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.