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 se