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_. _February_ 28, 1907. DEAREST UNCLE,

    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.