it?"

I feigned sleep.

Other figures were snoring peacefully and emphatically, but the tiny
inmates of my hay bed were painfully awake and sleep seemed banished.
However, I must have slept again, for when I awoke the room was empty,
except for Stephan, who was packing up. We had a wash in the stream
and made a hurried breakfast, and were off by a fairly early hour.
Stephan had found a horse, which must have come as a blessing to him.
He had walked yesterday about thirty miles. The path was much better
to-day, and we were enabled to make better pace. At a small village
named Lijeva Rijeka we made a long halt to allow the doctor to
transact some official business. We ate up what meat we had left, and
had great fun with the village big-wigs.

Strangers are beings of rare occurrence in the mountains, and we
always came in for much "courteous curiosity." Dr. S. and Stephan
enjoyed answering inquiries as to who we were immensely. One time we
were engineers making plans for the new road; another time we were
enterprising merchants about to open up the country; and once a man
remarked, when he was told that I was the British Minister, "And wears
patched trousers?" He referred to the knee pads of my riding-breeches.

Our arms, as was only natural to this fighting race, attracted great
interest. The carbines, of the Austrian Mannlicher system, invariably
went the round to a chorus of delighted appreciation. Likewise our
field-glasses, through which they would look for hours.

Shortly after leaving this village we had a fortunately short but
exceedingly steep hill to climb, which brought us on to a magnificent
plateau of rich green grass, carpeted with wild flowers. From this
point onwards the scenery changed completely. We were in the Alpine
regions. It was very beautiful, the trees covered every hill with a
mass of green foliage, and every here and there a snow-capped mountain
peak would appear. Not only was the scenery different, but the
dwellings of the peasants took quite another style of architecture;
conical thatched roofs of a height out of all proportion to the size
of the house, and a massive verandah or loggia built into the house,
The inhabitants are snowed up for many months every year, and have to
lay in great stores of food. But how delightful it must be here in
winter! What an opportunity for snow-shoeing! The peasants can do the
journey to Podgorica in about half the time on their primitive
snow-shoes.

T