere along the shores of the islands, of which exhaustive search
+was made.  The Mahmoud was double-manned, as she carried a full extra
+crew sent on an educational cruise on the most perfectly
+scientifically equipped warship on service in the Mediterranean
+waters."
+
+
+When the Voivode and I talked over the matter, he said:
+
+"After all, Turkey is a shrewd Power.  She certainly seems to know
+when she is beaten, and does not intend to make a bad thing seem
+worse in the eyes of the world."
+
+Well, 'tis a bad wind that blows good to nobody.  As The Mahmoud was
+lost off the Balearics, it cannot have been her that put the
+marauders on shore and trained her big guns on Ilsin.  We take it,
+therefore, that the latter must have been a pirate, and as we have
+taken her derelict in our waters, she is now ours in all ways.
+Anyhow, she is ours, and is the first ship of her class in the navy
+of the Blue Mountains.  I am inclined to think that even if she was--
+or is still--a Turkish ship, Admiral Rooke would not be inclined to
+let her go.  As for Captain Desmond, I think he would go straight out
+of his mind if such a thing was to be even suggested to him.
+
+It will be a pity if we have any more trouble, for life here is very
+happy with us all now.  The Voivode is, I think, like a man in a
+dream.  Teuta is ideally happy, and the real affection which sprang
+up between them when she and Aunt Janet met is a joy to think of.  I
+had posted Teuta about her, so that when they should meet my wife
+might not, by any inadvertence, receive or cause any pain.  But the
+moment Teuta saw her she ran straight over to her and lifted her in
+her strong young arms, and, raising her up as one would lift a child,
+kissed her.  Then, when she had put her sitting in the chair from
+which she had arisen when we entered the room, she knelt down before
+her, and put her face down in her lap.  Aunt Janet's face was a
+study; I myself could hardly say whether at the first moment surprise
+or joy predominated.  But there could be no doubt about it the
+instant after.  She seemed to beam with happiness.  When Teuta knelt
+to her, she could only say:
+
+"My dear, my dear, I am glad!  Rupert's wife, you and I must love
+each other very much."  Seeing that they were laughing and crying in
+each other's arms, I thought it best to come away and leave them
+alone.  And I didn't feel a bit lonely either when I was out of sight
+of them.  I knew that where those two dear women were there was a
+place for my own heart.
+
+When I came back, Teuta was sitting on Aunt Janet's knee.  It seemed
+rather stupendous for the old lady, for Teuta is such a splendid
+creature that even when she sits on my own knee and I catch a glimpse
+of us in some mirror, I cannot but notice what a nobly-built girl she
+is.
+
+My wife was jumping up as soon as I was seen, but Aunt Janet held her
+tight to her, and said:
+
+"Don't stir, dear.  It is such happiness to me to have you there.
+Rupert has always been my 'little boy,' and, in spite of all his
+being such a giant, he is so still.  And so you, that he loves, must
+be my little girl--in spite of all your beauty and your strength--and
+sit on my knee, till you can place there a little one that shall be
+dear to us all, and that shall let me feel my youth again.  When
+first I saw you I was surprised, for, somehow, though I had never
+seen you nor even heard of you, I seemed to know your face.  Sit
+where you are, dear.  It is only Rupert--and we both love him."
+
+Teuta looked at me, flushing rosily; but she sat quiet, and drew the
+old lady's white head on her young breast.
+
+
+JANET MACKELPIE'S NOTES.
+July 8, 1907.
+
+I used to think that whenever Rupert should get married or start on
+the way to it by getting engaged--I would meet his future wife with
+something of the same affection that I have always had for himself.
+But I know now that what was really in my mind was jealousy, and that
+I was really fighting against my own instincts, and pretending to
+myself that I was not jealous.  Had I ever had the faintest idea that
+she would be anything the least like Teuta, that sort of feeling
+should never have had even a foothold.  No wonder my dear boy is in
+love with her, for, truth to tell, I am in love with her myself.  I
+don't think I ever met a creature--a woman creature, of course, I
+mean--with so many splendid qualities.  I almost fear to say it, lest
+it should seem to myself wrong; but I think she is as good as a woman
+as Rupert is as a man.  And what more than that can I say?  I thought
+I loved her and trusted her, and knew her all I could, until this
+morning.
+
+I was in my own room, as it is still called.  For, though Rupert
+tells me in confidence that under his uncle's will the whole estate
+of Vissarion, Castle and all, really belongs to the Voivode, and
+though the Voivode has been persuaded to accept the position, he (the
+Voivode) will not allow anything to be changed.  He will not even
+hear a word of my going, or changing my room, or anything.  And
+Rupert backs him up in it, and Teuta too.  So what am I to do but let
+the dears have their way?
+
+Well, this morning, when Rupert was with the Voivode at a meeting of
+the National Council in the Great Hall, Teuta came to me, and (after
+closing the door and bolting it, which surprised me a little) came
+and knelt down beside me, and put her face in my lap.  I stroked her
+beautiful black hair, and said:
+
+"What is it, Teuta darling?  Is there any trouble?  And why did you
+bolt the door?  Has anything happened to Rupert?"  When she looked up
+I saw that her beautiful black eyes, with the stars in them, were
+overflowing with tears not yet shed.  But she smiled through them,
+and the tears did not fall.  When I saw her smile my heart was eased,
+and I said without thinking:  "Thank God, darling, Rupert is all
+right."
+
+"I thank God, too, dear Aunt Janet!" she said softly; and I took her
+in my arms and laid her head on my breast.
+
+"Go on, dear," I said; "tell me what it is that troubles you?"  This
+time I saw the tears drop, as she lowered her head and hid her face
+from me.
+
+"I'm afraid I have deceived you, Aunt Janet, and that you will not--
+cannot--forgive me."
+
+"Lord save you, child!" I said, "there's nothing that you could do
+that I could not and would not forgive.  Not that you would ever do
+anything base, for that is the only thing that is hard to forgive.
+Tell me now what troubles you."
+
+She looked up in my eyes fearlessly, this time with only the signs of
+tears that had been, and said proudly:
+
+"Nothing base, Aunt Janet.  My father's daughter would not willingly
+be base.  I do not think she could.  Moreover, had I ever done
+anything base I should not be here, for--for--I should never have
+been Rupert's wife!"
+
+"Then what is it?  Tell your old Aunt Janet, dearie."  She answered
+me with another question:
+
+"Aunt Janet, do you know who I am, and how I first met Rupert?"
+
+"You are the Voivodin Teuta Vissarion--the daughter of the Voivode--
+Or, rather, you were; you are now Mrs. Rupert Sent Leger.  For he is
+still an Englishman, and a good subject of our noble King."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Janet," she said, "I am that, and proud to be it--prouder
+than I would be were I my namesake, who was Queen in the old days.
+But how and where did I see Rupert first?"  I did not know, and
+frankly told her so.  So she answered her question herself:
+
+"I saw him first in his own room at night."  I knew in my heart that
+in whatever she did had been nothing wrong, so I sat silent waiting
+for her to go on:
+
+"I was in danger, and in deadly fear.  I was afraid I might die--not
+that I fear death--and I wanted help and warmth.  I was not dressed
+as I am now!"
+
+On the instant it came to me how I knew her face, even the first time
+I had seen it.  I wished to help her out of the embarrassing part of
+her confidence, so I said:
+
+"Dearie, I think I know.  Tell me, child, will you put on the frock .
+. . the dress . . . costume you wore that night, and let me see you
+in it?  It is not mere idle curiosity, my child, but something far,
+far above such idle folly."
+
+"Wait for me a minute, Aunt Janet," she said, as she rose up; "I
+shall not be long."  Then she left the room.
+
+In a very few minutes she was back.  Her appearance might have
+frightened some people, for she was clad only in a shroud.  Her feet
+were bare, and she walked across the room with the gait of an
+empress, and stood before me with her eyes modestly cast down.  But
+when presently she looked up and caught my eyes, a smile rippled over
+her face.  She threw herself once more before me on her knees, and
+embraced me as she said:
+
+"I was afraid I might frighten you, dear."  I knew I could truthfully
+reassure her as to that, so I proceeded to do so:
+
+"Do not worry yourself, my dear.  I am not by nature timid.  I come
+of a fighting stock which has sent out heroes, and I belong to a
+family wherein is the gift of Second Sight.  Why should we fear?  We
+know!  Moreover, I saw you in that dress before.  Teuta, I saw you
+and Rupert married!"  This time she herself it was that seemed
+disconcerted.
+
+"Saw us married!  How on earth did you manage to be there?"
+
+"I was not there.  My Seeing was long before!  Tell me, dear, what
+day, or rather what night, was it that you first saw Rupert?"  She
+answered sadly:
+
+"I do not know.  Alas!  I lost count of the days as I lay in the tomb
+in that dreary Crypt."
+
+"Was your--your clothing wet that night?" I asked.
+
+"Yes.  I had to leave the Crypt, for a great flood was out, and the
+church was flooded.  I had to seek help--warmth--for I feared I might
+die.  Oh, I was not, as I have told you, afraid of death.  But I had
+undertaken a terrible task to which I had pledged myself.  It was for
+my father's sake, and the sake of the Land, and I felt that it was a
+part of my duty to live.  And so I lived on, when death would have
+been relief.  It was to tell you all about this that I came to your
+room to-day.  But how did you see me--us--married?"
+
+"Ah, my child!" I answered, "that was before the marriage took place.
+The morn after the night that you came in the wet, when, having been
+troubled in uncanny dreaming, I came to see if Rupert was a'richt, I
+lost remembrance o' my dreaming, for the floor was all wet, and that
+took off my attention.  But later, the morn after Rupert used his
+fire in his room for the first time, I told him what I had dreamt;
+for, lassie, my dear, I saw ye as bride at that weddin' in fine lace
+o'er yer shrood, and orange-flowers and ithers in yer black hair; an'
+I saw the stars in yer bonny een--the een I love.  But oh, my dear,
+when I saw the shrood, and kent what it might mean, I expeckit to see
+the worms crawl round yer feet.  But do ye ask yer man to tell ye
+what I tell't him that morn.  'Twill interest ye to know how the
+hairt o' men can learn by dreams.  Has he ever tellt ye aught o'
+this?"
+
+"No, dear," she said simply.  "I think that perhaps he was afraid
+that one or other of us, if not both, might be upset by it if he did.
+You see, he did not tell you anything at all of our meeting, though I
+am sure that he will be glad when he knows that we both know all
+about it, and have told each other everything."
+
+That was very sweet of her, and very thoughtful in all ways, so I
+said that which I thought would please her best--that is, the truth:
+
+"Ah, lassie, that is what a wife should be--what a wife should do.
+Rupert is blessed and happy to have his heart in your keeping."
+
+I knew from the added warmth of her kiss what I had said had pleased
+her.
+
+
+Letter from Ernest Roger Halbard Melton, Humcroft, Salop, to Rupert
+Sent Leger, Vissarion, Land of the Blue Mountains.
+July 29, 1907.
+
+MY DEAR COUSIN RUPERT,
+
+We have heard such glowing accounts of Vissarion that I am coming out
+to see you.  As you are yourself now a landowner, you will understand
+that my coming is not altogether a pleasure.  Indeed, it is a duty
+first.  When my father dies I shall be head of the family--the family
+of which Uncle Roger, to whom we were related, was a member.  It is
+therefore meet and fitting that I should know something of our family
+branches and of their Seats.  I am not giving you time for much
+warning, so am coming on immediately--in fact, I shall arrive almost
+as soon as this letter.  But I want to catch you in the middle of
+your tricks.  I hear that the Blue Mountaineer girls are peaches, so
+don't send them ALL away when you hear I'm coming!
+
+Do send a yacht up to Fiume to meet me.  I hear you have all sorts of
+craft at Vissarion.  The MacSkelpie, I hear, said you received her as
+a Queen; so I hope you will do the decent by one of your own flesh
+and blood, and the future Head of the House at that.  I shan't bring
+much of a retinue with me.  _I_ wasn't made a billionaire by old
+Roger, so can only take my modest "man Friday"--whose name is
+Jenkinson, and a Cockney at that.  So don't have too much gold lace
+and diamond-hilted scimitars about, like a good chap, or else he'll
+want the very worst--his wyges ryzed.  That old image Rooke that came
+over for Miss McS., and whom by chance I saw at the attorney man's,
+might pilot me down from Fiume.  The old gentleman-by-Act-of-
+Parliament Mr. Bingham Trent (I suppose he has hyphened it by this
+time) told me that Miss McS. said he "did her proud" when she went
+over under his charge.  I shall be at Fiume on the evening of
+Wednesday, and shall stay at the Europa, which is, I am told, the
+least indecent hotel in the place.  So you know where to find me, or
+any of your attendant demons can know, in case I am to suffer
+"substituted service."
+
+Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+ERNEST ROGER HALBARD MELTON.
+
+
+Letter from Admiral Rooke to the Gospodar Rupert.
+August 1, 1907.
+
+SIR,
+
+In obedience to your explicit direction that I should meet Mr. Ernest
+R. H. Melton at Fiume, and report to you exactly what occurred,
+"without keeping anything back,"--as you will remember you said, I
+beg to report.
+
+I brought the steam-yacht Trent to Fiume, arriving there on the
+morning of Thursday.  At 11.30 p.m.  I went to meet the train from
+St. Peter, due 11.40.  It was something late, arriving just as the
+clock was beginning to strike midnight.  Mr. Melton was on board, and
+with him his valet Jenkinson.  I am bound to say that he did not seem
+very pleased with his journey, and expressed much disappointment at
+not seeing Your Honour awaiting him.  I explained, as you directed,
+that you had to attend with the Voivode Vissarion and the Vladika the
+National Council, which met at Plazac, or that otherwise you would
+have done yourself the pleasure of coming to meet him.  I had, of
+course, reserved rooms (the Prince of Wales's suite), for him at the
+Re d'Ungheria, and had waiting the carriage which the proprietor had
+provided for the Prince of Wales when he stayed there.  Mr. Melton
+took his valet with him (on the box-seat), and I followed in a
+Stadtwagen with the luggage.  When I arrived, I found the maitre
+d'hotel in a stupor of concern.  The English nobleman, he said, had
+found fault with everything, and used to him language to which he was
+not accustomed.  I quieted him, telling him that the stranger was
+probably unused to foreign ways, and assuring him that Your Honour
+had every faith in him.  He announced himself satisfied and happy at
+the assurance.  But I noticed that he promptly put everything in the
+hands of the headwaiter, telling him to satisfy the milor at any
+cost, and then went away to some urgent business in Vienna.  Clever
+man!
+
+I took Mr. Melton's orders for our journey in the morning, and asked
+if there was anything for which he wished.  He simply said to me:
+
+"Everything is rotten.  Go to hell, and shut the door after you!"
+His man, who seems a very decent little fellow, though he is as vain
+as a peacock, and speaks with a Cockney accent which is simply
+terrible, came down the passage after me, and explained "on his own,"
+as he expressed it, that his master, "Mr. Ernest," was upset by the
+long journey, and that I was not to mind.  I did not wish to make him
+uncomfortable, so I explained that I minded nothing except what Your
+Honour wished; that the steam-yacht would be ready at 7 a.m.; and
+that I should be waiting in the hotel from that time on till Mr.
+Melton cared to start, to bring him aboard.
+
+In the morning I waited till the man Jenkinson came and told me that
+Mr. Ernest would start at ten.  I asked if he would breakfast on
+board; he answered that he would take his cafe-complet at the hotel,
+but breakfast on board.
+
+We left at ten, and took the electric pinnace out to the Trent, which
+lay, with steam up, in the roads.  Breakfast was served on board, by
+his orders, and presently he came up on the bridge, where I was in
+command.  He brought his man Jenkinson with him.  Seeing me there,
+and not (I suppose) understanding that I was in command, he
+unceremoniously ordered me to go on the deck.  Indeed, he named a
+place much lower.  I made a sign of silence to the quartermaster at
+the wheel, who had released the spokes, and was going, I feared, to
+make some impertinent remark.  Jenkinson joined me presently, and
+said, as some sort of explanation of his master's discourtesy (of
+which he was manifestly ashamed), if not as an amende:
+
+"The governor is in a hell of a wax this morning."
+
+When we got in sight of Meleda, Mr. Melton sent for me and asked me
+where we were to land.  I told him that, unless he wished to the
+contrary, we were to run to Vissarion; but that my instructions were
+to land at whatever port he wished.  Whereupon he told me that he
+wished to stay the night at some place where he might be able to see
+some "life."  He was pleased to add something, which I presume he
+thought jocular, about my being able to "coach" him in such matters,
+as doubtless even "an old has-been like you" had still some sort of
+an eye for a pretty girl.  I told him as respectfully as I could that
+I had no knowledge whatever on such subjects, which were possibly of
+some interest to younger men, but of none to me.  He said no more; so
+after waiting for further orders, but without receiving any, I said:
+
+"I suppose, sir, we shall run to Vissarion?"
+
+"Run to the devil, if you like!" was his reply, as he turned away.
+When we arrived in the creek at Vissarion, he seemed much milder--
+less aggressive in his manner; but when he heard that you were
+detained at Plazac, he got rather "fresh"--I use the American term--
+again.  I greatly feared there would be a serious misfortune before
+we got into the Castle, for on the dock was Julia, the wife of
+Michael, the Master of the Wine, who is, as you know, very beautiful.
+Mr. Melton seemed much taken with her; and she, being flattered by
+the attention of a strange gentleman and Your Honour's kinsman, put
+aside the stand-offishness of most of the Blue Mountain women.
+Whereupon Mr. Melton, forgetting himself, took her in his arms and
+kissed her.  Instantly there was a hubbub.  The mountaineers present
+drew their handjars, and almost on the instant sudden death appeared
+to be amongst us.  Happily the men waited as Michael, who had just
+arrived on the quay-wall as the outrage took place, ran forward,
+wheeling his handjar round his head, and manifestly intending to
+decapitate Mr. Melton.  On the instant--I am sorry to say it, for it
+created a terribly bad effect--Mr. Melton dropped on his knees in a
+state of panic.  There was just this good use in it--that there was a
+pause of a few seconds.  During that time the little Cockney valet,
+who has the heart of a man in him, literally burst his way forward,
+and stood in front of his master in boxing attitude, calling out:
+
+"'Ere, come on, the 'ole lot of ye! 'E ain't done no 'arm.  He honly
+kissed the gal, as any man would.  If ye want to cut off somebody's
+'ed, cut off mine.  I ain't afride!"  There was such genuine pluck in
+this, and it formed so fine a contrast to the other's craven attitude
+(forgive me, Your Honour; but you want the truth!), that I was glad
+he was an Englishman, too.  The mountaineers recognized his spirit,
+and saluted with their handjars, even Michael amongst the number.
+Half turning his head, the little man said in a fierce whisper:
+
+"Buck up, guv'nor!  Get up, or they'll slice ye!  'Ere's Mr. Rooke;
+'e'll see ye through it."
+
+By this time the men were amenable to reason, and when I reminded
+them that Mr. Melton was Your Honour's cousin, they put aside their
+handjars and went about their work.  I asked Mr. Melton to follow,
+and led the way to the Castle.
+
+When we got close to the great entrance within the walled courtyard,
+we found a large number of the servants gathered, and with them many
+of the mountaineers, who have kept an organized guard all round the
+Castle ever since the abducting of the Voivodin.  As both Your Honour
+and the Voivode were away at Plazac, the guard had for the time been
+doubled.  When the steward came and stood in the doorway, the
+servants stood off somewhat, and the mountaineers drew back to the
+farther sides and angles of the courtyard.  The Voivodin had, of
+course, been informed of the guest's (your cousin) coming, and came
+to meet him in the old custom of the Blue Mountains.  As Your Honour
+only came to the Blue Mountains recently, and as no occasion has been
+since then of illustrating the custom since the Voivode was away, and
+the Voivodin then believed to be dead, perhaps I, who have lived here
+so long, may explain:
+
+When to an old Blue Mountain house a guest comes whom it is wished to
+do honour, the Lady, as in the vernacular the mistress of the house
+is called, comes herself to meet the guest at the door--or, rather,
+OUTSIDE the door--so that she can herself conduct him within.  It is
+a pretty ceremony, and it is said that of old in kingly days the
+monarch always set much store by it.  The custom is that, when she
+approaches the honoured guest (he need not be royal), she bends--or
+more properly kneels--before him and kisses his hand.  It has been
+explained by historians that the symbolism is that the woman, showing
+obedience to her husband, as the married woman of the Blue Mountains
+always does, emphasizes that obedience to her husband's guest.  The
+custom is always observed in its largest formality when a young wife
+receives for the first time a guest, and especially one whom her
+husband wishes to honour.  The Voivodin was, of course, aware that
+Mr. Melton was your kinsman, and naturally wished to make the
+ceremony of honour as marked as possible, so as to show overtly her
+sense of her husband's worth.
+
+When we came into the courtyard, I held back, of course, for the
+honour is entirely individual, and is never extended to any other, no
+matter how worthy he may be.  Naturally Mr. Melton did not know the
+etiquette of the situation, and so for that is not to be blamed.  He
+took his valet with him when, seeing someone coming to the door, he
+went forward.  I thought he was going to rush to his welcomer.  Such,
+though not in the ritual, would have been natural in a young kinsman
+wishing to do honour to the bride of his host, and would to anyone
+have been both understandable and forgivable.  It did not occur to me
+at the time, but I have since thought that perhaps he had not then
+heard of Your Honour's marriage, which I trust you will, in justice
+to the young gentleman, bear in mind when considering the matter.
+Unhappily, however, he did not show any such eagerness.  On the
+contrary, he seemed to make a point of showing indifference.  It
+seemed to me myself that he, seeing somebody wishing to make much of
+him, took what he considered a safe opportunity of restoring to
+himself his own good opinion, which must have been considerably
+lowered in the episode of the Wine Master's wife.
+
+The Voivodin, thinking, doubtless, Your Honour, to add a fresh lustre
+to her welcome, had donned the costume which all her nation has now
+come to love and to accept as a dress of ceremonial honour.  She wore
+her shroud.  It moved the hearts of all of us who looked on to see
+it, and we appreciated its being worn for such a cause.  But Mr.
+Melton did not seem to care.  As he had been approaching she had
+begun to kneel, and was already on her knees whilst he was several
+yards away.  There he stopped and turned to speak to his valet, put a
+glass in his eye, and looked all round him and up and down--indeed,
+everywhere except at the Great Lady, who was on her knees before him,
+waiting to bid him welcome.  I could see in the eyes of such of the
+mountaineers as were within my range of vision a growing animosity;
+so, hoping to keep down any such expression, which I knew would cause
+harm to Your Honour and the Voivodin, I looked all round them
+straight in their faces with a fixed frown, which, indeed, they
+seemed to understand, for they regained, and for the time maintained,
+their usual dignified calm.  The Voivodin, may I say, bore the trial
+wonderfully.  No human being could see that she was in any degree
+pained or even surprised.  Mr. Melton stood looking round him so long
+that I had full time to regain my own attitude of calm.  At last he
+seemed to come back to the knowledge that someone was waiting for
+him, and sauntered leisurely forward.  There was so much insolence--
+mind you, not insolence that was intended to appear as such--in his
+movement that the mountaineers began to steal forward.  When he was
+close up to the Voivodin, and she put out her hand to take his, he
+put forward ONE FINGER!  I could hear the intake of the breath of the
+men, now close around, for I had moved forward, too.  I thought it
+would be as well to be close to your guest, lest something should
+happen to him.  The Voivodin still kept her splendid self-control.
+Raising the finger put forward by the guest with the same deference
+as though it had been the hand of a King, she bent her head down and
+kissed it.  Her duty of courtesy now done, she was preparing to rise,
+when he put his hand into his pocket, and, pulling out a sovereign,
+offered it to her.  His valet moved his hand forward, as if to pull
+back his arm, but it was too late.  I am sure, Your Honour, that no
+affront was intended.  He doubtless thought that he was doing a
+kindness of the sort usual in England when one "tips" a housekeeper.
+But all the same, to one in her position, it was an affront, an
+insult, open and unmistakable.  So it was received by the
+mountaineers, whose handjars flashed out as one.  For a second it was
+so received even by the Voivodin, who, with face flushing scarlet,
+and the stars in her eves flaming red, sprang to her feet.  But in
+that second she had regained herself, and to all appearances her
+righteous anger passed away.  Stooping, she took the hand of her
+guest and raised it--you know how strong she is--and, holding it in
+hers, led him into the doorway, saying:
+
+"You are welcome, kinsman of my husband, to the house of my father,
+which is presently my husband's also.  Both are grieved that, duty
+having called them away for the time, they are unable to be here to
+help me to greet you."
+
+I tell you, Your Honour, that it was a lesson in self-respect which
+anyone who saw it can never forget.  As to me, it makes my flesh
+quiver, old as I am, with delight, and my heart leap.
+
+May I, as a faithful servant who has had many years of experience,
+suggest that Your Honour should seem--for the present, at any rate--
+not to know any of these things which I have reported, as you wished
+me to do.  Be sure that the Voivodin will tell you her gracious self
+aught that she would wish you to know.  And such reticence on your
+part must make for her happiness, even if it did not for your own.
+
+So that you may know all, as you desired, and that you may have time
+to school yourself to whatever attitude you think best to adopt, I
+send this off to you at once by fleet messenger.  Were the aeroplane
+here, I should take it myself.  I leave here shortly to await the
+arrival of Sir Colin at Otranto.
+
+Your Honour's faithful servant,
+
+ROOKE.
+
+
+JANET MACKELPIE'S NOTES.
+August 9, 1907.
+
+To me it seems very providential that Rupert was not at home when
+that dreadful young man Ernest Melton arrived, though it is possible
+that if Rupert had been present he would not have dared to conduct
+himself so badly.  Of course, I heard all about it from the maids;
+Teuta never opened her lips to me on the subject.  It was bad enough
+and stupid enough for him to try to kiss a decent young woman like
+Julia, who is really as good as gold and as modest as one of our own
+Highland lassies; but to think of him insulting Teuta!  The little
+beast!  One would think that a champion idiot out of an Equatorial
+asylum would know better!  If Michael, the Wine Master, wanted to
+kill him, I wonder what my Rupert and hers would have done?  I am
+truly thankful that he was not present.  And I am thankful, too, that
+I was not present either, for I should have made an exhibition of
+myself, and Rupert would not have liked that.  He--the little beast!
+might have seen from the very dress that the dear girl wore that
+there was something exceptional about her.  But on one account I
+should have liked to see her.  They tell me that she was, in her true
+dignity, like a Queen, and that her humility in receiving her
+husband's kinsman was a lesson to every woman in the Land.  I must be
+careful not to let Rupert know that I have heard of the incident.
+Later on, when it is all blown over and the young man has been got
+safely away, I shall tell him of it.  Mr. Rooke--Lord High Admiral
+Rooke, I should say--must be a really wonderful man to have so held
+himself in check; for, from what I have heard of him, he must in his
+younger days have been worse than Old Morgan of Panama.  Mr. Ernest
+Roger Halbard Melton, of Humcroft, Salop, little knows how near he
+was to being "cleft to the chine" also.
+
+Fortunately, I had heard of his meeting with Teuta before he came to
+see me, for I did not get back from my walk till after he had
+arrived.  Teuta's noble example was before me, and I determined that
+I, too, would show good manners under any circumstances.  But I
+didn't know how mean he is.  Think of his saying to me that Rupert's
+position here must be a great source of pride to me, who had been his
+nursery governess.  He said "nursemaid" first, but then stumbled in
+his words, seeming to remember something.  I did not turn a hair, I
+am glad to say.  It is a mercy Uncle Colin was not here, for I
+honestly believe that, if he had been, he would have done the
+"cleaving to the chine" himself.  It has been a narrow escape for
+Master Ernest, for only this morning Rupert had a message, sent on
+from Gibraltar, saying that he was arriving with his clansmen, and
+that they would not be far behind his letter.  He would call at
+Otranto in case someone should come across to pilot him to Vissarion.
+Uncle told me all about that young cad having offered him one finger
+in Mr. Trent's office, though, of course, he didn't let the cad see
+that he noticed it.  I have no doubt that, when he does arrive, that
+young man, if he is here still, will find that he will have to behave
+himself, if it be only on Sir Colin's account alone.
+
+THE SAME (LATER).
+
+I had hardly finished writing when the lookout on the tower announced
+that the Teuta, as Rupert calls his aeroplane, was sighted crossing
+the mountains from Plazac.  I hurried up to see him arrive, for I had
+not as yet seen him on his "aero."  Mr. Ernest Melton came up, too.
+Teuta was, of course, before any of us.  She seems to know by
+instinct when Rupert is coming.
+
+It was certainly a wonderful sight to see the little aeroplane, with
+outspread wings like a bird in flight, come sailing high over the
+mountains.  There was a head-wind, and they were beating against it;
+otherwise we should not have had time to get to the tower before the
+arrival.
+
+When once the "aero" had begun to drop on the near side of the
+mountains, however, and had got a measure of shelter from them, her
+pace was extraordinary.  We could not tell, of course, what sort of
+pace she came at from looking at herself.  But we gathered some idea
+from the rate at which the mountains and hills seemed to slide away
+from under her.  When she got over the foot-hills, which are about
+ten miles away, she came on at a swift glide that seemed to throw the
+distance behind her.  When quite close, she rose up a little till she
+was something higher than the Tower, to which she came as straight as
+an arrow from the bow, and glided to her moorings, stopping dead as
+Rupert pulled a lever, which seemed to turn a barrier to the wind.
+The Voivode sat beside Rupert, but I must say that he seemed to hold
+on to the bar in front of him even more firmly than Rupert held to
+his steering-gear.
+
+When they had alighted, Rupert greeted his cousin with the utmost
+kindness, and bade him welcome to Vissarion.
+
+"I see," he said, "you have met Teuta.  Now you may congratulate me,
+if you wish."
+
+Mr. Melton made a long rodomontade about her beauty, but presently,
+stumbling about in his speech, said something regarding it being
+unlucky to appear in grave-clothes.  Rupert laughed, and clapped him
+on the shoulder as he answered:
+
+"That pattern of frock is likely to become a national dress for loyal
+women of the Blue Mountains.  When you know something of what that
+dress means to us all at present you will understand.  In the
+meantime, take it that there is not a soul in the nation that does
+not love it and honour her for wearing it."  To which the cad
+replied:
+
+"Oh, indeed!  I thought it was some preparation for a fancy-dress
+ball."  Rupert's comment on this ill-natured speech was (for him)
+quite grumpily given:
+
+"I should not advise you to think such things whilst you are in this
+part of the world, Ernest.  They bury men here for much less."
+
+The cad seemed struck with something--either what Rupert had said or
+his manner of saying it--for he was silent for several seconds before
+he spoke.
+
+"I'm very tired with that long journey, Rupert.  Would you and Mrs.
+Sent Leger mind if I go to my own room and turn in?  My man can ask
+for a cup of tea and a sandwich for me."
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL.
+August 10, 1907.
+
+When Ernest said he wished to retire it was about the wisest thing he
+could have said or done, and it suited Teuta and me down to the
+ground.  I could see that the dear girl was agitated about something,
+so thought it would be best for her to be quiet, and not worried with
+being civil to the Bounder.  Though he is my cousin, I can't think of
+him as anything else.  The Voivode and I had certain matters to
+attend to arising out of the meeting of the Council, and when we were
+through the night was closing in.  When I saw Teuta in our own rooms
+she said at once:
+
+"Do you mind, dear, if I stay with Aunt Janet to-night?  She is very
+upset and nervous, and when I offered to come to her she clung to me
+and cried with relief."
+
+So when I had had some supper, which I took with the Voivode, I came
+down to my old quarters in the Garden Room, and turned in early.
+
+I was awakened a little before dawn by the coming of the fighting
+monk Theophrastos, a notable runner, who had an urgent message for
+me.  This was the letter to me given to him by Rooke.  He had been
+cautioned to give it into no other hand, but to find me wherever I
+might be, and convey it personally.  When he had arrived at Plazac I
+had left on the aeroplane, so he had turned back to Vissarion.
+
+When I read Rooke's report of Ernest Melton's abominable conduct I
+was more angry with him than I can say.  Indeed, I did not think
+before that that I could be angry with him, for I have always
+despised him.  But this was too much.  However, I realized the wisdom
+of Rooke's advice, and went away by myself to get over my anger and
+reacquire my self-mastery.  The aeroplane Teuta was still housed on
+the tower, so I went up alone and took it out.
+
+When I had had a spin of about a hundred miles I felt better.  The
+bracing of the wind and the quick, exhilarating motion restored me to
+myself, and I felt able to cope with Master Ernest, or whatever else
+chagrinable might come along, without giving myself away.  As Teuta
+had thought it better to keep silence as to Ernest's affront, I felt
+I must not acknowledge it; but, all the same, I determined to get rid
+of him before the day was much older.
+
+When I had had my breakfast I sent word to him by a servant that I
+was coming to his rooms, and followed not long behind the messenger.
+
+He was in a suit of silk pyjamas, such as not even Solomon in all his
+glory was arrayed in.  I closed the door behind me before I began to
+speak.  He listened, at first amazed, then disconcerted, then angry,
+and then cowering down like a whipped hound.  I felt that it was a
+case for speaking out.  A bumptious ass like him, who deliberately
+insulted everyone he came across--for if all or any of his efforts in
+that way were due to mere elemental ignorance he was not fit to live,
+but should be silenced on sight as a modern Caliban--deserved neither
+pity nor mercy.  To extend to him fine feeling, tolerance, and such-
+like gentlenesses would be to deprive the world of them without
+benefit to any.  So well as I can remember, what I said was something
+like this:
+
+"Ernest, as you say, you've got to go, and to go quick, you
+understand.  I dare say you look on this as a land of barbarians, and
+think that any of your high-toned refinements are thrown away on
+people here.  Well, perhaps it is so.  Undoubtedly, the structure of
+the country is rough; the mountains may only represent the glacial
+epoch; but so far as I can gather from some of your exploits--for I
+have only learned a small part as yet--you represent a period a good
+deal farther back.  You seem to have given our folk here an
+exhibition of the playfulness of the hooligan of the Saurian stage of
+development; but the Blue Mountains, rough as they are, have come up
+out of the primeval slime, and even now the people aim at better
+manners.  They may be rough, primitive, barbarian, elemental, if you
+will, but they are not low down enough to tolerate either your ethics
+or your taste.  My dear cousin, your life is not safe here!  I am
+told that yesterday, only for the restraint exercised by certain
+offended mountaineers on other grounds than your own worth, you would
+have been abbreviated by the head.  Another day of your fascinating
+presence would do away with this restraint, and then we should have a
+scandal.  I am a new-comer here myself--too new a comer to be able to
+afford a scandal of that kind--and so I shall not delay your going.
+Believe me, my dear cousin, Ernest Roger Halbard Melton, of Humcroft,
+Salop, that I am inconsolable about your resolution of immediate
+departure, but I cannot shut my eyes to its wisdom.  At present the
+matter is altogether amongst ourselves, and when you have gone--if it
+be immediately--silence will be observed on all hands for the sake of
+the house wherein you are a guest; but if there be time for scandal
+to spread, you will be made, whether you be alive or dead, a European
+laughing-stock.  Accordingly, I have anticipated your wishes, and
+have ordered a fast steam yacht to take you to Ancona, or to whatever
+other port you may desire.  The yacht will be under the command of
+Captain Desmond, of one of our battleships--a most determined
+officer, who will carry out any directions which may be given to him.
+This will insure your safety so far as Italian territory.  Some of
+his officials will arrange a special carriage for you up to Flushing,
+and a cabin on the steamer to Queenboro'.  A man of mine will travel
+on the train and steamer with you, and will see that whatever you may
+wish in the way of food or comfort will be provided.  Of course, you
+understand, my dear cousin, that you are my guest until you arrive in
+London.  I have not asked Rooke to accompany you, as when he went to
+meet you, it was a mistake.  Indeed, there might have been a danger
+to you which I never contemplated--a quite unnecessary danger, I
+assure you.  But happily Admiral Rooke, though a man of strong
+passions, has wonderful self-control."
+
+"Admiral Rooke?" he queried.  "Admiral?"
+
+"Admiral, certainly," I replied, "but not an ordinary Admiral--one of
+many.  He is THE Admiral--the Lord High Admiral of the Land of the
+Blue Mountains, with sole control of its expanding navy.  When such a
+man is treated as a valet, there may be . . . But why go into this?
+It is all over.  I only mention it lest anything of a similar kind
+should occur with Captain Desmond, who is a younger man, and
+therefore with probably less self-repression."
+
+I saw that he had learned his lesson, and so said no more on the
+subject.
+
+There was another reason for his going which I did not speak of.  Sir
+Colin MacKelpie was coming with his clansmen, and I knew he did not
+like Ernest Melton.  I well remembered that episode of his offering
+one finger to the old gentleman in Mr. Trent's office, and, moreover,
+I had my suspicions that Aunt Janet's being upset was probably in
+some measure due to some rudeness of his that she did not wish to
+speak about.  He is really an impossible young man, and is far better
+out of this country than in it.  If he remained here, there would be
+some sort of a tragedy for certain.
+
+I must say that it was with a feeling of considerable relief that I
+saw the yacht steam out of the creek, with Captain Desmond on the
+bridge and my cousin beside him.
+
+Quite other were my feelings when, an hour after, The Lady came
+flying into the creek with the Lord High Admiral on the bridge, and
+beside him, more splendid and soldier-like than ever, Sir Colin
+MacKelpie.  Mr. Bingham Trent was also on the bridge.
+
+The General was full of enthusiasm regarding his regiment, for in
+all, those he brought with him and those finishing their training at
+home, the force is near the number of a full regiment.  When we were
+alone he explained to me that all was arranged regarding the non-
+commissioned officers, but that he had held over the question of
+officers until we should have had a suitable opportunity of talking
+the matter over together.  He explained to me his reasons, which were
+certainly simple and cogent.  Officers, according to him, are a
+different class, and accustomed to a different standard altogether of
+life and living, of duties and pleasures.  They are harder to deal
+with and more difficult to obtain.  "There was no use," he said, "in
+getting a lot of failures, with old-crusted ways of their own
+importance.  We must have young men for our purpose--that is, men not
+old, but with some experience--men, of course, who know how to behave
+themselves, or else, from what little I have seen of the Blue
+Mountaineers, they wouldn't last long here if they went on as some of
+them do elsewhere.  I shall start things here as you wish me to, for
+I am here, my dear boy, to stay with you and Janet, and we shall, if
+it be given to us by the Almighty, help to build up together a new
+'nation'--an ally of Britain, who will stand at least as an outpost
+of our own nation, and a guardian of our eastern road.  When things
+are organized here on the military side, and are going strong, I
+shall, if you can spare me, run back to London for a few weeks.
+Whilst I am there I shall pick up a lot of the sort of officers we
+want.  I know that there are loads of them to be had.  I shall go
+slowly, however, and carefully, too, and every man I bring back will
+be recommended to me by some old soldier whom I know, and who knows
+the man he recommends, and has seen him work.  We shall have, I dare
+say, an army for its size second to none in the world, and the day
+may come when your old country will be proud of your new one.  Now
+I'm off to see that all is ready for my people--your people now."
+
+I had had arrangements made for the comfort of the clansmen and the
+women, but I knew that the good old soldier would see for himself
+that his men were to be comfortable.  It was not for nothing that he
+was--is--looked on as perhaps the General most beloved by his men in
+the whole British Army.
+
+When he had gone, and I was alone, Mr. Trent, who had evidently been
+waiting for the opportunity, came to me.  When we had spoken of my
+marriage and of Teuta, who seems to have made an immense impression
+on him, he said suddenly:
+
+"I suppose we are quite alone, and that we shall not be interrupted?"
+I summoned the man outside--there is always a sentry on guard outside
+my door or near me, wherever I may be--and gave orders that I was not
+to be disturbed until I gave fresh orders.  "If," I said, "there be
+anything pressing or important, let the Voivodin or Miss MacKelpie
+know.  If either of them brings anyone to me, it will be all right."
+
+When we were quite alone Mr. Trent took a slip of paper and some
+documents from the bag which was beside him.  He then read out items
+from the slip, placing as he did so the documents so checked over
+before him.
+
+1.  New Will made on marriage, to be signed presently.
+
+2.  Copy of the Re-conveyance of Vissarion estates to Peter
+Vissarion, as directed by Will of Roger Melton.
+
+3.  Report of Correspondence with Privy Council, and proceedings
+following.
+
+Taking up the last named, he untied the red tape, and, holding the
+bundle in his hand, went on:
+
+"As you may, later on, wish to examine the details of the
+Proceedings, I have copied out the various letters, the originals of
+which are put safely away in my strong-room where, of course, they
+are always available in case you may want them.  For your present
+information I shall give you a rough synopsis of the Proceedings,
+referring where advisable to this paper.
+
+"On receipt of your letter of instructions regarding the Consent of
+the Privy Council to your changing your nationality in accordance
+with the terms of Roger Melton's Will, I put myself in communication
+with the Clerk of the Privy Council, informing him of your wish to be
+naturalized in due time to the Land of the Blue Mountains.  After
+some letters between us, I got a summons to attend a meeting of the
+Council.
+
+"I attended, as required, taking with me all necessary documents, and
+such as I conceived might be advisable to produce, if wanted.
+
+"The Lord President informed me that the present meeting of the
+Council was specially summoned in obedience to the suggestion of the
+King, who had been consulted as to his personal wishes on the
+subject--should he have any.  The President then proceeded to inform
+me officially that all Proceedings of the Privy Council were
+altogether confidential, and were not to be made public under any
+circumstances.  He was gracious enough to add:
+
+"'The circumstances of this case, however, are unique; and as you act
+for another, we have thought it advisable to enlarge your permission
+in the matter, so as to allow you to communicate freely with your
+principal.  As that gentleman is settling himself in a part of the
+world which has been in the past, and may be again, united to this
+nation by some common interest, His Majesty wishes Mr. Sent Leger to
+feel assured of the good-will of Great Britain to the Land of the
+Blue Mountains, and even of his own personal satisfaction that a
+gentleman of so distinguished a lineage and such approved personal
+character is about to be--within his own scope--a connecting-link
+between the nations.  To which end he has graciously announced that,
+should the Privy Council acquiesce in the request of
+Denaturalization, he will himself sign the Patent therefor.
+
+"'The Privy Council has therefore held private session, at which the
+matter has been discussed in its many bearings; and it is content
+that the change can do no harm, but may be of some service to the two
+nations.  We have, therefore, agreed to grant the prayer of the
+Applicant; and the officials of the Council have the matter of the
+form of Grant in hand.  So you, sir, may rest satisfied that as soon
+as the formalities--which will, of course, require the formal signing
+of certain documents by the Applicant--can be complied with, the
+Grant and Patent will obtain.'"
+
+Having made this statement in formal style, my old friend went on in
+more familiar way:
+
+"And so, my dear Rupert, all is in hand; and before very long you
+will have the freedom required under the Will, and will be at liberty
+to take whatever steps may be necessary to be naturalized in your new
+country.
+
+"I may tell you, by the way, that several members of the Council made
+very complimentary remarks regarding you.  I am forbidden to give
+names, but I may tell you facts.  One old Field-Marshal, whose name
+is familiar to the whole world, said that he had served in many
+places with your father, who was a very valiant soldier, and that he
+was glad that Great Britain was to have in the future the benefit of
+your father's son in a friendly land now beyond the outposts of our
+Empire, but which had been one with her in the past, and might be
+again.
+
+"So much for the Privy Council.  We can do no more at present until
+you sign and have attested the documents which I have brought with
+me.
+
+"We can now formally complete the settlement of the Vissarion
+estates, which must be done whilst you are a British citizen.  So,
+too, with the Will, the more formal and complete document, which is
+to take the place of that short one which you forwarded to me the day
+after your marriage.  It may be, perhaps, necessary or advisable
+that, later on, when you are naturalized here, you shall make a new
+Will in strictest accordance with local law."
+
+
+TEUTA SENT LEGER'S DIARY.
+August 19, 1907.
+
+We had a journey to-day that was simply glorious.  We had been
+waiting to take it for more than a week.  Rupert not only wanted the
+weather suitable, but he had to wait till the new aeroplane came
+home.  It is more than twice as big as our biggest up to now.  None
+of the others could take all the party which Rupert wanted to go.
+When he heard that the aero was coming from Whitby, where it was sent
+from Leeds, he directed by cable that it should be unshipped at
+Otranto, whence he took it here all by himself.  I wanted to come
+with him, but he thought it better not.  He says that Brindisi is too
+busy a place to keep anything quiet--if not secret--and he wants to
+be very dark indeed about this, as it is worked by the new radium
+engine.  Ever since they found radium in our own hills he has been
+obsessed by the idea of an aerial navy for our protection.  And after
+to-day's experiences I think he is right.  As he wanted to survey the
+whole country at a glimpse, so that the general scheme of defence
+might be put in hand, we had to have an aero big enough to take the
+party as well as fast enough to do it rapidly, and all at once.  We
+had, in addition to Rupert, my father, and myself, Sir Colin and Lord
+High Admiral Rooke (I do like to give that splendid old fellow his
+full title!).  The military and naval experts had with them
+scientific apparatus of various kinds, also cameras and range-
+finders, so that they could mark their maps as they required.
+Rupert, of course, drove, and I acted as his assistant.  Father, who
+has not yet become accustomed to aerial travel, took a seat in the
+centre (which Rupert had thoughtfully prepared for him), where there
+is very little motion.  I must say I was amazed to see the way that
+splendid old soldier Sir Colin bore himself.  He had never been on an
+aeroplane before, but, all the same, he was as calm as if he was on a
+rock.  Height or motion did not trouble him.  Indeed, he seemed to
+ENJOY himself all the time.  The Admiral is himself almost an expert,
+but in any case I am sure he would have been unconcerned, just as he
+was in the Crab as Rupert has told me.
+
+We left just after daylight, and ran down south.  When we got to the
+east of Ilsin, we kept slightly within the border-line, and went
+north or east as it ran, making occasional loops inland over the
+mountains and back again.  When we got up to our farthest point
+north, we began to go much slower.  Sir Colin explained that for the
+rest all would be comparatively plain-sailing in the way of defence;
+but that as any foreign Power other than the Turk must attack from
+seaward, he would like to examine the seaboard very carefully in
+conjunction with the Admiral, whose advice as to sea defence would be
+invaluable.
+
+Rupert was fine.  No one could help admiring him as he sat working
+his lever and making the great machine obey every touch.  He was
+wrapped up in his work.  I don't believe that whilst he was working
+he ever thought of even me.  He IS splendid!
+
+We got back just as the sun was dropping down over the Calabrian
+Mountains.  It is quite wonderful how the horizon changes when you
+are sailing away up high on an aeroplane.  Rupert is going to teach
+me how to manage one all by myself, and when I am fit he will give me
+one, which he is to have specially built for me.
+
+I think I, too, have done some good work--at least, I have got some
+good ideas--from our journey to-day.  Mine are not of war, but of
+peace, and I think I see a way by which we shall be able to develop
+our country in a wonderful way.  I shall talk the idea over with
+Rupert to-night, when we are alone.  In the meantime Sir Colin and
+Admiral Rooke will think their plans over individually, and to-morrow
+morning together.  Then the next day they, too, are to go over their
+idea with Rupert and my father, and something may be decided then.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+August 21, 1907.
+
+Our meeting on the subject of National Defence, held this afternoon,
+went off well.  We were five in all, for with permission of the
+Voivode and the two fighting-men, naval and military, I brought Teuta
+with me.  She sat beside me quite quietly, and never made a remark of
+any kind till the Defence business had been gone through.  Both Sir
+Colin and Admiral Rooke were in perfect agreement as to the immediate
+steps to be taken for defence.  In the first instance, the seaboard
+was to be properly fortified in the necessary places, and the navy
+largely strengthened.  When we had got thus far I asked Rooke to tell
+of the navy increase already in hand.  Whereupon he explained that,
+as we had found the small battleship The Lady of an excellent type
+for coast defence, acting only in home waters, and of a size to take
+cover where necessary at many places on our own shores, we had
+ordered nine others of the same pattern.  Of these the first four
+were already in hand, and were proceeding with the greatest
+expedition.  The General then supplemented this by saying that big
+guns could be used from points judiciously chosen on the seaboard,
+which was in all so short a length that no very great quantity of
+armament would be required.
+
+"We can have," he said, "the biggest guns of the most perfect kind
+yet accomplished, and use them from land batteries of the most up-to-
+date pattern.  The one serious proposition we have to deal with is
+the defence of the harbour--as yet quite undeveloped--which is known
+as the 'Blue Mouth.'  Since our aerial journey I have been to it by
+sea with Admiral Rooke in The Lady, and then on land with the
+Vladika, who was born on its shores, and who knows every inch of it.
+
+"It is worth fortifying--and fortifying well, for as a port it is
+peerless in Mediterranean seas.  The navies of the world might ride
+in it, land-locked, and even hidden from view seawards.  The
+mountains which enclose it are in themselves absolute protection.  In
+addition, these can only be assailed from our own territory.  Of
+course, Voivode, you understand when I say 'our' I mean the Land of
+the Blue Mountains, for whose safety and well-being I am alone
+concerned.  Any ship anchoring in the roads of the Blue Mouth would
+have only one need--sufficient length of cable for its magnificent
+depth.
+
+"When proper guns are properly placed on the steep cliffs to north
+and south of the entrance, and when the rock islet between has been
+armoured and armed as will be necessary, the Mouth will be
+impregnable.  But we should not depend on the aiming of the entrance
+alone.  At certain salient points--which I have marked upon this map-
+-armour-plated sunken forts within earthworks should be established.
+There should be covering forts on the hillsides, and, of course, the
+final summits protected.  Thus we could resist attack on any side or
+all sides--from sea or land.  That port will yet mean the wealth as
+well as the strength of this nation, so it will be well to have it
+properly protected.  This should be done soon, and the utmost secrecy
+observed in the doing of it, lest the so doing should become a matter
+of international concern."
+
+Here Rooke smote the table hard.
+
+"By God, that is true!  It has been the dream of my own life for this
+many a year."
+
+In the silence which followed the sweet, gentle voice of Teuta came
+clear as a bell:
+
+"May I say a word?  I am emboldened to, as Sir Colin has spoken so
+splendidly, and as the Lord High Admiral has not hesitated to mention
+his dreaming.  I, too, have had a dream--a day-dream--which came in a
+flash, but no less a dream, for all that.  It was when we hung on the
+aeroplane over the Blue Mouth.  It seemed to me in an instant that I
+saw that beautiful spot as it will some time be--typical, as Sir
+Colin said, of the wealth as well as the strength of this nation; a
+mart for the world whence will come for barter some of the great
+wealth of the Blue Mountains.  That wealth is as yet undeveloped.
+But the day is at hand when we may begin to use it, and through that
+very port.  Our mountains and their valleys are clad with trees of
+splendid growth, virgin forests of priceless worth; hard woods of all
+kinds, which have no superior throughout the world.  In the rocks,
+though hidden as yet, is vast mineral wealth of many kinds.  I have
+been looking through the reports of the geological exports of the
+Commission of Investigation which my husband organized soon after he
+came to live here, and, according to them, our whole mountain ranges
+simply teem with vast quantities of minerals, almost more precious
+for industry than gold and silver are for commerce--though, indeed,
+gold is not altogether lacking as a mineral.  When once our work on
+the harbour is done, and the place has been made secure against any
+attempt at foreign aggression, we must try to find a way to bring
+this wealth of woods and ores down to the sea.
+
+"And then, perhaps, may begin the great prosperity of our Land, of
+which we have all dreamt."
+
+She stopped, all vibrating, almost choked with emotion.  We were all
+moved.  For myself, I was thrilled to the core.  Her enthusiasm was
+all-sweeping, and under its influence I found my own imagination
+expanding.  Out of its experiences I spoke:
+
+"And there is a way.  I can see it.  Whilst our dear Voivodin was
+speaking, the way seemed to clear.  I saw at the back of the Blue
+Mouth, where it goes deepest into the heart of the cliffs, the
+opening of a great tunnel, which ran upward over a steep slope till
+it debouched on the first plateau beyond the range of the
+encompassing cliffs.
+
+Thither came by various rails of steep gradient, by timber-shoots and
+cable-rails, by aerial cables and precipitating tubes, wealth from
+over ground and under it; for as our Land is all mountains, and as
+these tower up to the clouds, transport to the sea shall be easy and
+of little cost when once the machinery is established.  As everything
+of much weight goes downward, the cars of the main tunnel of the port
+shall return upward without cost.  We can have from the mountains a
+head of water under good control, which will allow of endless
+hydraulic power, so that the whole port and the mechanism of the town
+to which it will grow can be worked by it.
+
+"This work can be put in hand at once.  So soon as the place shall be
+perfectly surveyed and the engineering plans got ready, we can start
+on the main tunnel, working from the sea-level up, so that the cost
+of the transport of material will be almost nil.  This work can go on
+whilst the forts are building; no time need be lost.
+
+"Moreover, may I add a word on National Defence?  We are, though old
+in honour, a young nation as to our place amongst Great Powers.  And
+so we must show the courage and energy of a young nation.  The Empire
+of the Air is not yet won.  Why should not we make a bid for it?  As
+our mountains are lofty, so shall we have initial power of attack or
+defence.  We can have, in chosen spots amongst the clouds, depots of
+war aeroplanes, with which we can descend and smite our enemies
+quickly on land or sea.  We shall hope to live for Peace; but woe to
+those who drive us to War!"
+
+There is no doubt that the Vissarions are a warlike race.  As I
+spoke, Teuta took one of my hands and held it hard.  The old Voivode,
+his eyes blazing, rose and stood beside me and took the other.  The
+two old fighting-men of the land and the sea stood up and saluted.
+
+This was the beginning of what ultimately became "The National
+Committee of Defence and Development."
+
+I had other, and perhaps greater, plans for the future in my mind;
+but the time had not come for their utterance.
+
+To me it seems not only advisable, but necessary, that the utmost
+discretion be observed by all our little group, at all events for the
+present.  There seems to be some new uneasiness in the Blue
+Mountains.  There are constant meetings of members of the Council,
+but no formal meeting of the Council, as such, since the last one at
+which I was present.  There is constant coming and going amongst the
+mountaineers, always in groups, small or large.  Teuta and I, who
+have been about very much on the aeroplane, have both noticed it.
+But somehow we--that is, the Voivode and myself--are left out of
+everything; but we have not said as yet a word on the subject to any
+of the others.  The Voivode notices, but he says nothing; so I am
+silent, and Teuta does whatever I ask.  Sir Colin does not notice
+anything except the work he is engaged on--the planning the defences
+of the Blue Mouth.  His old scientific training as an engineer, and
+his enormous experience of wars and sieges--for he was for nearly
+fifty years sent as military representative to all the great wars--
+seem to have become directed on that point.  He is certainly planning
+it all out in a wonderful way.  He consults Rooke almost hourly on
+the maritime side of the question.  The Lord High Admiral has been a
+watcher all his life, and very few important points have ever escaped
+him, so that he can add greatly to the wisdom of the defensive
+construction.  He notices, I think, that something is going on
+outside ourselves; but he keeps a resolute silence.
+
+What the movement going on is I cannot guess.  It is not like the
+uneasiness that went before the abduction of Teuta and the Voivode,
+but it is even more pronounced.  That was an uneasiness founded on
+some suspicion.  This is a positive thing, and has definite meaning--
+of some sort.  We shall, I suppose, know all about it in good time.
+In the meantime we go on with our work.  Happily the whole Blue Mouth
+and the mountains round it are on my own property, the portion
+acquired long ago by Uncle Roger, exclusive of the Vissarion estate.
+I asked the Voivode to allow me to transfer it to him, but he sternly
+refused and forbade me, quite peremptorily, to ever open the subject
+to him again.  "You have done enough already," he said.  "Were I to
+allow you to go further, I should feel mean.  And I do not think you
+would like your wife's father to suffer that feeling after a long
+life, which he has tried to live in honour."
+
+I bowed, and said no more.  So there the matter rests, and I have to
+take my own course.  I have had a survey made, and on the head of it
+the Tunnel to the harbour is begun.
+
+
+
+BOOK VIII:  THE FLASHING OF THE HANDJAR
+
+
+
+PRIVATE MEMORANDUM OF THE MEETING OF VARIOUS MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL
+COUNCIL, HELD AT THE STATE HOUSE OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS AT PLAZAC ON
+MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1907.
+(Written by Cristoferos, Scribe of the Council, by instruction of
+those present.)
+
+When the private meeting of various Members of the National Council
+had assembled in the Council Hall of the State House at Plazac, it
+was as a preliminary decided unanimously that now or hereafter no
+names of those present were to be mentioned, and that officials
+appointed for the purposes of this meeting should be designated by
+office only, the names of all being withheld.
+
+The proceedings assumed the shape of a general conversation, quite
+informal, and therefore not to be recorded.  The nett outcome was the
+unanimous expression of an opinion that the time, long contemplated
+by very many persons throughout the nation, had now come when the
+Constitution and machinery of the State should be changed; that the
+present form of ruling by an Irregular Council was not sufficient,
+and that a method more in accord with the spirit of the times should
+be adopted.  To this end Constitutional Monarchy, such as that
+holding in Great Britain, seemed best adapted.  Finally, it was
+decided that each Member of the Council should make a personal
+canvass of his district, talk over the matter with his electors, and
+bring back to another meeting--or, rather, as it was amended, to this
+meeting postponed for a week, until September 2nd--the opinions and
+wishes received.  Before separating, the individual to be appointed
+King, in case the new idea should prove grateful to the nation, was
+discussed.  The consensus of opinion was entirely to the effect that
+the Voivode Peter Vissarion should, if he would accept the high
+office, be appointed.  It was urged that, as his daughter, the
+Voivodin Teuta, was now married to the Englishman, Rupert Sent Leger-
+-called generally by the mountaineers "the Gospodar Rupert"--a
+successor to follow the Voivode when God should call him would be at
+hand--a successor worthy in every way to succeed to so illustrious a
+post.  It was urged by several speakers, with general acquiescence,
+that already Mr. Sent Leger's services to the State were such that he
+would be in himself a worthy person to begin the new Dynasty; but
+that, as he was now allied to the Voivode Peter Vissarion, it was
+becoming that the elder, born of the nation, should receive the first
+honour.
+
+THE SAME--Continued.
+
+The adjourned meeting of certain members of the National Council was
+resumed in the Hall of the State House at Plazac on Monday, September
+2nd, 1907.  By motion the same chairman was appointed, and the rule
+regarding the record renewed.
+
+Reports were made by the various members of the Council in turn,
+according to the State Roll.  Every district was represented.  The
+reports were unanimously in favour of the New Constitution, and it
+was reported by each and all of the Councillors that the utmost
+enthusiasm marked in every case the suggestion of the Voivode Peter
+Vissarion as the first King to be crowned under the new Constitution,
+and that remainder should be settled on the Gospodar Rupert (the
+mountaineers would only receive his lawful name as an alternative;
+one and all said that he would be "Rupert" to them and to the nation-
+-for ever).
+
+The above matter having been satisfactorily settled, it was decided
+that a formal meeting of the National Council should be held at the
+State House, Plazac, in one week from to-day, and that the Voivode
+Peter Vissarion should be asked to be in the State House in readiness
+to attend.  It was also decided that instruction should be given to
+the High Court of National Law to prepare and have ready, in skeleton
+form, a rescript of the New Constitution to be adopted, the same to
+be founded on the Constitution and Procedure of Great Britain, so far
+as the same may be applicable to the traditional ideas of free
+Government in the Land of the Blue Mountains.
+
+By unanimous vote this private and irregular meeting of "Various
+National Councillors" was then dissolved.
+
+
+RECORD OF THE FIRST MEETING OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE LAND OF
+THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, HELD AT PLAZAC ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH, 1907, TO
+CONSIDER THE ADOPTION OF A NEW CONSTITUTION, AND TO GIVE PERMANENT
+EFFECT TO THE SAME IF, AND WHEN, DECIDED UPON.
+(Kept by the Monk Cristoferos, Scribe to the National Council.)
+
+The adjourned meeting duly took place as arranged.  There was a full
+attendance of Members of the Council, together with the Vladika, the
+Archbishop, the Archimandrites of Spazac, of Ispazar, of Domitan, and
+Astrag; the Chancellor; the Lord of the Exchequer; the President of
+the High Court of National Law; the President of the Council of
+Justice; and such other high officials as it is customary to summon
+to meetings of the National Council on occasions of great importance.
+The names of all present will be found in the full report, wherein
+are given the ipsissima verba of the various utterances made during
+the consideration of the questions discussed, the same having been
+taken down in shorthand by the humble scribe of this precis, which
+has been made for the convenience of Members of the Council and
+others.
+
+The Voivode Peter Vissarion, obedient to the request of the Council,
+was in attendance at the State House, waiting in the "Chamber of the
+High Officers" until such time as he should be asked to come before
+the Council.
+
+The President put before the National Council the matter of the new
+Constitution, outlining the headings of it as drawn up by the High
+Court of National Law, and the Constitution having been formally
+accepted nem. con. by the National Council on behalf of the people,
+he proposed that the Crown should be offered to the Voivode Peter
+Vissarion, with remainder to the "Gospodar Rupert" (legally, Rupert
+Sent Leger), husband of his only child, the Voivodin Teuta.  This
+also was received with enthusiasm, and passed nem. con.
+
+Thereupon the President of Council, the Archbishop, and the Vladika,
+acting together as a deputation, went to pray the attention of the
+Voivode Peter Vassarion.
+
+When the Voivode entered, the whole Council and officials stood up,
+and for a few seconds waited in respectful silence with heads bowed
+down.  Then, as if by a common impulse--for no word was spoken nor
+any signal given--they all drew their handjars, and stood to
+attention--with points raised and edges of the handjars to the front.
+
+The Voivode stood very still.  He seemed much moved, but controlled
+himself admirably.  The only time when be seemed to lose his self-
+control was when, once again with a strange simultaneity, all present
+raised their handjars on high, and shouted:  "Hail, Peter, King!"
+Then lowering their points till these almost touched the ground, they
+once again stood with bowed heads.
+
+When he had quite mastered himself, the Voivode Peter Vissarion
+spoke:
+
+"How can I, my brothers, sufficiently thank you, and, through you,
+the people of the Blue Mountains, for the honour done to me this day?
+In very truth it is not possible, and therefore I pray you to
+consider it as done, measuring my gratitude in the greatness of your
+own hearts.  Such honour as you offer to me is not contemplated by
+any man in whose mind a wholesome sanity rules, nor is it even the
+dream of fervent imagination.  So great is it, that I pray you, men
+with hearts and minds like my own, to extend to me, as a further
+measure of your generosity, a little time to think it over.  I shall
+not want long, for even already, with the blaze of honour fresh upon
+me, I see the cool shadow of Duty, though his substance is yet hardly
+visible.  Give me but an hour of solitude--an hour at most--if it do
+not prolong this your session unduly.  It may be that a lesser time
+will serve, but in any case I promise you that, when I can see a just
+and fitting issue to my thought, I shall at once return."
+
+The President of the Council looked around him, and, seeing
+everywhere the bowing heads of acquiescence, spoke with a reverent
+gravity:
+
+"We shall wait in patience whatsoever time you will, and may the God
+who rules all worthy hearts guide you to His Will!"
+
+And so in silence the Voivode passed out of the hall.
+
+From my seat near a window I could watch him go, as with measured
+steps he passed up the hill which rises behind the State House, and
+disappeared into the shadow of the forest.  Then my work claimed me,
+for I wished to record the proceedings so far whilst all was fresh in
+my mind.  In silence, as of the dead, the Council waited, no man
+challenging opinion of his neighbour even by a glance.
+
+Almost a full hour had elapsed when the Voivode came again to the
+Council, moving with slow and stately gravity, as has always been his
+wont since age began to hamper the movement which in youth had been
+so notable.  The Members of the Council all stood up uncovered, and
+so remained while he made announcement of his conclusion.  He spoke
+slowly; and as his answer was to be a valued record of this Land and
+its Race, I wrote down every word as uttered, leaving here and there
+space for description or comment, which spaces I have since then
+filled in.
+
+"Lords of the National Council, Archbishop, Vladika, Lords of the
+Council of Justice and of National Law, Archimandrites, and my
+brothers all, I have, since I left you, held in the solitude of the
+forest counsel with myself--and with God; and He, in His gracious
+wisdom, has led my thinking to that conclusion which was from the
+first moment of knowledge of your intent presaged in my heart.
+Brothers, you know--or else a long life has been spent in vain--that
+my heart and mind are all for the nation--my experience, my life, my
+handjar.  And when all is for her, why should I shrink to exercise on
+her behalf my riper judgment though the same should have to combat my
+own ambition?  For ten centuries my race has not failed in its duty.
+Ages ago the men of that time trusted in the hands of my ancestors
+the Kingship, even as now you, their children, trust me.  But to me
+it would be base to betray that trust, even by the smallest tittle.
+That would I do were I to take the honour of the crown which you have
+tendered to me, so long as there is another more worthy to wear it.
+Were there none other, I should place myself in your hands, and yield
+myself over to blind obedience of your desires.  But such an one
+there is; dear to you already by his own deeds, now doubly dear to
+me, since he is my son by my daughter's love.  He is young, whereas I
+am old.  He is strong and brave and true; but my days of the
+usefulness of strength and bravery are over.  For myself, I have long
+contemplated as the crown of my later years a quiet life in one of
+our monasteries, where I can still watch the whirl of the world
+around us on your behalf, and be a counsellor of younger men of more
+active minds.  Brothers, we are entering on stirring times.  I can
+see the signs of their coming all around us.  North and South--the
+Old Order and the New, are about to clash, and we lie between the
+opposing forces.  True it is that the Turk, after warring for a
+thousand years, is fading into insignificance.  But from the North
+where conquests spring, have crept towards our Balkans the men of a
+mightier composite Power.  Their march has been steady; and as they
+came, they fortified every step of the way.  Now they are hard upon
+us, and are already beginning to swallow up the regions that we have
+helped to win from the dominion of Mahound.  The Austrian is at our
+very gates.  Beaten back by the Irredentists of Italy, she has so
+enmeshed herself with the Great Powers of Europe that she seems for
+the moment to be impregnable to a foe of our stature.  There is but
+one hope for us--the uniting of the Balkan forces to turn a masterly
+front to North and West as well as to South and East.  Is that a task
+for old hands to undertake?  No; the hands must be young and supple;
+and the brain subtle, as well as the heart be strong, of whomsoever
+would dare such an accomplishment.  Should I accept the crown, it
+would only postpone the doing of that which must ultimately be done.
+What avail would it be if, when the darkness closes over me, my
+daughter should be Queen Consort to the first King of a new dynasty?
+You know this man, and from your record I learn that you are already
+willing to have him as King to follow me.  Why not begin with him?
+He comes of a great nation, wherein the principle of freedom is a
+vital principle that quickens all things.  That nation has more than
+once shown to us its friendliness; and doubtless the very fact that
+an Englishman would become our King, and could carry into our
+Government the spirit and customs which have made his own country
+great, would do much to restore the old friendship, and even to
+create a new one, which would in times of trouble bring British
+fleets to our waters, and British bayonets to support our own
+handjars.  It is within my own knowledge, though as yet unannounced
+to you, that Rupert Sent Leger has already obtained a patent, signed
+by the King of England himself, allowing him to be denaturalized in
+England, so that he can at once apply for naturalization here.  I
+know also that he has brought hither a vast fortune, by aid of which
+he is beginning to strengthen our hands for war, in case that sad
+eventuality should arise.  Witness his late ordering to be built nine
+other warships of the class that has already done such effective
+service in overthrowing the Turk--or the pirate, whichever he may
+have been.  He has undertaken the defence of the Blue Mouth at his
+own cost in a way which will make it stronger than Gibraltar, and
+secure us against whatever use to which the Austrian may apply the
+vast forces already gathered in the Bocche di Cattaro.  He is already
+founding aerial stations on our highest peaks for use of the war
+aeroplanes which are being built for him.  It is such a man as this
+who makes a nation great; and right sure I am that in his hands this
+splendid land and our noble, freedom-loving people will flourish and
+become a power in the world.  Then, brothers, let me, as one to whom
+this nation and its history and its future are dear, ask you to give
+to the husband of my daughter the honour which you would confer on
+me.  For her I can speak as well as for myself.  She shall suffer
+nothing in dignity either.  Were I indeed King, she, as my daughter,
+would be a Princess of the world.  As it will be, she shall be
+companion and Queen of a great King, and her race, which is mine,
+shall flourish in all the lustre of the new Dynasty.
+
+"Therefore on all accounts, my brothers, for the sake of our dear
+Land of the Blue Mountains, make the Gospodar Rupert, who has so
+proved himself, your King.  And make me happy in my retirement to the
+cloister."
+
+When the Voivode ceased to speak, all still remained silent and
+standing.  But there was no mistaking their acquiescence in his most
+generous prayer.  The President of the Council well interpreted the
+general wish when he said:
+
+"Lords of the National Council, Archbishop, Vladika, Lords of the
+Councils of Justice and National Law, Archimandrites, and all who are
+present, is it agreed that we prepare at leisure a fitting reply to
+the Voivode Peter of the historic House of Vissarion, stating our
+agreement with his wish?"
+
+To which there was a unanimous answer:
+
+"It is."  He went on:
+
+"Further.  Shall we ask the Gospodar Rupert of the House of Sent
+Leger, allied through his marriage to the Voivodin Teuta, daughter
+and only child of the Voivode Peter of Vissarion, to come hither to-
+morrow?  And that, when he is amongst us, we confer on him the Crown
+and Kingship of the Land of the Blue Mountains?"
+
+Again came the answer:  "It is."
+
+But this time it rang out like the sound of a gigantic trumpet, and
+the handjars flashed.
+
+Whereupon the session was adjourned for the space of a day.
+
+
+THE SAME--Continued.
+September 10, 1907.
+
+When the National Council met to-day the Voivode Peter Vissarion sat
+with them, but well back, so that at first his presence was hardly
+noticeable.  After the necessary preliminaries had been gone through,
+they requested the presence of the Gospodar Rupert--Mr. Rupert Sent
+Leger--who was reported as waiting in the "Chamber of the High
+Officers."  He at once accompanied back to the Hall the deputation
+sent to conduct him.  As he made his appearance in the doorway the
+Councillors stood up.  There was a burst of enthusiasm, and the
+handjars flashed.  For an instant he stood silent, with lifted hand,
+as though indicating that he wished to speak.  So soon as this was
+recognized, silence fell on the assembly, and he spoke:
+
+"I pray you, may the Voivodin Teuta of Vissarion, who has accompanied
+me hither, appear with me to hear your wishes?"  There was an
+immediate and enthusiastic acquiescence, and, after bowing his
+thanks, he retired to conduct her.
+
+Her appearance was received with an ovation similar to that given to
+Gospodar Rupert, to which she bowed with dignified sweetness.  She,
+with her husband, was conducted to the top of the Hall by the
+President, who came down to escort them.  In the meantime another
+chair had been placed beside that prepared for the Gospodar, and
+these two sat.
+
+The President then made the formal statement conveying to the
+"Gospodar Rupert" the wishes of the Council, on behalf of the nation,
+to offer to him the Crown and Kingship of the Land of the Blue
+Mountains.  The message was couched in almost the same words as had
+been used the previous day in making the offer to the Voivode Peter
+Vissarion, only differing to meet the special circumstances.  The
+Gospodar Rupert listened in grave silence.  The whole thing was
+manifestly quite new to him, but he preserved a self-control
+wonderful under the circumstances.  When, having been made aware of
+the previous offer to the Voivode and the declared wish of the
+latter, he rose to speak, there was stillness in the Hall.  He
+commenced with a few broken words of thanks; then he grew suddenly
+and strangely calm as he went on:
+
+"But before I can even attempt to make a fitting reply, I should know
+if it is contemplated to join with me in this great honour my dear
+wife the Voivodin Teuta of Vissarion, who has so splendidly proved
+her worthiness to hold any place in the government of the Land.  I
+fain would . . . "
+
+He was interrupted by the Voivodin, who, standing up beside him and
+holding his left arm, said:
+
+"Do not, President, and Lords all, think me wanting in that respect
+of a wife for husband which in the Blue Mountains we hold so dear, if
+I venture to interrupt my lord.  I am here, not merely as a wife, but
+as Voivodin of Vissarion, and by the memory of all the noble women of
+that noble line I feel constrained to a great duty.  We women of
+Vissarion, in all the history of centuries, have never put ourselves
+forward in rivalry of our lords.  Well I know that my own dear lord
+will forgive me as wife if I err; but I speak to you, the Council of
+the nation, from another ground and with another tongue.  My lord
+does not, I fear, know as you do, and as I do too, that of old, in
+the history of this Land, when Kingship was existent, that it was
+ruled by that law of masculine supremacy which, centuries after,
+became known as the Lex Salica.  Lords of the Council of the Blue
+Mountains, I am a wife of the Blue Mountains--as a wife young as yet,
+but with the blood of forty generations of loyal women in my veins.
+And it would ill become me, whom my husband honours--wife to the man
+whom you would honour--to take a part in changing the ancient custom
+which has been held in honour for all the thousand years, which is
+the glory of Blue Mountain womanhood.  What an example such would be
+in an age when self-seeking women of other nations seek to forget
+their womanhood in the struggle to vie in equality with men!  Men of
+the Blue Mountains, I speak for our women when I say that we hold of
+greatest price the glory of our men.  To be their companions is our
+happiness; to be their wives is the completion of our lives; to be
+mothers of their children is our share of the glory that is theirs.
+
+"Therefore, I pray you, men of the Blue Mountains, let me but be as
+any other wife in our land, equal to them in domestic happiness,
+which is our woman's sphere; and if that priceless honour may be
+vouchsafed to me, and I be worthy and able to bear it, an exemplar of
+woman's rectitude."  With a low, modest, graceful bow, she sat down.
+
+There was no doubt as to the reception of her renunciation of Queenly
+dignity.  There was more honour to her in the quick, fierce shout
+which arose, and the unanimous upward swing of the handjars, than in
+the wearing of any crown which could adorn the head of woman.
+
+The spontaneous action of the Gospodar Rupert was another source of
+joy to all--a fitting corollary to what had gone before.  He rose to
+his feet, and, taking his wife in his arms, kissed her before all.
+Then they sat down, with their chairs close, bashfully holding hands
+like a pair of lovers.
+
+Then Rupert arose--he is Rupert now; no lesser name is on the lips of
+his people henceforth.  With an intense earnestness which seemed to
+glow in his face, he said simply:
+
+"What can I say except that I am in all ways, now and for ever,
+obedient to your wishes?"  Then, raising his handjar and holding it
+before him, he kissed the hilt, saying:
+
+"Hereby I swear to be honest and just--to be, God helping me, such a
+King as you would wish--in so far as the strength is given me.
+Amen."
+
+This ended the business of the Session, and the Council showed
+unmeasured delight.  Again and again the handjars flashed, as the
+cheers rose "three times three" in British fashion.
+
+When Rupert--I am told I must not write him down as "King Rupert"
+until after the formal crowning, which is ordained for Wednesday,
+October 16th,--and Teuta had withdrawn, the Voivode Peter Vissarion,
+the President and Council conferred in committee with the Presidents
+of the High Courts of National Law and of Justice as to the
+formalities to be observed in the crowning of the King, and of the
+formal notification to he given to foreign Powers.  These proceedings
+kept them far into the night.
+
+
+FROM "The London Messenger."
+CORONATION FESTIVITIES OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.
+(From our Special Correspondent.)
+PLAZAC,
+October 14, 1907.
+
+As I sat down to a poorly-equipped luncheon-table on board the
+Austro-Orient liner Franz Joseph, I mourned in my heart (and I may
+say incidentally in other portions of my internal economy) the
+comfort and gastronomic luxury of the King and Emperor Hotel at
+Trieste.  A brief comparison between the menus of to-day's lunch and
+yesterday's will afford to the reader a striking object-lesson:
+
+Trieste.                               Steamer.
+Eggs a la cocotte.                     Scrambled eggs on toast.
+Stewed chicken, with paprika.          Cold chicken.
+Devilled slices of Westphalian ham     Cold ham.
+     (boiled in wine).                 Bismarck herrings.
+Tunny fish, pickled.                   Stewed apples.
+Rice, burst in cream.                  Swiss cheese.
+Guava jelly.
+
+Consequence:  Yesterday I was well and happy, and looked forward to a
+good night's sleep, which came off.  To-day I am dull and heavy, also
+restless, and I am convinced that at sleeping-time my liver will have
+it all its own way.
+
+The journey to Ragusa, and thence to Plazac, is writ large with a
+pigment of misery on at least one human heart.  Let a silence fall
+upon it!  In such wise only can Justice and Mercy join hands.
+
+Plazac is a miserable place.  There is not a decent hotel in it.  It
+was perhaps on this account that the new King, Rupert, had erected
+for the alleged convenience of his guests of the Press a series of
+large temporary hotels, such as were in evidence at the St. Louis
+Exposition.  Here each guest was given a room to himself, somewhat
+after the nature of the cribs in a Rowton house.  From my first night
+in it I am able to speak from experience of the sufferings of a
+prisoner of the third class.  I am, however, bound to say that the
+dining and reception rooms were, though uncomfortably plain, adequate
+for temporary use.  Happily we shall not have to endure many more
+meals here, as to-morrow we all dine with the King in the State
+House; and as the cuisine is under the control of that cordon bleu,
+Gaston de Faux Pas, who so long controlled the gastronomic (we might
+almost say Gastonomic) destinies of the Rois des Diamants in the
+Place Vendome, we may, I think, look forward to not going to bed
+hungry.  Indeed, the anticipations formed from a survey of our meagre
+sleeping accommodation were not realized at dinnertime to-night.  To
+our intense astonishment, an excellent dinner was served, though, to
+be sure, the cold dishes predominated (a thing I always find bad for
+one's liver).  Just as we were finishing, the King (nominated) came
+amongst us in quite an informal way, and, having bidden us a hearty
+welcome, asked that we should drink a glass of wine together.  This
+we did in an excellent (if rather sweet) glass of Cliquot '93.  King
+Rupert (nominated) then asked us to resume our seats.  He walked
+between the tables, now and again recognizing some journalistic
+friend whom he had met early in life in his days of adventure.  The
+men spoken to seemed vastly pleased--with themselves probably.
+Pretty bad form of them, I call it!  For myself, I was glad I had not
+previously met him in the same casual way, as it saved me from what I
+should have felt a humiliation--the being patronized in that public
+way by a prospective King who had not (in a Court sense) been born.
+The writer, who is by profession a barrister-at-law, is satisfied at
+being himself a county gentleman and heir to an historic estate in
+the ancient county of Salop, which can boast a larger population than
+the Land of the Blue Mountains.
+
+
+EDITORIAL NOTE.--We must ask our readers to pardon the report in
+yesterday's paper sent from Plazac.  The writer was not on our
+regular staff, but asked to be allowed to write the report, as he was
+a kinsman of King Rupert of the Blue Mountains, and would therefore
+be in a position to obtain special information and facilities of
+description "from inside," as he puts it.  On reading the paper, we
+cabled his recall; we cabled also, in case he did not obey, to have
+his ejectment effected forthwith.
+
+We have also cabled Mr. Mordred Booth, the well-known correspondent,
+who was, to our knowledge, in Plazac for his own purposes, to send us
+full (and proper) details.  We take it our readers will prefer a
+graphic account of the ceremony to a farrago of cheap menus, comments
+on his own liver, and a belittling of an Englishman of such noble
+character and achievements that a rising nation has chosen him for
+their King, and one whom our own nation loves to honour.  We shall
+not, of course, mention our abortive correspondent's name, unless
+compelled thereto by any future utterance of his.
+
+
+FROM "The London Messenger."
+THE CORONATION OF KING RUPERT OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.
+(By our Special Correspondent, Mordred Booth.)
+PLAZAC,
+October 17, 1907.
+
+Plazac does not boast of a cathedral or any church of sufficient
+dimensions for a coronation ceremony on an adequate scale.  It was
+therefore decided by the National Council, with the consent of the
+King, that it should be held at the old church of St. Sava at
+Vissarion--the former home of the Queen.  Accordingly, arrangements
+had been made to bring thither on the warships on the morning of the
+coronation the whole of the nation's guests.  In St. Sava's the
+religious ceremony would take place, after which there would be a
+banquet in the Castle of Vissarion.  The guests would then return on
+the warships to Plazac, where would be held what is called here the
+"National Coronation."
+
+In the Land of the Blue Mountains it was customary in the old days,
+when there were Kings, to have two ceremonies--one carried out by the
+official head of the national Church, the Greek Church; the other by
+the people in a ritual adopted by themselves, on much the same basis
+as the Germanic Folk-Moot.  The Blue Mountains is a nation of
+strangely loyal tendencies.  What was a thousand years ago is to be
+to-day--so far, of course, as is possible under the altered condition
+of things.
+
+The church of St. Sava is very old and very beautiful, built in the
+manner of old Greek churches, full of monuments of bygone worthies of
+the Blue Mountains.  But, of course, neither it nor the ceremony held
+in it to-day can compare in splendour with certain other ceremonials-
+-for instance, the coronation of the penultimate Czar in Moscow, of
+Alfonso XII. in Madrid, of Carlos I. in Lisbon.
+
+The church was arranged much after the fashion of Westminster Abbey
+for the coronation of King Edward VII., though, of course, not so
+many persons present, nor so much individual splendour.  Indeed, the
+number of those present, outside those officially concerned and the
+Press of the world, was very few.
+
+The most striking figure present--next to King Rupert, who is seven
+feet high and a magnificent man--was the Queen Consort, Teuta.  She
+sat in front of a small gallery erected for the purpose just opposite
+the throne.  She is a strikingly beautiful woman, tall and finely-
+formed, with jet-black hair and eyes like black diamonds, but with
+the unique quality that there are stars in them which seem to take
+varied colour according to each strong emotion.  But it was not even
+her beauty or the stars in her eyes which drew the first glance of
+all.  These details showed on scrutiny, but from afar off the
+attractive point was her dress.  Surely never before did woman, be
+she Queen or peasant, wear such a costume on a festive occasion.
+
+She was dressed in a white Shroud, and in that only.  I had heard
+something of the story which goes behind that strange costume, and
+shall later on send it to you. {2}
+
+When the procession entered the church through the great western
+door, the national song of the Blue Mountains, "Guide our feet
+through darkness, O Jehovah," was sung by an unseen choir, in which
+the organ, supplemented by martial instruments, joined.  The
+Archbishop was robed in readiness before the altar, and close around
+him stood the Archimandrites of the four great monasteries.  The
+Vladika stood in front of the Members of the National Council.  A
+little to one side of this body was a group of high officials,
+Presidents of the Councils of National Law and Justice, the
+Chancellor, etc.--all in splendid robes of great antiquity--the High
+Marshall of the Forces and the Lord high Admiral.
+
+When all was ready for the ceremonial act of coronation, the
+Archbishop raised his hand, whereupon the music ceased.  Turning
+around, so that he faced the Queen, who thereon stood up, the King
+drew his handjar and saluted her in Blue Mountain fashion--the point
+raised as high possible, and then dropped down till it almost touches
+the ground.  Every man in the church, ecclesiastics and all, wear the
+handjar, and, following the King by the interval of a second, their
+weapons flashed out.  There was something symbolic, as well as
+touching, in this truly royal salute, led by the King.  His handjar
+is a mighty blade, and held high in the hands of a man of his
+stature, it overtowered everything in the church.  It was an
+inspiriting sight.  No one who saw will ever forget that noble
+flashing of blades in the thousand-year-old salute . . .
+
+The coronation was short, simple, and impressive.  Rupert knelt
+whilst the Archbishop, after a short, fervent prayer, placed on his
+head the bronze crown of the first King of the Blue Mountains, Peter.
+This was handed to him by the Vladika, to whom it was brought from
+the National Treasury by a procession of the high officers.  A
+blessing of the new King and his Queen Teuta concluded the ceremony.
+Rupert's first act on rising from his knees was to draw his handjar
+and salute his people.
+
+After the ceremony in St. Sava, the procession was reformed, and took
+its way to the Castle of Vissarion, which is some distance off across
+a picturesque creek, bounded on either side by noble cliffs of vast
+height.  The King led the way, the Queen walking with him and holding
+his hand . . . The Castle of Vissarion is of great antiquity, and
+picturesque beyond belief.  I am sending later on, as a special
+article, a description of it . . .
+
+The "Coronation Feast," as it was called on the menu, was held in the
+Great Hall, which is of noble proportions.  I enclose copy of the
+menu, as our readers may wish to know something of the details of
+such a feast in this part of the world.
+
+One feature of the banquet was specially noticeable.  As the National
+Officials were guests of the King and Queen, they were waited on and
+served by the King and Queen in person.  The rest of the guests,
+including us of the Press, were served by the King's household, not
+the servants--none of that cult were visible--but by the ladies and
+gentlemen of the Court.
+
+There was only one toast, and that was given by the King, all
+standing:  "The Land of the Blue Mountains, and may we all do our
+duty to the Land we love!"  Before drinking, his mighty handjar
+flashed out again, and in an instant every table at which the Blue
+Mountaineers sat was ringed with flashing steel.  I may add
+parenthetically that the handjar is essentially the national weapon.
+I do not know if the Blue Mountaineers take it to bed with them, but
+they certainly wear it everywhere else.  Its drawing seems to
+emphasize everything in national life . . .
+
+We embarked again on the warships--one a huge, steel-plated
+Dreadnought, up to date in every particular, the other an armoured
+yacht most complete in every way, and of unique speed.  The King and
+Queen, the Lords of the Council, together with the various high
+ecclesiastics and great officials, went on the yacht, which the Lord
+High Admiral, a man of remarkably masterful physiognomy, himself
+steered.  The rest of those present at the Coronation came on the
+warship.  The latter went fast, but the yacht showed her heels all
+the way.  However, the King's party waited in the dock in the Blue
+Mouth.  From this a new cable-line took us all to the State House at
+Plazac.  Here the procession was reformed, and wound its way to a
+bare hill in the immediate vicinity.  The King and Queen--the King
+still wearing the ancient bronze crown with which the Archbishop had
+invested him at St. Sava's--the Archbishop, the Vladika, and the four
+Archimandrites stood together at the top of the hill, the King and
+Queen being, of course, in the front.  A courteous young gentleman,
+to whom I had been accredited at the beginning of the day--all guests
+were so attended--explained to me that, as this was the national as
+opposed to the religious ceremony, the Vladika, who is the official
+representative of the laity, took command here.  The ecclesiastics
+were put prominently forward, simply out of courtesy, in obedience to
+the wish of the people, by whom they were all greatly beloved.
+
+Then commenced another unique ceremony, which, indeed, might well
+find a place in our Western countries.  As far as ever we could see
+were masses of men roughly grouped, not in any uniform, but all in
+national costume, and armed only with the handjar.  In the front of
+each of these groups or bodies stood the National Councillor for that
+district, distinguishable by his official robe and chain.  There were
+in all seventeen of these bodies.  These were unequal in numbers,
+some of them predominating enormously over others, as, indeed, might
+be expected in so mountainous a country.  In all there were present,
+I was told, over a hundred thousand men.  So far as I can judge from
+long experience of looking at great bodies of men, the estimate was a
+just one.  I was a little surprised to see so many, for the
+population of the Blue Mountains is never accredited in books of
+geography as a large one.  When I made inquiry as to how the frontier
+guard was being for the time maintained, I was told:
+
+"By the women mainly.  But, all the same, we have also a male guard
+which covers the whole frontier except that to seaward.  Each man has
+with him six women, so that the whole line is unbroken.  Moreover,
+sir, you must bear in mind that in the Blue Mountains our women are
+trained to arms as well as our men--ay, and they could give a good
+account of themselves, too, against any foe that should assail us.
+Our history shows what women can do in defence.  I tell you, the
+Turkish population would be bigger to-day but for the women who on
+our frontier fought of old for defence of their homes!"
+
+"No wonder this nation has kept her freedom for a thousand years!" I
+said.
+
+At a signal given by the President of the National Council one of the
+Divisions moved forwards.  It was not an ordinary movement, but an
+intense rush made with all the elan and vigour of hardy and highly-
+trained men.  They came on, not merely at the double, but as if
+delivering an attack.  Handjar in hand, they rushed forward.  I can
+only compare their rush to an artillery charge or to an attack of
+massed cavalry battalions.  It was my fortune to see the former at
+Magenta and the latter at Sadowa, so that I know what such
+illustration means.  I may also say that I saw the relief column
+which Roberts organized rush through a town on its way to relieve
+Mafeking; and no one who had the delight of seeing that inspiring
+progress of a flying army on their way to relieve their comrades
+needs to be told what a rush of armed men can be.  With speed which
+was simply desperate they ran up the hill, and, circling to the left,
+made a ring round the topmost plateau, where stood the King.  When
+the ring was complete, the stream went on lapping round and round
+till the whole tally was exhausted.  In the meantime another Division
+had followed, its leader joining close behind the end of the first.
+Then came another and another.  An unbroken line circled and circled
+round the hill in seeming endless array, till the whole slopes were
+massed with moving men, dark in colour, and with countless glittering
+points everywhere.  When the whole of the Divisions had thus
+surrounded the King, there was a moment's hush--a silence so still
+that it almost seemed as if Nature stood still also.  We who looked
+on were almost afraid to breathe.
+
+Then suddenly, without, so far as I could see, any fugleman or word
+of command, the handjars of all that mighty array of men flashed
+upward as one, and like thunder pealed the National cry:
+
+"The Blue Mountains and Duty!"
+
+After the cry there was a strange subsidence which made the onlooker
+rub his eyes.  It seemed as though the whole mass of fighting men had
+partially sunk into the ground.  Then the splendid truth burst upon
+us--the whole nation was kneeling at the feet of their chosen King,
+who stood upright.
+
+Another moment of silence, as King Rupert, taking off his crown, held
+it up in his left hand, and, holding his great handjar high in his
+right, cried in a voice so strong that it came ringing over that
+serried mass like a trumpet:
+
+"To Freedom of our Nation, and to Freedom within it, I dedicate these
+and myself.  I swear!"
+
+So saying, he, too, sank on his knees, whilst we all instinctively
+uncovered.
+
+The silence which followed lasted several seconds; then, without a
+sign, as though one and all acted instinctively, the whole body stood
+up.  Thereupon was executed a movement which, with all my experience
+of soldiers and war, I never saw equalled--not with the Russian Royal
+Guard saluting the Czar at his Coronation, not with an impi of
+Cetewayo's Zulus whirling through the opening of a kraal.
+
+For a second or two the whole mass seemed to writhe or shudder, and
+then, lo! the whole District Divisions were massed again in
+completeness, its Councillors next the King, and the Divisions
+radiating outwards down the hill like wedges.
+
+This completed the ceremony, and everything broke up into units.
+Later, I was told by my official friend that the King's last
+movement--the oath as he sank to his knees--was an innovation of his
+own.  All I can say is, if, in the future, and for all time, it is
+not taken for a precedent, and made an important part of the
+Patriotic Coronation ceremony, the Blue Mountaineers will prove
+themselves to be a much more stupid people than they seem at present
+to be.
+
+The conclusion of the Coronation festivities was a time of unalloyed
+joy.  It was the banquet given to the King and Queen by the nation;
+the guests of the nation were included in the royal party.  It was a
+unique ceremony.  Fancy a picnic-party of a hundred thousand persons,
+nearly all men.  There must have been made beforehand vast and
+elaborate preparations, ramifying through the whole nation.  Each
+section had brought provisions sufficient for their own consumption
+in addition to several special dishes for the guest-tables; but the
+contribution of each section was not consumed by its own members.
+
+It was evidently a part of the scheme that all should derive from a
+common stock, so that the feeling of brotherhood and common property
+should be preserved in this monumental fashion.
+
+The guest-tables were the only tables to be seen.  The bulk of the
+feasters sat on the ground.  The tables were brought forward by the
+men themselves--no such thing as domestic service was known on this
+day--from a wood close at hand, where they and the chairs had been
+placed in readiness.  The linen and crockery used had been sent for
+the purpose from the households of every town and village.  The
+flowers were plucked in the mountains early that morning by the
+children, and the gold and silver plate used for adornment were
+supplied from the churches.  Each dish at the guest-tables was served
+by the men of each section in turn.
+
+Over the whole array seemed to be spread an atmosphere of joyousness,
+of peace, of brotherhood.  It would be impossible to adequately
+describe that amazing scene, a whole nation of splendid men
+surrounding their new King and Queen, loving to honour and serve
+them.  Scattered about through that vast crowd were groups of
+musicians, chosen from amongst themselves.  The space covered by this
+titanic picnic was so vast that there were few spots from which you
+could hear music proceeding from different quarters.
+
+After dinner we all sat and smoked; the music became rather vocal
+than instrumental--indeed, presently we did not hear the sound of any
+instrument at all.  Only knowing a few words of Balkan, I could not
+follow the meanings of the songs, but I gathered that they were all
+legendary or historical.  To those who could understand, as I was
+informed by my tutelary young friend, who stayed beside me the whole
+of this memorable day, we were listening to the history of the Land
+of the Blue Mountains in ballad form.  Somewhere or other throughout
+that vast concourse each notable record of ten centuries was being
+told to eager ears.
+
+It was now late in the day.  Slowly the sun had been dropping down
+over the Calabrian Mountains, and the glamorous twilight was stealing
+over the immediate scene.  No one seemed to notice the coming of the
+dark, which stole down on us with an unspeakable mystery.  For long
+we sat still, the clatter of many tongues becoming stilled into the
+witchery of the scene.  Lower the sun sank, till only the ruddiness
+of the afterglow lit the expanse with rosy light; then this failed in
+turn, and the night shut down quickly.
+
+At last, when we could just discern the faces close to us, a
+simultaneous movement began.  Lights began to flash out in places all
+over the hillside.  At first these seemed as tiny as glow-worms seen
+in a summer wood, but by degrees they grew till the space was set
+with little circles of light.  These in turn grew and grew in both
+number and strength.  Flames began to leap out from piles of wood,
+torches were lighted and held high.  Then the music began again,
+softly at first, but then louder as the musicians began to gather to
+the centre, where sat the King and Queen.  The music was wild and
+semi-barbaric, but full of sweet melody.  It somehow seemed to bring
+before us a distant past; one and all, according to the strength of
+our imagination and the volume of our knowledge, saw episodes and
+phases of bygone history come before us.  There was a wonderful
+rhythmic, almost choric, force in the time kept, which made it almost
+impossible to sit still.  It was an invitation to the dance such as I
+had never before heard in any nation or at any time.  Then the lights
+began to gather round.  Once more the mountaineers took something of
+the same formation as at the crowning.  Where the royal party sat was
+a level mead, with crisp, short grass, and round it what one might
+well call the Ring of the Nation was formed.
+
+The music grew louder.  Each mountaineer who had not a lit torch
+already lighted one, and the whole rising hillside was a glory of
+light.  The Queen rose, and the King an instant after.  As they rose
+men stepped forward and carried away their chairs, or rather thrones.
+The Queen gave the King her hand--this is, it seems, the privilege of
+the wife as distinguished from any other woman.  Their feet took the
+time of the music, and they moved into the centre of the ring.
+
+That dance was another thing to remember, won from the haunting
+memories of that strange day.  At first the King and Queen danced all
+alone.  They began with stately movement, but as the music quickened
+their feet kept time, and the swing of their bodies with movements
+kept growing more and more ecstatic at every beat till, in true
+Balkan fashion, the dance became a very agony of passionate movement.
+
+At this point the music slowed down again, and the mountaineers began
+to join in the dance.  At first slowly, one by one, they joined in,
+the Vladika and the higher priests leading; then everywhere the whole
+vast crowd began to dance, till the earth around us seemed to shake.
+The lights quivered, flickered, blazed out again, and rose and fell
+as that hundred thousand men, each holding a torch, rose and fell
+with the rhythm of the dance.  Quicker, quicker grew the music,
+faster grew the rushing and pounding of the feet, till the whole
+nation seemed now in an ecstasy.
+
+I stood near the Vladika, and in the midst of this final wildness I
+saw him draw from his belt a short, thin flute; then he put it to his
+lips and blew a single note--a fierce, sharp note, which pierced the
+volume of sound more surely than would the thunder of a cannon-shot.
+On the instant everywhere each man put his torch under his foot.
+
+There was complete and immediate darkness, for the fires, which had
+by now fallen low, had evidently been trodden out in the measure of
+the dance.  The music still kept in its rhythmic beat, but slower
+than it had yet been.  Little by little this beat was pointed and
+emphasized by the clapping of hands--at first only a few, but
+spreading till everyone present was beating hands to the slow music
+in the darkness.  This lasted a little while, during which, looking
+round, I noticed a faint light beginning to steal up behind the
+hills.  The moon was rising.
+
+Again there came a note from the Vladika's flute--a single note,
+sweet and subtle, which I can only compare with a note from a
+nightingale, vastly increased in powers.  It, too, won through the
+thunder of the hand-claps, and on the second the sound ceased.  The
+sudden stillness, together with the darkness, was so impressive that
+we could almost hear our hearts beating.  And then came through the
+darkness the most beautiful and impressive sound heard yet.  That
+mighty concourse, without fugleman of any sort, began, in low,
+fervent voice, to sing the National Anthem.  At first it was of so
+low tone as to convey the idea of a mighty assembly of violinists
+playing with the mutes on.  But it gradually rose till the air above
+us seemed to throb and quiver.  Each syllable--each word--spoken in
+unison by the vast throng was as clearly enunciated as though spoken
+by a single voice:
+
+"Guide our feet through darkness, O Jehovah."
+
+This anthem, sung out of full hearts, remains on our minds as the
+last perfection of a perfect day.  For myself, I am not ashamed to
+own that it made me weep like a child.  Indeed, I cannot write of it
+now as I would; it unmans me so!
+
+* * *
+
+In the early morning, whilst the mountains were still rather grey
+than blue, the cable-line took us to the Blue Mouth, where we
+embarked in the King's yacht, The Lady, which took us across the
+Adriatic at a pace which I had hitherto considered impossible.  The
+King and Queen came to the landing to see us off.  They stood
+together at the right-hand side of the red-carpeted gangway, and
+shook hands with each guest as he went on board.  The instant the
+last passenger had stepped on deck the gangway was withdrawn.  The
+Lord High Admiral, who stood on the bridge, raised his hand, and we
+swept towards the mouth of the gulf.  Of course, all hats were off,
+and we cheered frantically.  I can truly say that if King Rupert and
+Queen Teuta should ever wish to found in the Blue Mountains a colony
+of diplomatists and journalists, those who were their guests on this
+great occasion will volunteer to a man.  I think old Hempetch, who is
+the doyen of English-speaking journalists, voiced our sentiments when
+he said:
+
+"May God bless them and theirs with every grace and happiness, and
+send prosperity to the Land and the rule!"  I think the King and
+Queen heard us cheer, they turned to look at our flying ship again.
+
+
+
+BOOK IX:  BALKA
+
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued (Longe Intervallo).
+February 10, 1908.
+
+It is so long since I even thought of this journal that I hardly know
+where to begin.  I always heard that a married man is a pretty busy
+man; but since I became one, though it is a new life to me, and of a
+happiness undreamt of, I KNOW what that life is.  But I had no idea
+that this King business was anything like what it is.  Why, it never
+leaves me a moment at all to myself--or, what is worse, to Teuta.  If
+people who condemn Kings had only a single month of my life in that
+capacity, they would form an opinion different from that which they
+hold.  It might be useful to have a Professor of Kingship in the
+Anarchists' College--whenever it is founded!
+
+Everything has gone on well with us, I am glad to say.  Teuta is in
+splendid health, though she has--but only very lately--practically
+given up going on her own aeroplane.  It was, I know, a great
+sacrifice to make, just as she had become an expert at it.  They say
+here that she is one of the best drivers in the Blue Mountains--and
+that is in the world, for we have made that form of movement our own.
+Ever since we found the pitch-blende pockets in the Great Tunnel, and
+discovered the simple process of extracting the radium from it, we
+have gone on by leaps and bounds.  When first Teuta told me she would
+"aero" no more for a while, I thought she was wise, and backed her up
+in it:  for driving an aeroplane is trying work and hard on the
+nerves.  I only learned then the reason for her caution--the usual
+one of a young wife.  That was three months ago, and only this
+morning she told me she would not go sailing in the air, even with
+me, till she could do so "without risk"--she did not mean risk to
+herself.  Aunt Janet knew what she meant, and counselled her strongly
+to stick to her resolution.  So for the next few months I am to do my
+air-sailing alone.
+
+The public works which we began immediately after the Coronation are
+going strong.  We began at the very beginning on an elaborate system.
+The first thing was to adequately fortify the Blue Mouth.  Whilst the
+fortifications were being constructed we kept all the warships in the
+gulf.  But when the point of safety was reached, we made the ships do
+sentry-go along the coast, whilst we trained men for service at sea.
+It is our plan to take by degrees all the young men and teach them
+this wise, so that at the end the whole population shall be trained
+for sea as well as for land.  And as we are teaching them the airship
+service, too, they will be at home in all the elements--except fire,
+of course, though if that should become a necessity, we shall tackle
+it too!
+
+We started the Great Tunnel at the farthest inland point of the Blue
+Mouth, and ran it due east at an angle of 45 degrees, so that, when
+complete, it would go right through the first line of hills, coming
+out on the plateau Plazac.  The plateau is not very wide--half a mile
+at most--and the second tunnel begins on the eastern side of it.
+This new tunnel is at a smaller angle, as it has to pierce the second
+hill--a mountain this time.  When it comes out on the east side of
+that, it will tap the real productive belt.  Here it is that our
+hardwood-trees are finest, and where the greatest mineral deposits
+are found.  This plateau is of enormous length, and runs north arid
+south round the great bulk of the central mountain, so that in time,
+when we put up a circular railway, we can bring, at a merely nominal
+cost, all sorts of material up or down.  It is on this level that we
+have built the great factories for war material.  We are tunnelling
+into the mountains, where are the great deposits of coal.  We run the
+trucks in and out on the level, and can get perfect ventilation with
+little cost or labour.  Already we are mining all the coal which we
+consume within our own confines, and we can, if we wish, within a
+year export largely.  The great slopes of these tunnels give us the
+necessary aid of specific gravity, and as we carry an endless water-
+supply in great tubes that way also, we can do whatever we wish by
+hydraulic power.  As one by one the European and Asiatic nations
+began to reduce their war preparations, we took over their disbanded
+workmen though our agents, so that already we have a productive staff
+of skilled workmen larger than anywhere else in the world.  I think
+myself that we were fortunate in being able to get ahead so fast with
+our preparations for war manufacture, for if some of the "Great
+Powers," as they call themselves, knew the measure of our present
+production, they would immediately try to take active measures
+against us.  In such case we should have to fight them, which would
+delay us.  But if we can have another year untroubled, we shall, so
+far as war material is concerned, be able to defy any nation in the
+world.  And if the time may only come peacefully till we have our
+buildings and machinery complete, we can prepare war-stores and
+implements for the whole Balkan nations.  And then--But that is a
+dream.  We shall know in good time.
+
+In the meantime all goes well.  The cannon foundries are built and
+active.  We are already beginning to turn out finished work.  Of
+course, our first guns are not very large, but they are good.  The
+big guns, and especially siege-guns, will come later.  And when the
+great extensions are complete, and the boring and wire-winding
+machines are in working order, we can go merrily on.  I suppose that
+by that time the whole of the upper plateau will be like a
+manufacturing town--at any rate, we have plenty of raw material to
+hand.  The haematite mines seem to be inexhaustible, and as the
+raising of the ore is cheap and easy by means of our extraordinary
+water-power, and as coal comes down to the plateau by its own gravity
+on the cable-line, we have natural advantages which exist hardly
+anywhere else in the world--certainly not all together, as here.
+That bird's eye view of the Blue Mouth which we had from the
+aeroplane when Teuta saw that vision of the future has not been in
+vain.  The aeroplane works are having a splendid output.  The
+aeroplane is a large and visible product; there is no mistaking when
+it is there!  We have already a large and respectable aerial fleet.
+The factories for explosives are, of course, far away in bare
+valleys, where accidental effects are minimized.  So, too, are the
+radium works, wherein unknown dangers may lurk.  The turbines in the
+tunnel give us all the power we want at present, and, later on, when
+the new tunnel, which we call the "water tunnel," which is already
+begun, is complete, the available power will be immense.  All these
+works are bringing up our shipping, and we are in great hopes for the
+future.
+
+So much for our material prosperity.  But with it comes a larger life
+and greater hopes.  The stress of organizing and founding these great
+works is practically over.  As they are not only self-supporting, but
+largely productive, all anxiety in the way of national expenditure is
+minimized.  And, more than all, I am able to give my unhampered
+attention to those matters of even more than national importance on
+which the ultimate development, if not the immediate strength, of our
+country must depend.
+
+I am well into the subject of a great Balkan Federation.  This, it
+turns out, has for long been the dream of Teuta's life, as also that
+of the present Archimandrite of Plazac, her father, who, since I last
+touched this journal, having taken on himself a Holy Life, was, by
+will of the Church, the Monks, and the People, appointed to that
+great office on the retirement of Petrof Vlastimir.
+
+Such a Federation had long been in the air.  For myself, I had seen
+its inevitableness from the first.  The modern aggressions of the
+Dual Nation, interpreted by her past history with regard to Italy,
+pointed towards the necessity of such a protective measure.  And now,
+when Servia and Bulgaria were used as blinds to cover her real
+movements to incorporate with herself as established the provinces,
+once Turkish, which had been entrusted to her temporary protection by
+the Treaty of Berlin; when it would seem that Montenegro was to be
+deprived for all time of the hope of regaining the Bocche di Cattaro,
+which she had a century ago won, and held at the point of the sword,
+until a Great Power had, under a wrong conviction, handed it over to
+her neighbouring Goliath; when the Sandjack of Novi-Bazar was
+threatened with the fate which seemed to have already overtaken
+Bosnia and Herzegovina; when gallant little Montenegro was already
+shut out from the sea by the octopus-like grip of Dalmatia crouching
+along her western shore; when Turkey was dwindling down to almost
+ineptitude; when Greece was almost a byword, and when Albania as a
+nation--though still nominally subject--was of such unimpaired
+virility that there were great possibilities of her future, it was
+imperative that something must happen if the Balkan race was not to
+be devoured piecemeal by her northern neighbours.  To the end of
+ultimate protection I found most of them willing to make defensive
+alliance.
+
+And as the true defence consists in judicious attack, I have no doubt
+that an alliance so based must ultimately become one for all
+purposes.  Albania was the most difficult to win to the scheme, as
+her own complications with her suzerain, combined with the pride and
+suspiciousness of her people, made approach a matter of extreme
+caution.  It was only possible when I could induce her rulers to see
+that, no matter how great her pride and valour, the magnitude of
+northern advance, if unchecked, must ultimately overwhelm her.
+
+I own that this map-making was nervous work, for I could not shut my
+eyes to the fact that German lust of enlargement lay behind Austria's
+advance.  At and before that time expansion was the dominant idea of
+the three Great Powers of Central Europe.  Russia went eastward,
+hoping to gather to herself the rich north-eastern provinces of
+China, till ultimately she should dominate the whole of Northern
+Europe and Asia from the Gulf of Finland to the Yellow Sea.  Germany
+wished to link the North Sea to the Mediterranean by her own
+territory, and thus stand as a flawless barrier across Europe from
+north to south.
+
+When Nature should have terminated the headship of the Empire-
+Kingdom, she, as natural heir, would creep southward through the
+German-speaking provinces.  Thus Austria, of course kept in ignorance
+of her neighbour's ultimate aims, had to extend towards the south.
+She had been barred in her western movement by the rise of the
+Irredentist party in Italy, and consequently had to withdraw behind
+the frontiers of Carinthia, Carniola, and Istria.
+
+My own dream of the new map was to make "Balka"--the Balkan
+Federation--take in ultimately all south of a line drawn from the
+Isle of Serpents to Aquileia.  There would--must--be difficulties in
+the carrying out of such a scheme.  Of course, it involved Austria
+giving up Dalmatia, Istria, and Sclavonia, as well as a part of
+Croatia and the Hungarian Banat.  On the contrary, she might look for
+centuries of peace in the south.  But it would make for peace so
+strongly that each of the States impinging on it would find it worth
+while to make a considerable sacrifice to have it effected.  To its
+own integers it would offer a lasting settlement of interests which
+at present conflicted, and a share in a new world-power.  Each of
+these integers would be absolutely self-governing and independent,
+being only united for purposes of mutual good.  I did not despair
+that even Turkey and Greece, recognizing that benefit and safety
+would ensue without the destruction or even minimizing of
+individuality, would, sooner or later, come into the Federation.  The
+matter is already so far advanced that within a month the various
+rulers of the States involved are to have a secret and informal
+meeting.  Doubtless some larger plan and further action will be then
+evolved.  It will be an anxious time for all in this zone--and
+outside it--till this matter is all settled.  In any case, the
+manufacture of war material will go on until it is settled, one way
+or another.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+March 6, 1908.
+
+I breathe more freely.  The meeting has taken place here at
+Vissarion.  Nominal cause of meeting:  a hunting-party in the Blue
+Mountains.  Not any formal affair.  Not a Chancellor or Secretary of
+State or Diplomatist of any sort present.  All headquarters.  It was,
+after all, a real hunting-party.  Good sportsmen, plenty of game,
+lots of beaters, everything organized properly, and an effective
+tally of results.  I think we all enjoyed ourselves in the matter of
+sport; and as the political result was absolute unanimity of purpose
+and intention, there could be no possible cause of complaint.
+
+So it is all decided.  Everything is pacific.  There is not a
+suggestion even of war, revolt, or conflicting purpose of any kind.
+We all go on exactly as we are doing for another year, pursuing our
+own individual objects, just as at present.  But we are all to see
+that in our own households order prevails.  All that is supposed to
+be effective is to be kept in good working order, and whatever is, at
+present, not adequate to possibilities is to be made so.  This is all
+simply protective and defensive.  We understand each other.  But if
+any hulking stranger should undertake to interfere in our domestic
+concerns, we shall all unite on the instant to keep things as we wish
+them to remain.  We shall be ready.  Alfred's maxim of Peace shall be
+once more exemplified.  In the meantime the factories shall work
+overtime in our own mountains, and the output shall be for the
+general good of our special community--the bill to be settled
+afterwards amicably.  There can hardly be any difference of opinion
+about that, as the others will be the consumers of our surplus
+products.  We are the producers, who produce for ourselves first, and
+then for the limited market of those within the Ring.  As we
+undertake to guard our own frontiers--sea and land--and are able to
+do so, the goods are to be warehoused in the Blue Mountains until
+required--if at all--for participation in the markets of the world,
+and especially in the European market.  If all goes well and the
+markets are inactive, the goods shall be duly delivered to the
+purchasers as arranged.
+
+So much for the purely mercantile aspect.
+
+
+THE VOIVODIN JANET MACKELPIE'S NOTES.
+May 21, 1908.
+
+As Rupert began to neglect his Journal when he was made a King, so,
+too, I find in myself a tendency to leave writing to other people.
+But one thing I shall not be content to leave to others--little
+Rupert.  The baby of Rupert and Teuta is much too precious a thing to
+be spoken of except with love, quite independent of the fact that he
+will be, in natural course, a King!  So I have promised Teuta that
+whatever shall be put into this record of the first King of the Sent
+Leger Dynasty relating to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince shall
+only appear in either her hand or my own.  And she has deputed the
+matter to me.
+
+Our dear little Prince arrived punctually and in perfect condition.
+The angels that carried him evidently took the greatest care of him,
+and before they left him they gave him dower of all their best.  He
+is a dear!  Like both his father and his mother, and that says
+everything.  My own private opinion is that he is a born King!  He
+does not know what fear is, and he thinks more of everyone else than
+he does of his dear little self.  And if those things do not show a
+truly royal nature, I do not know what does . . .
+
+Teuta has read this.  She held up a warning finger, and said:
+
+"Aunt Janet dear, that is all true.  He is a dear, and a King, and an
+angel!  But we mustn't have too much about him just yet.  This book
+is to be about Rupert.  So our little man can only be what we shall
+call a corollary."  And so it is.
+
+I should mention here that the book is Teuta's idea.  Before little
+Rupert came she controlled herself wonderfully, doing only what was
+thought best for her under the circumstances.  As I could see that it
+would be a help for her to have some quiet occupation which would
+interest her without tiring her, I looked up (with his permission, of
+course) all Rupert's old letters and diaries, and journals and
+reports--all that I had kept for him during his absences on his
+adventures.  At first I was a little afraid they might harm her, for
+at times she got so excited over some things that I had to caution
+her.  Here again came in her wonderful self-control.  I think the
+most soothing argument I used with her was to point out that the dear
+boy had come through all the dangers safely, and was actually with
+us, stronger and nobler than ever.
+
+After we had read over together the whole matter several times--for
+it was practically new to me too, and I got nearly as excited as she
+was, though I have known him so much longer--we came to the
+conclusion that this particular volume would have to be of selected
+matter.  There is enough of Rupert's work to make a lot of volumes
+and we have an ambitious literary project of some day publishing an
+edition de luxe of his whole collected works.  It will be a rare
+showing amongst the works of Kings.  But this is to be all about
+himself, so that in the future it may serve as a sort of backbone of
+his personal history.
+
+By-and-by we came to a part when we had to ask him questions; and he
+was so interested in Teuta's work--he is really bound up body and
+soul in his beautiful wife, and no wonder--that we had to take him
+into full confidence.  He promised he would help us all he could by
+giving us the use of his later journals, and such letters and papers
+as he had kept privately.  He said he would make one condition--I use
+his own words:  "As you two dear women are to be my editors, you must
+promise to put in everything exactly as I wrote it.  It will not do
+to have any fake about this.  I do not wish anything foolish or
+egotistical toned down out of affection for me.  It was all written
+in sincerity, and if I had faults, they must not be hidden.  If it is
+to be history, it must be true history, even if it gives you and me
+or any of us away."
+
+So we promised.
+
+He also said that, as Sir Edward Bingham Trent, Bart.--as he is now--
+was sure to have some matter which we should like, he would write and
+ask him to send such to us.  He also said that Mr. Ernest Roger
+Halbard Melton, of Humcroft, Salop (he always gives this name and
+address in full, which is his way of showing contempt), would be sure
+to have some relevant matter, and that he would have him written to
+on the subject.  This he did.  The Chancellor wrote him in his most
+grandiloquent style.   Mr. E. R. H. Melton, of H., S., replied by
+return post.  His letter is a document which speaks for itself:
+
+
+HUMCROFT, SALOP,
+May 30, 1908.
+
+MY DEAR COUSIN KING RUPERT,
+
+I am honoured by the request made on your behalf by the Lord High
+Chancellor of your kingdom that I should make a literary contribution
+to the volume which my cousin, Queen Teuta, is, with the help of your
+former governess, Miss MacKelpie, compiling.  I am willing to do so,
+as you naturally wish to have in that work some contemporary record
+made by the Head of the House of Melton, with which you are
+connected, though only on the distaff side.  It is a natural ambition
+enough, even on the part of a barbarian--or perhaps semi-barbarian--
+King, and far be it from me, as Head of the House, to deny you such a
+coveted privilege.  Perhaps you may not know that I am now Head of
+the House; my father died three days ago.  I offered my mother the
+use of the Dower House--to the incumbency of which, indeed, she is
+entitled by her marriage settlement.  But she preferred to go to live
+at her seat, Carfax, in Kent.  She went this morning after the
+funeral.  In letting you have the use of my manuscript I make only
+one stipulation, but that I expect to be rigidly adhered to.  It is
+that all that I have written be put in the book in extenso.  I do not
+wish any record of mine to be garbled to suit other ends than those
+ostensible, or whatever may be to the honour of myself or my House to
+be burked.  I dare say you have noticed, my dear Rupert, that the
+compilers of family histories often, through jealousy, alter matter
+that they are allowed to use so as to suit their own purpose or
+minister to their own vanity.  I think it right to tell you that I
+have had a certified copy made by Petter and Galpin, the law
+stationers, so that I shall be able to verify whether my stipulation
+has been honourably observed.  I am having the book, which is
+naturally valuable, carefully packed, and shall have it forwarded to
+Sir Edward Bingham Trent, Baronet (which he now is--Heaven save the
+mark!), the Attorney.  Please see that he returns it to me, and in
+proper order.  He is not to publish for himself anything in it about
+him.  A man of that class is apt to advertise the fact of anyone of
+distinction taking any notice of him.  I would bring out the MS. to
+you myself, and stay for a while with you for some sport, only your
+lot--subjects I suppose you call them!--are such bounders that a
+gentleman's life is hardly safe amongst them.  I never met anyone who
+had so poor an appreciation of a joke as they have.  By the way, how
+is Teuta?  She is one of them.  I heard all about the hatching
+business.  I hope the kid is all right.  This is only a word in your
+ear, so don't get cocky, old son.  I am open to a godfathership.
+Think of that, Hedda!  Of course, if the other godfather and the
+godmother are up to the mark; I don't want to have to boost up the
+whole lot!  Savvy?  Kiss Teuta and the kid for me.  I must have the
+boy over here for a bit later on--when he is presentable, and has
+learned not to be a nuisance.  It will be good for him to see
+something of a real first-class English country house like Humcroft.
+To a person only accustomed to rough ways and meagre living its
+luxury will make a memory which will serve in time as an example to
+be aimed at.  I shall write again soon.  Don't hesitate to ask any
+favour which I may be able to confer on you.  So long!
+
+Your affectionate cousin,
+
+ERNEST ROGER HALBARD MELTON.
+
+
+Extract from Letter from E. Bingham Trent to Queen Teuta of the Blue
+Mountains.
+
+. . . So I thought the best way to serve that appalling cad would be
+to take him at his word, and put in his literary contribution in
+full.  I have had made and attested a copy of his "Record," as he
+calls it, so as to save you trouble.  But I send the book itself,
+because I am afraid that unless you see his words in his own writing,
+you will not believe that he or anyone else ever penned seriously a
+document so incriminating.  I am sure he must have forgotten what he
+had written, for even such a dull dog as he is could never have made
+public such a thing knowingly.
+
+Such a nature has its revenges on itself.  In this case the officers
+of revenge are his ipsissima verba.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+February 1, 1909.
+
+All is now well in train.  When the Czar of Russia, on being asked by
+the Sclavs (as was meet) to be the referee in the "Balkan
+Settlement," declined on the ground that he was himself by inference
+an interested party, it was unanimously agreed by the Balkan rulers
+that the Western King should be asked to arbitrate, as all concerned
+had perfect confidence in his wisdom, as well as his justice.  To
+their wish he graciously assented.  The matter has now been for more
+than six months in his hands, and he has taken endless trouble to
+obtain full information.  He has now informed us through his
+Chancellor that his decision is almost ready, and will be
+communicated as soon as possible.
+
+We have another hunting-party at Vissarion next week.  Teuta is
+looking forward to it with extraordinary interest.  She hopes then to
+present to our brothers of the Balkans our little son, and she is
+eager to know if they endorse her mother-approval of him.
+
+
+RUPERT'S JOURNAL--Continued.
+April 15, 1909.
+
+The arbitrator's decision has been communicated to us through the
+Chancellor of the Western King, who brought it to us himself as a
+special act of friendliness.  It met with the enthusiastic approval
+of all.  The Premier remained with us during the progress of the
+hunting-party, which was one of the most joyous occasions ever known.
+We are all of good heart, for the future of the Balkan races is now
+assured.  The strife--internal and external--of a thousand years has
+ceased, and we look with hope for a long and happy time.  The
+Chancellor brought messages of grace and courtliness and friendliness
+to all.  And when I, as spokesman of the party, asked him if we might
+convey a request of His Majesty that he would honour us by attending
+the ceremony of making known formally the Balkan Settlement, he
+answered that the King had authorized him to say that he would, if
+such were wished by us, gladly come; and that if he should come, he
+would attend with a fleet as an escort.  The Chancellor also told me
+from himself that it might be possible to have other nationalities
+represented on such a great occasion by Ambassadors and even fleets,
+though the monarchs themselves might not be able to attend.  He
+hinted that it might be well if I put the matter in train.  (He
+evidently took it for granted that, though I was only one of several,
+the matter rested with me--possibly he chose me as the one to whom to
+make the confidence, as I was born a stranger.)  As we talked it
+over, he grew more enthusiastic, and finally said that, as the King
+was taking the lead, doubtless all the nations of the earth friendly
+to him would like to take a part in the ceremony.  So it is likely to
+turn out practically an international ceremony of a unique kind.
+Teuta will love it, and we shall all do what we can.
+
+
+JANET MACKELPIE'S NOTES.
+June 1, 1909.
+
+Our dear Teuta is full of the forthcoming celebration of the Balkan
+Federation, which is to take place this day month, although I must
+say, for myself, that the ceremony is attaining to such dimensions
+that I am beginning to have a sort of vague fear of some kind.  It
+almost seems uncanny.  Rupert is working unceasingly--has been for
+some time.  For weeks past he seems to have been out day and night on
+his aeroplane, going through and round over the country arranging
+matters, and seeing for himself that what has been arranged is being
+done.  Uncle Colin is always about, too, and so is Admiral Rooke.
+But now Teuta is beginning to go with Rupert.  That girl is simply
+fearless--just like Rupert.  And they both seem anxious that little
+Rupert shall be the same.  Indeed, he is the same.  A few mornings
+ago Rupert and Teuta were about to start just after dawn from the top
+of the Castle.  Little Rupert was there--he is always awake early and
+as bright as a bee.  I was holding him in my arms, and when his
+mother leant over to kiss him good-bye, he held out his arms to her
+in a way that said as plainly as if he had spoken, "Take me with
+you."
+
+She looked appealingly at Rupert, who nodded, and said:  "All right.
+Take him, darling.  He will have to learn some day, and the sooner
+the better."  The baby, looking eagerly from one to the other with
+the same questioning in his eyes as there is sometimes in the eyes of
+a kitten or a puppy--but, of course, with an eager soul behind it--
+saw that he was going, and almost leaped into his mother's arms.  I
+think she had expected him to come, for she took a little leather
+dress from Margareta, his nurse, and, flushing with pride, began to
+wrap him in it.  When Teuta, holding him in her arms, stepped on the
+aeroplane, and took her place in the centre behind Rupert, the young
+men of the Crown Prince's Guard raised a cheer, amid which Rupert
+pulled the levers, and they glided off into the dawn.
+
+The Crown Prince's Guard was established by the mountaineers
+themselves the day of his birth.  Ten of the biggest and most
+powerful and cleverest young men of the nation were chosen, and were
+sworn in with a very impressive ceremony to guard the young Prince.
+They were to so arrange and order themselves and matters generally
+that two at least of them should always have him, or the place in
+which he was, within their sight.  They all vowed that the last of
+their lives should go before harm came to him.  Of course, Teuta
+understood, and so did Rupert.  And these young men are the persons
+most privileged in the whole Castle.  They are dear boys, every one
+of them, and we are all fond of them and respect them.  They simply
+idolize the baby.
+
+Ever since that morning little Rupert has, unless it is at a time
+appointed for his sleeping, gone in his mother's arms.  I think in
+any other place there would be some State remonstrance at the whole
+royal family being at once and together in a dangerous position, but
+in the Blue Mountains danger and fear are not thought of--indeed,
+they can hardly be in their terminology.  And I really think the
+child enjoys it even more than his parents.  He is just like a little
+bird that has found the use of his wings.  Bless him!
+
+I find that even I have to study Court ritual a little.  So many
+nationalities are to be represented at the ceremony of the "Balkan
+Settlement," and so many Kings and Princes and notabilities of all
+kinds are coming, that we must all take care not to make any
+mistakes.  The Press alone would drive anyone silly.  Rupert and
+Teuta come and sit with me sometimes in the evening when we are all
+too tired to work, and they rest themselves by talking matters over.
+Rupert says that there will be over five hundred reporters, and that
+the applications for permission are coming in so fast that there may
+be a thousand when the day comes.  Last night he stopped in the
+middle of speaking of it, and said:
+
+"I have an inspiration!  Fancy a thousand journalists,--each wanting
+to get ahead of the rest, and all willing to invoke the Powers of
+Evil for exclusive information!  The only man to look after this
+department is Rooke.  He knows how to deal with men, and as we have
+already a large staff to look after the journalistic guests, he can
+be at the head, and appoint his own deputies to act for him.
+Somewhere and sometime the keeping the peace will be a matter of
+nerve and resolution, and Rooke is the man for the job."
+
+We were all concerned about one thing, naturally important in the
+eyes of a woman:  What robes was Teuta to wear?  In the old days,
+when there were Kings and Queens, they doubtless wore something
+gorgeous or impressive; but whatever it was that they wore has gone
+to dust centuries ago, and there were no illustrated papers in those
+primitive days.  Teuta was talking to me eagerly, with her dear
+beautiful brows all wrinkled, when Rupert who was reading a bulky
+document of some kind, looked up and said:
+
+"Of course, darling, you will wear your Shroud?"
+
+"Capital!" she said, clapping her hands like a joyous child.  "The
+very thing, and our people will like it."
+
+I own that for a moment I was dismayed.  It was a horrible test of a
+woman's love and devotion.  At a time when she was entertaining Kings
+and notabilities in her own house--and be sure they would all be
+decked in their finery--to have to appear in such a garment!  A plain
+thing with nothing even pretty, let alone gorgeous, about it!  I
+expressed my views to Rupert, for I feared that Teuta might be
+disappointed, though she might not care to say so; but before he
+could say a word Teuta answered:
+
+"Oh, thank you so much, dear!  I should love that above everything,
+but I did not like to suggest it, lest you should think me arrogant
+or presuming; for, indeed, Rupert, I am very proud of it, and of the
+way our people look on it."
+
+"Why not?" said Rupert, in his direct way.  "It is a thing for us all
+to be proud of; the nation has already adopted it as a national
+emblem--our emblem of courage and devotion and patriotism, which will
+always, I hope, be treasured beyond price by the men and women of our
+Dynasty, the Nation, that is--of the Nation that is to be."
+
+Later on in the evening we had a strange endorsement of the national
+will.  A "People's Deputation" of mountaineers, without any official
+notice or introduction, arrived at the Castle late in the evening in
+the manner established by Rupert's "Proclamation of Freedom," wherein
+all citizens were entitled to send a deputation to the King, at will
+and in private, on any subject of State importance.  This deputation
+was composed of seventeen men, one selected from each political
+section, so that the body as a whole represented the entire nation.
+They were of all sorts of social rank and all degrees of fortune, but
+they were mainly "of the people."  They spoke hesitatingly--possibly
+because Teuta, or even because I, was present--but with a manifest
+earnestness.  They made but one request--that the Queen should, on
+the great occasion of the Balkan Federation, wear as robes of State
+the Shroud that they loved to see her in.  The spokesman, addressing
+the Queen, said in tones of rugged eloquence:
+
+"This is a matter, Your Majesty, that the women naturally have a say
+in, so we have, of course, consulted them.  They have discussed the
+matter by themselves, and then with us, and they are agreed without a
+flaw that it will be good for the Nation and for Womankind that you
+do this thing.  You have shown to them, and to the world at large,
+what women should do, what they can do, and they want to make, in
+memory of your great act, the Shroud a garment of pride and honour
+for women who have deserved well of their country.  In the future it
+can be a garment to be worn only by privileged women who have earned
+the right.  But they hope, and we hope with them, that on this
+occasion of our Nation taking the lead before the eyes of the world,
+all our women may wear it on that day as a means of showing overtly
+their willingness to do their duty, even to the death.  And so"--here
+he turned to the King--"Rupert, we trust that Her Majesty Queen Teuta
+will understand that in doing as the women of the Blue Mountains
+wish, she will bind afresh to the Queen the loyal devotion which she
+won from them as Voivodin.  Henceforth and for all time the Shroud
+shall be a dress of honour in our Land."
+
+Teuta looked all ablaze with love and pride and devotion.  Stars in
+her eyes shone like white fire as she assured them of the granting of
+their request.  She finished her little speech:
+
+"I feared that if I carried out my own wish, it might look arrogant,
+but Rupert has expressed the same wish, and now I feel that I am free
+to wear that dress which brought me to you and to Rupert"--here she
+beamed on him, and took his hand--"fortified as I am by your wishes
+and the command of my lord the King."
+
+Rupert took her in his arms and kissed her fondly before them all,
+saying:
+
+"Tell your wives, my brothers, and the rest of the Blue Mountain
+women, that that is the answer of the husband who loves and honours
+his wife.  All the world shall see at the ceremony of the Federation
+of Balka that we men love and honour the women who are loyal and can
+die for duty.  And, men of the Blue Mountains, some day before long
+we shall organize that great idea, and make it a permanent thing--
+that the Order of the Shroud is the highest guerdon that a noble-
+hearted woman can wear."
+
+Teuta disappeared for a few moments, and came back with the Crown
+Prince in her arms.  Everyone present asked to be allowed to kiss
+him, which they did kneeling.
+
+
+THE FEDERATION BALKA.
+By the Correspondents of "Free America."
+
+The Editors of Free America have thought it well to put in
+consecutive order the reports and descriptions of their Special
+Correspondents, of whom there were present no less than eight.  Not a
+word they wrote is omitted, but the various parts of their reports
+are placed in different order, so that, whilst nothing which any of
+them recorded is left out, the reader may be able to follow the
+proceedings from the various points of view of the writers who had
+the most favourable opportunity of moment.  In so large an assemblage
+of journalists--there were present over a thousand--they could not
+all be present in one place; so our men, in consultation amongst
+themselves, arranged to scatter, so as to cover the whole proceeding
+from the various "coigns of vantage," using their skill and
+experience in selecting these points.  One was situated on the summit
+of the steel-clad tower in the entrance to the Blue Mouth; another on
+the "Press-boat," which was moored alongside King Rupert's armoured
+yacht, The Lady, whereon were gathered the various Kings and rulers
+of the Balkan States, all of whom were in the Federation; another was
+in a swift torpedo-boat, with a roving commission to cruise round the
+harbour as desired; another took his place on the top of the great
+mountain which overlooks Plazac, and so had a bird's-eye view of the
+whole scene of operations; two others were on the forts to right and
+left of the Blue Mouth; another was posted at the entrance to the
+Great Tunnel which runs from the water level right up through the
+mountains to the plateau, where the mines and factories are situate;
+another had the privilege of a place on an aeroplane, which went
+everywhere and saw everything.  This aeroplane was driven by an old
+Special Correspondent of Free America, who had been a chum of our
+Special in the Japanese and Russian War, and who has taken service on
+the Blue Mountain Official Gazette.
+
+
+PLAZAC,
+June 30, 1909.
+
+Two days before the time appointed for the ceremony the guests of the
+Land of the Blue Mountains began to arrive.  The earlier comers were
+mostly the journalists who had come from almost over the whole
+inhabited world.  King Rupert, who does things well, had made a camp
+for their exclusive use.  There was a separate tent for each--of
+course, a small one, as there were over a thousand journalists--but
+there were big tents for general use scattered about--refectories,
+reading and writing rooms, a library, idle rooms for rest, etc.  In
+the rooms for reading and writing, which were the work-rooms for
+general use, were newspapers, the latest attainable from all over the
+world, Blue-Books, guides, directories, and all such aids to work as
+forethought could arrange.  There was for this special service a body
+of some hundreds of capable servants in special dress and bearing
+identification numbers--in fact, King Rupert "did us fine," to use a
+slang phrase of pregnant meaning.
+
+There were other camps for special service, all of them well
+arranged, and with plenty of facility for transport.  Each of the
+Federating Monarchs had a camp of his own, in which he had erected a
+magnificent pavilion.  For the Western King, who had acted as
+Arbitrator in the matter of the Federation, a veritable palace had
+been built by King Rupert--a sort of Aladdin's palace it must have
+been, for only a few weeks ago the place it occupied was, I was told,
+only primeval wilderness.  King Rupert and his Queen, Teuta, had a
+pavilion like the rest of the Federators of Balka, but infinitely
+more modest, both in size and adornments.
+
+Everywhere were guards of the Blue Mountains, armed only with the
+"handjar," which is the national weapon.  They wore the national
+dress, but so arranged in colour and accoutrement that the general
+air of uniformity took the place of a rigid uniform.  There must have
+been at least seventy or eighty thousand of them.
+
+The first day was one of investigation of details by the visitors.
+During the second day the retinues of the great Federators came.
+Some of these retinues were vast.  For instance, the Soldan (though
+only just become a Federator) sent of one kind or another more than a
+thousand men.  A brave show they made, for they are fine men, and
+drilled to perfection.  As they swaggered along, singly or in mass,
+with their gay jackets and baggy trousers, their helmets surmounted
+by the golden crescent, they looked a foe not to be despised.
+Landreck Martin, the Nestor of journalists, said to me, as we stood
+together looking at them:
+
+"To-day we witness a new departure in Blue Mountain history.  This is
+the first occasion for a thousand years that so large a Turkish body
+has entered the Blue Mountains with a reasonable prospect of ever
+getting out again."
+
+July 1, 1909.
+
+To-day, the day appointed for the ceremony, was auspiciously fine,
+even for the Blue Mountains, where at this time of year the weather
+is nearly always fine.  They are early folk in the Blue Mountains,
+but to-day things began to hum before daybreak.  There were bugle-
+calls all over the place--everything here is arranged by calls of
+musical instruments--trumpets, or bugles, or drums (if, indeed, the
+drum can be called a musical instrument)--or by lights, if it be
+after dark.  We journalists were all ready; coffee and bread-and-
+butter had been thoughtfully served early in our sleeping-tents, and
+an elaborate breakfast was going on all the time in the refectory
+pavilions.  We had a preliminary look round, and then there was a
+sort of general pause for breakfast.  We took advantage of it, and
+attacked the sumptuous--indeed, memorable--meal which was served for
+us.
+
+The ceremony was to commence at noon, but at ten o'clock the whole
+place was astir--not merely beginning to move, but actually moving;
+everybody taking their places for the great ceremony.  As noon drew
+near, the excitement was intense and prolonged.  One by one the
+various signatories to the Federation began to assemble.  They all
+came by sea; such of them as had sea-boards of their own having their
+fleets around them.  Such as had no fleets of their own were attended
+by at least one of the Blue Mountain ironclads.  And I am bound to
+say that I never in my life saw more dangerous craft than these
+little warships of King Rupert of the Blue Mountains.  As they
+entered the Blue Mouth each ship took her appointed station, those
+which carried the signatories being close together in an isolated
+group in a little bay almost surrounded by high cliffs in the
+farthest recesses of the mighty harbour.  King Rupert's armoured
+yacht all the time lay close inshore, hard by the mouth of the Great
+Tunnel which runs straight into the mountain from a wide plateau,
+partly natural rock, partly built up with mighty blocks of stone.
+Here it is, I am told, that the inland products are brought down to
+the modern town of Plazac.  Just as the clocks were chiming the half-
+hour before noon this yacht glided out into the expanse of the"
+Mouth."  Behind her came twelve great barges, royally decked, and
+draped each in the colour of the signatory nation.  On each of these
+the ruler entered with his guard, and was carried to Rupert's yacht,
+he going on the bridge, whilst his suite remained on the lower deck.
+In the meantime whole fleets had been appearing on the southern
+horizon; the nations were sending their maritime quota to the
+christening of "Balka"!  In such wonderful order as can only be seen
+with squadrons of fighting ships, the mighty throng swept into the
+Blue Mouth, and took up their stations in groups.  The only armament
+of a Great Power now missing was that of the Western King.  But there
+was time.  Indeed, as the crowd everywhere began to look at their
+watches a long line of ships began to spread up northward from the
+Italian coast.  They came at great speed--nearly twenty knots.  It
+was a really wonderful sight--fifty of the finest ships in the world;
+the very latest expression of naval giants, each seemingly typical of
+its class--Dreadnoughts, cruisers, destroyers.  They came in a wedge,
+with the King's yacht flying the Royal Standard the apex.  Every ship
+of the squadron bore a red ensign long enough to float from the
+masthead to the water.  From the armoured tower in the waterway one
+could see the myriad of faces--white stars on both land and sea--for
+the great harbour was now alive with ships and each and all of them
+alive with men.
+
+Suddenly, without any direct cause, the white masses became eclipsed-
+-everyone had turned round, and was looking the other way.  I looked
+across the bay and up the mountain behind--a mighty mountain, whose
+slopes run up to the very sky, ridge after ridge seeming like itself
+a mountain.  Far away on the very top the standard of the Blue
+Mountains was run up on a mighty Flagstaff which seemed like a shaft
+of light.  It was two hundred feet high, and painted white, and as at
+the distance the steel stays were invisible, it towered up in lonely
+grandeur.  At its foot was a dark mass grouped behind a white space,
+which I could not make out till I used my field-glasses.
+
+Then I knew it was King Rupert and the Queen in the midst of a group
+of mountaineers.  They were on the aero station behind the platform
+of the aero, which seemed to shine--shine, not glitter--as though it
+were overlaid with plates of gold.
+
+Again the faces looked west.  The Western Squadron was drawing near
+to the entrance of the Blue Mouth.  On the bridge of the yacht stood
+the Western King in uniform of an Admiral, and by him his Queen in a
+dress of royal purple, splendid with gold.  Another glance at the
+mountain-top showed that it had seemed to become alive.  A whole park
+of artillery seemed to have suddenly sprung to life, round each its
+crew ready for action.  Amongst the group at the foot of the
+Flagstaff we could distinguish King Rupert; his vast height and bulk
+stood out from and above all round him.  Close to him was a patch of
+white, which we understood to be Queen Teuta, whom the Blue
+Mountaineers simply adore.
+
+By this time the armoured yacht, bearing all the signatories to
+"Balka" (excepting King Rupert), had moved out towards the entrance,
+and lay still and silent, waiting the coming of the Royal Arbitrator,
+whose whole squadron simultaneously slowed down, and hardly drifted
+in the seething water of their backing engines.
+
+When the flag which was in the yacht's prow was almost opposite the
+armoured fort, the Western King held up a roll of vellum handed to
+him by one of his officers.  We onlookers held our breath, for in an
+instant was such a scene as we can never hope to see again.
+
+At the raising of the Western King's hand, a gun was fired away on
+the top of the mountain where rose the mighty Flagstaff with the
+standard of the Blue Mountains.  Then came the thunder of salute from
+the guns, bright flashes and reports, which echoed down the hillsides
+in never-ending sequence.  At the first gun, by some trick of
+signalling, the flag of the Federated "Balka" floated out from the
+top of the Flagstaff, which had been mysteriously raised, and flew
+above that of the Blue Mountains.
+
+At the same moment the figures of Rupert and Teuta sank; they were
+taking their places on the aeroplane.  An instant after, like a great
+golden bird, it seemed to shoot out into the air, and then, dipping
+its head, dropped downward at an obtuse angle.  We could see the King
+and Queen from time waist upwards--the King in Blue Mountain dress of
+green; the Queen, wrapped in her white Shroud, holding her baby on
+her breast.  When far out from the mountain-top and over the Blue
+Mouth, the wings and tail of the great bird-like machine went up, and
+the aero dropped like a stone, till it was only some few hundred feet
+over the water.  Then the wings and tail went down, but with
+diminishing speed.  Below the expanse of the plane the King and Queen
+were now seen seated together on the tiny steering platform, which
+seemed to have been lowered; she sat behind her husband, after the
+manner of matrons of the Blue Mountains.  That coming of that
+aeroplane was the most striking episode of all this wonderful day.
+
+After floating for a few seconds, the engines began to work, whilst
+the planes moved back to their normal with beautiful simultaneity.
+There was a golden aero finding its safety in gliding movement.  At
+the same time the steering platform was rising, so that once more the
+occupants were not far below, but above the plane.  They were now
+only about a hundred feet above the water, moving from the far end of
+the Blue Mouth towards the entrance in the open space between the two
+lines of the fighting ships of the various nationalities, all of
+which had by now their yards manned--a manoeuvre which had begun at
+the firing of the first gun on the mountain-top.  As the aero passed
+along, all the seamen began to cheer--a cheering which they kept up
+till the King and Queen had come so close to the Western King's
+vessel that the two Kings and Queens could greet each other.  The
+wind was now beginning to blow westward from the mountain-top, and it
+took the sounds towards the armoured fort, so that at moments we
+could distinguish the cheers of the various nationalities, amongst
+which, more keen than the others, came the soft "Ban Zai!" of the
+Japanese.
+
+King Rupert, holding his steering levers, sat like a man of marble.
+Behind him his beautiful wife, clad in her Shroud, and holding in her
+arms the young Crown Prince, seemed like a veritable statue.
+
+The aero, guided by Rupert's unerring hand, lit softly on the after-
+deck of the Western King's yacht; and King Rupert, stepping on deck,
+lifted from her seat Queen Teuta with her baby in her arms.  It was
+only when the Blue Mountain King stood amongst other men that one
+could realize his enormous stature.  He stood literally head and
+shoulders over every other man present.
+
+Whilst the aeroplane was giving up its burden, the Western King and
+his Queen were descending from the bridge.  The host and hostess,
+hand in hand--after their usual fashion, as it seems--hurried forward
+to greet their guests.  The meeting was touching in its simplicity.
+The two monarchs shook hands, and their consorts, representatives of
+the foremost types of national beauty of the North and South,
+instinctively drew close and kissed each other.  Then the hostess
+Queen, moving towards the Western King, kneeled before him with the
+gracious obeisance of a Blue Mountain hostess, and kissed his hand.
+
+Her words of greeting were:
+
+"You are welcome, sire, to the Blue Mountains.  We are grateful to
+you for all you have done for Balka, and to you and Her Majesty for
+giving us the honour of your presence."
+
+The King seemed moved.  Accustomed as he was to the ritual of great
+occasions, the warmth and sincerity, together with the gracious
+humility of this old Eastern custom, touched him, monarch though he
+was of a great land and many races in the Far East.  Impulsively he
+broke through Court ritual, and did a thing which, I have since been
+told, won for him for ever a holy place in the warm hearts of the
+Blue Mountaineers.  Sinking on his knee before the beautiful shroud-
+clad Queen, he raised her hand and kissed it.  The act was seen by
+all in and around the Blue Mouth, and a mighty cheering rose, which
+seemed to rise and swell as it ran far and wide up the hillsides,
+till it faded away on the far-off mountain-top, where rose
+majestically the mighty Flagstaff bearing the standard of the Balkan
+Federation.
+
+For myself, I can never forget that wonderful scene of a nation's
+enthusiasm, and the core of it is engraven on my memory.  That
+spotless deck, typical of all that is perfect in naval use; the King
+and Queen of the greatest nation of the earth {3} received by the
+newest King and Queen--a King and Queen who won empire for
+themselves, so that the former subject of another King received him
+as a brother-monarch on a history-making occasion, when a new world-
+power was, under his tutelage, springing into existence.  The fair
+Northern Queen in the arms of the dark Southern Queen with the starry
+eyes.  The simple splendour of Northern dress arrayed against that of
+almost peasant plainness of the giant King of the South.  But all
+were eclipsed--even the thousand years of royal lineage of the
+Western King, Rupert's natural dower of stature, and the other
+Queen's bearing of royal dignity and sweetness--by the elemental
+simplicity of Teuta's Shroud.  Not one of all that mighty throng but
+knew something of her wonderful story; and not one but felt glad and
+proud that such a noble woman had won an empire through her own
+bravery, even in the jaws of the grave.
+
+The armoured yacht, with the remainder of the signatories to the
+Balkan Federation, drew close, and the rulers stepped on board to
+greet the Western King, the Arbitrator, Rupert leaving his task as
+personal host and joining them.  He took his part modestly in the
+rear of the group, and made a fresh obeisance in his new capacity.
+
+Presently another warship, The Balka, drew close.  It contained the
+ambassadors of Foreign Powers, and the Chancellors and high officials
+of the Balkan nations.  It was followed by a fleet of warships, each
+one representing a Balkan Power.  The great Western fleet lay at
+their moorings, but with the exception of manning their yards, took
+no immediate part in the proceedings.
+
+On the deck of the new-comer the Balkan monarchs took their places,
+the officials of each State grading themselves behind their monarch.
+The Ambassadors formed a foremost group by themselves.
+
+Last came the Western King, quite alone (save for the two Queens),
+bearing in his hand the vellum scroll, the record of his arbitration.
+This he proceeded to read, a polyglot copy of it having been already
+supplied to every Monarch, Ambassador, and official present.  It was
+a long statement, but the occasion was so stupendous--so intense--
+that the time flew by quickly.  The cheering had ceased the moment
+the Arbitrator opened the scroll, and a veritable silence of the
+grave abounded.
+
+When the reading was concluded Rupert raised his hand, and on the
+instant came a terrific salvo of cannon-shots from not only the ships
+in the port, but seemingly all up and over the hillsides away to the
+very summit.
+
+When the cheering which followed the salute had somewhat toned down,
+those on board talked together, and presentations were made.  Then
+the barges took the whole company to the armour-clad fort in the
+entrance-way to the Blue Mouth.  Here, in front, had been arranged
+for the occasion, platforms for the starting of aeroplanes.  Behind
+them were the various thrones of state for the Western King and
+Queen, and the various rulers of "Balka"--as the new and completed
+Balkan Federation had become--de jure as well as de facto.  Behind
+were seats for the rest of the company.  All was a blaze of crimson
+and gold.  We of the Press were all expectant, for some ceremony had
+manifestly been arranged, but of all details of it we had been kept
+in ignorance.  So far as I could tell from the faces, those present
+were at best but partially informed.  They were certainly ignorant of
+all details, and even of the entire programme of the day.  There is a
+certain kind of expectation which is not concerned in the mere
+execution of fore-ordered things.
+
+The aero on which the King and Queen had come down from the mountain
+now arrived on the platform in the charge of a tall young
+mountaineer, who stepped from the steering-platform at once.  King
+Rupert, having handed his Queen (who still carried her baby) into her
+seat, took his place, and pulled a lever.  The aero went forward, and
+seemed to fall head foremost off the fort.  It was but a dip,
+however, such as a skilful diver takes from a height into shallow
+water, for the plane made an upward curve, and in a few seconds was
+skimming upwards towards the Flagstaff.  Despite the wind, it arrived
+there in an incredibly short time.  Immediately after his flight
+another aero, a big one this time, glided to the platform.  To this
+immediately stepped a body of ten tall, fine-looking young men.  The
+driver pulled his levers, and the plane glided out on the track of
+the King.  The Western King, who was noticing, said to the Lord High
+Admiral, who had been himself in command of the ship of war, and now
+stood close behind him:
+
+"Who are those men, Admiral?"
+
+"The Guard of the Crown Prince, Your Majesty.  They are appointed by
+the Nation."
+
+"Tell me, Admiral, have they any special duties?"
+
+"Yes, Your Majesty," came the answer:  "to die, if need be, for the
+young Prince!"
+
+"Quite right!  That is fine service.  But how if any of them should
+die?"
+
+"Your Majesty, if one of them should die, there are ten thousand
+eager to take his place."
+
+"Fine, fine!  It is good to have even one man eager to give his life
+for duty.  But ten thousand!  That is what makes a nation!"
+
+When King Rupert reached the platform by the Flagstaff, the Royal
+Standard of the Blue Mountains was hauled up under it.  Rupert stood
+up and raised his hand.  In a second a cannon beside him was fired;
+then, quick as thought, others were fired in sequence, as though by
+one prolonged lightning-flash.  The roar was incessant, but getting
+less in detonating sound as the distance and the hills subdued it.
+But in the general silence which prevailed round us we could hear the
+sound as though passing in a distant circle, till finally the line
+which had gone northward came back by the south, stopping at the last
+gun to south'ard of the Flagstaff.
+
+"What was that wonderful circle?" asked the King of the Lord High
+Admiral.
+
+"That, Your Majesty, is the line of the frontier of the Blue
+Mountains.  Rupert has ten thousand cannon in line."
+
+"And who fires them?  I thought all the army must be here."
+
+"The women, Your Majesty.  They are on frontier duty to-day, so that
+the men can come here."
+
+Just at that moment one of the Crown Prince's Guards brought to the
+side of the King's aero something like a rubber ball on the end of a
+string.  The Queen held it out to the baby in her arms, who grabbed
+at it.  The guard drew back.  Pressing that ball must have given some
+signal, for on the instant a cannon, elevated to perpendicular, was
+fired.  A shell went straight up an enormous distance.  The shell
+burst, and sent out both a light so bright that it could be seen in
+the daylight, and a red smoke, which might have been seen from the
+heights of the Calabrian Mountains over in Italy.
+
+As the shell burst, the King's aero seemed once more to spring from
+the platform out into mid-air, dipped as before, and glided out over
+the Blue Mouth with a rapidity which, to look at, took one's breath
+away.
+
+As it came, followed by the aero of the Crown Prince's Guard and a
+group of other aeros, the whole mountain-sides seemed to become
+alive.  From everywhere, right away up to the farthest visible
+mountain-tops, darted aeroplanes, till a host of them were rushing
+with dreadful speed in the wake of the King.  The King turned to
+Queen Teuta, and evidently said something, for she beckoned to the
+Captain of the Crown Prince's Guard, who was steering the plane.  He
+swerved away to the right, and instead of following above the open
+track between the lines of warships, went high over the outer line.
+One of those on board began to drop something, which, fluttering
+down, landed on every occasion on the bridge of the ship high over
+which they then were.
+
+The Western King said again to the Gospodar Rooke (the Lord High
+Admiral):
+
+"It must need some skill to drop a letter with such accuracy."
+
+With imperturbable face the Admiral replied:
+
+"It is easier to drop bombs, Your Majesty."
+
+The flight of aeroplanes was a memorable sight.  It helped to make
+history.  Henceforth no nation with an eye for either defence or
+attack can hope for success without the mastery of the air.
+
+In the meantime--and after that time, too--God help the nation that
+attacks "Balka" or any part of it, so long as Rupert and Teuta live
+in the hearts of that people, and bind them into an irresistible
+unity.
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+{1}  Vladika, a high functionary in the Land of the Blue Mountains.
+He is a sort of official descendant of the old Prince-Bishops who
+used at one time to govern the State.  In process of time the system
+has changed, but the function--shorn of its personal dominance--
+remains.  The nation is at present governed by the Council.  The
+Church (which is, of course, the Eastern Church) is represented by
+the Archbishop, who controls the whole spiritual functions and
+organization.  The connecting-link between them--they being quite
+independent organizations--is the Vladika, who is ex officio a member
+of the National Council.  By custom he does not vote, but is looked
+on as an independent adviser who is in the confidence of both sides
+of national control.
+
+{2}  EDITORIAL NOTE--We shall, in our issue of Saturday week, give a
+full record of the romantic story of Queen Teuta and her Shroud,
+written by Mr. Mordred Booth, and illustrated by our special artist,
+Mr. Neillison Browne, who is Mr. Booth's artistic collaborateur in
+the account of King Rupert's Coronation.
+
+{3}  Greatest Kingdom--Editor Free America.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Lady of the Shroud, by Bram Stoker
+