RUPERT'S JOURNAL--_Continued_.
_June_ 3, 1907.
Another week has elapsed--a week full of movement of many kinds and inmany ways--but as yet I have had no tale or tidings of my Lady of theShroud. I have not had an opportunity of going again in daylight to St.Sava's as I should have liked to have done. I felt that I must not go atnight. The night is her time of freedom, and it must be kept for her--orelse I may miss her, or perhaps never see her again.
The days have been full of national movement. The mountaineers haveevidently been organizing themselves, for some reason which I cannotquite understand, and which they have hesitated to make known to me. Ihave taken care not to manifest any curiosity, whatever I may have felt.This would certainly arouse suspicion, and might ultimately causedisaster to my hopes of aiding the nation in their struggle to preservetheir freedom.
These fierce mountaineers are strangely--almost unduly--suspicious, andthe only way to win their confidence is to begin the trusting. A youngAmerican attache of the Embassy at Vienna, who had made a journey throughthe Land of the Blue Mountains, once put it to me in this form:
"Keep your head shut, and they'll open theirs. If you don't, they'llopen it for you--down to the chine!"
It was quite apparent to me that they were completing some fresharrangements for signalling with a code of their own. This was naturalenough, and in no way inconsistent with the measure of friendlinessalready shown to me. Where there are neither telegraphs, railways, norroads, any effective form of communication must--can only be purelypersonal. And so, if they wish to keep any secret amongst themselves,they must preserve the secret of their code. I should have dearly likedto learn their new code and their manner of using it, but as I want to bea helpful friend to them--and as this implies not only trust, but theappearance of it--I had to school myself to patience.
This attitude so far won their confidence that before we parted at ourlast meeting, after most solemn vows of faith and secrecy, they took meinto the secret. This was, however, only to the extent of teaching methe code and method; they still withheld from me rigidly the fact orpolitical secret, or whatever it was that was the mainspring of theirunited action.
When I got home I wrote down, whilst it was fresh in my memory, all theytold me. This script I studied until I had it so thoroughly by heartthat I _could_ not forget it. Then I burned the paper. However, thereis now one gain at least: with my semaphore I can send through the BlueMountains from side to side, with expedition, secrecy, and exactness, amessage comprehensible to all.