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"May God bless therace and happiness, and sendprosperity to the Land and the rule!"I think the King and Queen heardus cheer, they turned to look at our flying ship again

BOOK IX: BALKA

RUPERT'S JOURNAL--_Continued_ (_Longe Intervallo_)

_February_ 10, 1908

It is so long since I even thought of this journal that I hardly knohere to beginI always heard that a h it is a new life to me, and of a happinessundreamt of, I _knohat that life isBut I had no idea that thisKing business was anything like what it isWhy, it never leaves me amoment at all to myself--or, what is worse, to TeutaIf people whocondele month of my life in that capacity, theywould forht beuseful to have a Professor of Kingship in the Anarchists'College--whenever it is founded!

Everything has gone on ith us, I ah she has--but only very lately--practically givenup going on her own aeroplaneIt was, I know, a great sacrifice tomake, just as she had become an expert at itThey say here that she isone of the best drivers in the Blue Mountains--and that is in the world,for we have made that form of movement our ownEver since we found thepitch-blende pockets in the Great Tunnel, and discovered the sione on by leaps andboundsWhen first Teuta told ht she ise, and backed her up in it: for driving an aeroplaneis trying work and hard on the nervesI only learned then the reasonfor her caution--the usual one of a young wifeThat was three o sailing in theair, even with me, till she could do so "without risk"--she did not meanrisk to herselfAunt Janet knehat she ly to stick to her resolutionSo for the next fewalone

The public works which we began ian at the very beginning on an elaborate syste was to adequately fortify the Blue MouthWhilst thefortifications were being constructed we kept all the warships in thegulfBut when the point of safety was reached, wethe coast, whilst we trained rees all the young men and teach them thiswise, so that at the end the whole population shall be trained for sea aswell as for landAnd as we are teaching them the airship service, too,they will be at hohif that should become a necessity, we shall tackle it too!

We started the Great Tunnel at the farthest inland point of the BlueMouth, and ran it due east at an angle of 45 degrees, so that, whencoh the first line of hills, co outon the plateau PlazacThe plateau is not very wide--half a ins on the eastern side of itThis newtunnel is at a sle, as it has to pierce the second hill--amountain this timeWhen it comes out on the east side of that, it willtap the real productive beltHere it is that our hardwood-trees arefinest, and where the greatest th, and runs north arid south round the great bulk ofthe central mountain, so that in ti, at a merely nominal cost, all sorts of material up or downIt is on this level that we have built the great factories for war into the reatdeposits of coalWe run the trucks in and out on the level, and can getperfect ventilation with little cost or labourAlready we are all the coal which we consume within our own confines, and we can, if ish, within a year export largelyThe great slopes of these tunnelsgive us the necessary aid of specific gravity, and as we carry an endlesswater-supply in great tubes that way also, we can do whatever ish byhydraulic powerAs one by one the European and Asiatic nations began toreduce their war preparations, we took over their disbanded workents, so that already we have a productive staff of skilledworker than anywhere else in the worldI think et ahead so fast with our preparationsfor war manufacture, for if some of the "Great Powers," as they callthemselves, knew the measure of our present production, they wouldiainst usIn such case weshould have to fight them, which would delay usBut if we can haveanother year untroubled, we shall, so far as war material is concerned,be able to defy any nation in the worldAnd if the tis and machinery complete, we canprepare war-stores and implements for the whole Balkan nationsAndthen--But that is a dreaood time

In the oes wellThe cannon foundries are built andactiveWe are already beginning to turn out finished workOf course,our first guns are not very large, but they are goodThe big guns, andespecially siege-guns, will coreat extensionsare co o merrily onI suppose that by that ti town--at any rate, we haveplenty of raw material to handThe hae of the ore is cheap and easy by meansof our extraordinary water-power, and as coal coravity on the cable-line, we have natural advantages whichexist hardly anywhere else in the world--certainly not all together, ashereThat bird's eye view of the Blue Mouth which we had from theaeroplane when Teuta saw that vision of the future has not been in vainThe aeroplane works are having a splendid outputThe aeroplane is alarge and visible product; there is no e and respectable aerial fleetThe factories forexplosives are, of course, far away in bare valleys, where accidentaleffects are ers ive us all the poant at present, and, later on, when the new tunnel, which we call the"water tunnel," which is already begun, is complete, the available poill be i, and weare in great hopes for the future

So er life andgreater hopesThe stress of organizing and founding these great worksis practically overAs they are not only self-supporting, but largelyproductive, all anxiety in the way of national expenditure is ive my unhampered attention to thosematters of even more than national importance on which the ultith, of our country must depend

I areat Balkan FederationThis, it turnsout, has for long been the dream of Teuta's life, as also that of thepresent Archimandrite of Plazac, her father, who, since I last touchedthis journal, having taken on himself a Holy Life, was, by will of theChurch, the Monks, and the People, appointed to that great office on theretirement of Petrof Vlastimir

Such a Federation had long been in the airFor myself, I had seen itsinevitableness froressions of the DualNation, interpreted by her past history with regard to Italy, pointedtowards the necessity of such a protective aria were used as blinds to cover her real movements toincorporate with herself as established the provinces, once Turkish,which had been entrusted to her temporary protection by the Treaty ofBerlin; when it would seero was to be deprived for allti the Bocche di Cattaro, which she had acentury ago won, and held at the point of the sword, until a Great Powerhad, under a wrong conviction, handed it over to her neighbouringGoliath; when the Sandjack of Novi-Bazar was threatened with the fatewhich seeallant little Montenegro was already shut out fro her western shore; whenTurkey indling down to almost ineptitude; when Greece was alh still nominally subject--wasof such unimpaired virility

that there were great possibilities of herfuture, it was i must happen if the Balkan racewas not to be devoured piecehboursTo the endof ulti to make defensivealliance

And as the true defence consists in judicious attack, I have no doubtthat an alliance so based must ultimately become one for all purposesAlbania was the most difficult to win to the scheme, as her owncomplications with her suzerain, combined with the pride andsuspiciousness of her people, made approach a matter of extreme cautionIt was only possible when I could induce her rulers to see that, nonitude of northern advance,if unchecked, must ultimately overwhelm her

I own that thiswas nervous work, for I could not shut ement lay behind Austria's advanceAt and before that time expansion was the dominant idea of the threeGreat Powers of Central EuropeRussia went eastward, hoping to gatherto herself the rich north-eastern provinces of China, till ultimately sheshould dominate the whole of Northern Europe and Asia from the Gulf ofFinland to the Yellow SeaGermany wished to link the North Sea to theMediterranean by her own territory, and thus stand as a flawless barrieracross Europe from north to south