The Lady of the Shroud, Bram Stoker [most life changing books .txt] 📗

married man either) without his rifle since I came here. I

wonder if they take them with them to bed! Well, the instant after I

stood amongst them every rifle in the place was aimed straight at me.

Don’t be alarmed, Aunt Janet; they did not fire at me. If they had I

should not be writing to you now. I should be in that little bit of

real estate or the stone box, and about as full of lead as I could

hold. Ordinarily, I take it, they would have fired on the instant;

that is the etiquette here. But this time they—all separately but

all together—made a new rule. No one said a word or, so far as I

could see, made a movement. Here came in my own experience. I had

been more than once in a tight place of something of the same kind,

so I simply behaved in the most natural way I could. I felt

conscious—it was all in a flash, remember—that if I showed fear or

cause for fear, or even acknowledged danger by so much as even

holding up my hands, I should have drawn all the fire. They all

remained stock-still, as though they had been turned into stone, for

several seconds. Then a queer kind of look flashed round them like

wind over corn—something like the surprise one shows unconsciously

on waking in a strange place. A second after they each dropped the

rifle to the hollow of his arm and stood ready for anything. It was

all as regular and quick and simultaneous as a salute at St. James’s

Palace.

 

Happily I had no arms of any kind with me, so that there could be no

complication. I am rather a quick hand myself when there is any

shooting to be done. However, there was no trouble here, but the

contrary; the Blue Mountaineers—it sounds like a new sort of Bond

Street band, doesn’t it?—treated me in quite a different way than

they did when I first met them. They were amazingly civil, almost

deferential. But, all time same, they were more distant than ever,

and all the time I was there I could get not a whit closer to them.

They seemed in a sort of way to be afraid or in awe of me. No doubt

that will soon pass away, and when we know one another better we

shall become close friends. They are too fine fellows not to be

worth a little waiting for. (That sentence, by the way, is a pretty

bad sentence! In old days you would have slippered me for it!) Your

journey is all arranged, and I hope you will be comfortable. Rooke

will meet you at Liverpool Street and look after everything.

 

I shan’t write again, but when we meet at Fiume I shall begin to tell

you all the rest. Till then, good-bye. A good journey to you, and a

happy meeting to us both.

 

RUPERT.

 

Letter from Janet MacKelpie, Vissarion, to Sir Colin MacKelpie,

United Service Club, London.

 

DEAREST UNCLE, February 28, 1907.

 

I had a very comfortable journey all across Europe. Rupert wrote to

me some time ago to say that when I got to Vissarion I should be an

Empress, and he certainly took care that on the way here I should be

treated like one. Rooke, who seems a wonderful old man, was in the

next compartment to that reserved for me. At Harwich he had

everything arranged perfectly, and so right on to Fiume. Everywhere

there were attentive officials waiting. I had a carriage all to

myself, which I joined at Antwerp—a whole carriage with a suite of

rooms, dining-room, drawing-room, bedroom, even bath-room. There was

a cook with a kitchen of his own on board, a real chef like a French

nobleman in disguise. There were also a waiter and a servant-maid.

My own maid Maggie was quite awed at first. We were as far as

Cologne before she summoned up courage to order them about. Whenever

we stopped Rooke was on the platform with local officials, and kept

the door of my carriage like a sentry on duty.

 

At Fiume, when the train slowed down, I saw Rupert waiting on the

platform. He looked magnificent, towering over everybody there like

a giant. He is in perfect health, and seemed glad to see me. He

took me off at once on an automobile to a quay where an electric

launch was waiting. This took us on board a beautiful big steam-yacht, which was waiting with full steam up and—how he got there I

don’t know—Rooke waiting at the gangway.

 

I had another suite all to myself. Rupert and I had dinner together-

-I think the finest dinner I ever sat down to. This was very nice of

Rupert, for it was all for me. He himself only ate a piece of steak

and drank a glass of water. I went to bed early, for, despite the

luxury of the journey, I was very tired.

 

I awoke in the grey of the morning, and came on deck. We were close

to the coast. Rupert was on the bridge with the Captain, and Rooke

was acting as pilot. When Rupert saw me, he ran down the ladder and

took me up on the bridge. He left me there while he ran down again

and brought me up a lovely fur cloak which I had never seen. He put

it on me and kissed me. He is the tenderest-hearted boy in the

world, as well as the best and bravest! He made me take his arm

whilst he pointed out Vissarion, towards which we were steering. It

is the most lovely place I ever saw. I won’t stop to describe it

now, for it will be better that you see it for yourself and enjoy it

all fresh as I did.

 

The Castle is an immense place. You had better ship off, as soon as

all is ready here and you can arrange it, the servants whom I

engaged; and I am not sure that we shall not want as many more.

There has hardly been a mop or broom on the place for centuries, and

I doubt if it ever had a thorough good cleaning all over since it was

built. And, do you know, Uncle, that it might be well to double that

little army of yours that you are arranging for Rupert? Indeed, the

boy told me himself that he was going to write to you about it. I

think old Lachlan and his wife, Sandy’s Mary, had better be in charge

of the maids when they come over. A lot of lassies like yon will be

iller to keep together than a flock of sheep. So it will be wise to

have authority over them, especially as none of them speaks a word of

foreign tongues. Rooke—you saw him at the station at Liverpool

Street—will, if he be available, go over to bring the whole body

here. He has offered to do it if I should wish. And, by the way, I

think it will be well, when the time comes for their departure, if

not only the lassies, but Lachlan and Sandy’s Mary, too, will call

him MISTER Rooke. He is a very important person indeed here. He is,

in fact, a sort of Master of the Castle, and though he is very self-suppressing, is a man of rarely fine qualities. Also it will be well

to keep authority. When your clansmen come over, he will have charge

of them, too. Dear me! I find I have written such a long letter, I

must stop and get to work. I shall write again.

 

Your very affectionate

JANET.

 

From the Same to the Same.

March 3, 1907.

 

DEAREST UNCLE,

 

All goes well here, and as there is no news, I only write because you

are a dear, and I want to thank you for all the trouble you have

taken for me—and for Rupert. I think we had better wait awhile

before bringing out the servants. Rooke is away on some business for

Rupert, and will not be back for some time; Rupert thinks it may be a

couple of months. There is no one else that he could send to take

charge of the party from home, and I don’t like the idea of all those

lassies coming out without an escort. Even Lachlan and Sandy’s Mary

are ignorant of foreign languages and foreign ways. But as soon as

Rooke returns we can have them all out. I dare say you will have

some of your clansmen ready by then, and I think the poor girls, who

may feel a bit strange in a new country like this, where the ways are

so different from ours, will feel easier when they know that there

are some of their own mankind near them. Perhaps it might be well

that those of them who are engaged to each other—I know there are

some—should marry before they come out here. It will be more

convenient in many ways, and will save lodgment, and, besides, these

Blue Mountaineers are very handsome men. Good-night.

 

JANET.

 

Sir Colin MacKelpie, Croom, to Janet MacKelpie,

Vissarion.

March 9, 1907.

 

MY DEAR JANET,

 

I have duly received both your letters, and am delighted to find you

are so well pleased with your new home. It must certainly be a very

lovely and unique place, and I am myself longing to see it. I came

up here three days ago, and am, as usual, feeling all the better for

a breath of my native air. Time goes on, my dear, and I am beginning

to feel not so young as I was. Tell Rupert that the men are all fit,

and longing to get out to him. They are certainly a fine lot of men.

I don’t think I ever saw a finer. I have had them drilled and

trained as soldiers, and, in addition, have had them taught a lot of

trades just as they selected themselves. So he shall have nigh him

men who can turn their hands to anything—not, of course, that they

all know every trade, but amongst them there is someone who can do

whatever may be required. There are blacksmiths, carpenters,

farriers, saddle-makers, gardeners, plumbers, cutlers, gunsmiths, so,

as they all are farmers by origin and sportsmen by practice, they

will make a rare household body of men. They are nearly all first-class shots, and I am having them practise with revolvers. They are

being taught fencing and broadsword and ju-jitsu; I have organized

them in military form, with their own sergeants and corporals. This

morning I had an inspection, and I assure you, my dear, they could

give points to the Household troop in matters of drill. I tell you I

am proud of my clansmen!

 

I think you are quite wise about waiting to bring out the lassies,

and wiser still about the marrying. I dare say there will be more

marrying when they all get settled in a foreign country. I shall be

glad of it, for as Rupert is going to settle there, it will be good

for him to have round him a little colony of his own people. And it

will be good for them, too, for I know he will be good to them—as

you will, my dear. The hills are barren here, and life is hard, and

each year there is more and more demand for crofts, and sooner or

later our people must thin out. And mayhap our little settlement of

MacKelpie clan away beyond the frontiers of the Empire may be some

service to the nation and the King. But this is a dream! I see that

here I am beginning to realise in myself