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, which had been mysteriously raised, and flew above that of the Blue Mountains.
At the same moment the figures of Rupert and Teuta sank; they were taking their places on the aeroplane.