s are a warlike race. As I spoke,
Teuta took one of my hands and held it hard. The old Voivode, his eyes
blazing, rose and stood beside me and took the other. The two old
fighting-men of the land and the sea stood up and saluted.

This was the beginning of what ultimately became "The National Committee
of Defence and Development."

I had other, and perhaps greater, plans for the future in my mind; but
the time had not come for their utterance.

To me it seems not only advisable, but necessary, that the utmost
discretion be observed by all our little group, at all events for the
present. There seems to be some new uneasiness in the Blue Mountains.
There are constant meetings of members of the Council, but no formal
meeting of the Council, as such, since the last one at which I was
present. There is constant coming and going amongst the mountaineers,
always in groups, small or large. Teuta and I, who have been about very
much on the aeroplane, have both noticed it. But somehow we--that is,
the Voivode and myself--are left out of everything; but we have not said
as yet a word on the subject to any of the others. The Voivode notices,
but he says nothing; so I am silent, and Teuta does whatever I ask. Sir
Colin does not notice anything except the work he is engaged on--the
planning the defences of the Blue Mouth. His old scientific training as
an engineer, and his enormous experience of wars and sieges--for he was
for nearly fifty years sent as military representative to all the great
wars--seem to have become directed on that point. He is certainly
planning it all out in a wonderful way. He consults Rooke almost hourly
on the maritime side of the question. The Lord High Admiral has been a
watcher all his life, and very few important points have ever escaped
him, so that he can add greatly to the wisdom of the defensive
construction. He notices, I think, that something is going on outside
ourselves; but he keeps a resolute silence.

What the movement going on is I cannot guess. It is not like the
uneasiness that went before the abduction of Teuta and the Voivode, but
it is even more pronounced. That was an uneasiness founded on some
suspicion. This is a positive thing, and has definite meaning--of some
sort. We shall, I suppose, know all about it in good time. In the
meantime we go on with our work. Happily the whole Blue Mouth and the
mountains round it are on my own property, the portion acquired lon