r
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 shou