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