the mountain behind--a mighty mountain,
whose slopes run up to the very sky, ridge after ridge seeming like
itself a mountain. Far away on the very top the standard of the Blue
Mountains was run up on a mighty Flagstaff which seemed like a shaft of
light. It was two hundred feet high, and painted white, and as at the
distance the steel stays were invisible, it towered up in lonely
grandeur. At its foot was a dark mass grouped behind a white space,
which I could not make out till I used my field-glasses.

Then I knew it was King Rupert and the Queen in the midst of a group of
mountaineers. They were on the aero station behind the platform of the
aero, which seemed to shine--shine, not glitter--as though it were
overlaid with plates of gold.

Again the faces looked west. The Western Squadron was drawing near to
the entrance of the Blue Mouth. On the bridge of the yacht stood the
Western King in uniform of an Admiral, and by him his Queen in a dress of
royal purple, splendid with gold. Another glance at the mountain-top
showed that it had seemed to become alive. A whole park of artillery
seemed to have suddenly sprung to life, round each its crew ready for
action. Amongst the group at the foot of the Flagstaff we could
distinguish King Rupert; his vast height and bulk stood out from and
above all round him. Close to him was a patch of white, which we
understood to be Queen Teuta, whom the Blue Mountaineers simply adore.

By this time the armoured yacht, bearing all the signatories to "Balka"
(excepting King Rupert), had moved out towards the entrance, and lay
still and silent, waiting the coming of the Royal Arbitrator, whose whole
squadron simultaneously slowed down, and hardly drifted in the seething
water of their backing engines.

When the flag which was in the yacht's prow was almost opposite the
armoured fort, the Western King held up a roll of vellum handed to him by
one of his officers. We onlookers held our breath, for in an instant was
such a scene as we can never hope to see again.

At the raising of the Western King's hand, a gun was fired away on the
top of the mountain where rose the mighty Flagstaff with the standard of
the Blue Mountains. Then came the thunder of salute from the guns,
bright flashes and reports, which echoed down the hillsides in
never-ending sequence. At the first gun, by some trick of signalling,
the flag of the Federated "Balka" floated out from the top of the
Flagstaff