they sent Chocolat outside to push it in."

[Illustration: _From a photograph, copyright by American Press
Association._

After the retreat from Serbia.

English Tommies intrenched in the ten-mile plain outside of Salonika.
"Are they down-hearted? No!"]

The next day we walked along the bank of the Vardar River to Gravec,
about five miles north of Strumnitza station. Five miles farther was
Demir-Kapu, the Gate of Iron, and between these two towns is a high and
narrow pass famous for its wild and magnificent beauty. Fifteen miles
beyond that was Krivolak, the most advanced French position. On the
hills above Gravec were many guns, but in the town itself only a few
infantrymen. It was a town entirely of mud; the houses, the roads, and
the people were covered with it. Gravec is proud only of its church,
on the walls of which in colors still rich are painted many devils with
pitchforks driving the wicked ones into the flames.

One of the _poilus_ put his finger on the mass of wicked ones.

"Les Boches," he explained.

Whether the devils were the French or the English he did not say,
possibly because at the moment they were more driven against than
driving.

Major Merse, the commanding officer, invited us to his headquarters.
They were in a house of stone and mud, from which projected a wooden
platform. When any one appeared upon it he had the look of being about
to make a speech. The major asked us to take photographs of Gravec and
send them to his wife. He wanted her to see in what sort of a place he
was condemned to exist during the winter. He did not wish her to think
of him as sitting in front of a cafe on the sidewalk, and the snap-shots
would show her that Gravec has no cafes, no sidewalks and no streets.

But he was not condemned to spend the winter in Gravec.

Within the week great stores of ammunition and supplies began to pour
into it from Krivolak, and the Gate of Iron became the advanced
position, and Gravec suddenly found herself of importance as the French
base.

To understand this withdrawal, find on the map Krivolak, and follow the
railroad and River Vardar southeast to Gravec.

The cause of the retreat was the inability of the Serbians to hold
Monastir and their withdrawal west, which left a gap in the former line
of Serbians, French, and British. The enemy thus was south and west of
Sarrail, and his left flank was exposed.

On December 3, finding the advanced position at Krivolak thre