was a very wonderful pet to
us for about 12 years. This poor little cripple was the most gay and
joyful little dog, a wonderful and devoted companion and we never
regretted for a moment having had the good luck of finding her. She
gave us a great deal of joy and comfort.

So when I left with Imbrie for Batum, Nelka remained with Djedda.
When leaving I told Nelka that I was to be back a certain Monday.
Well, things did not go exactly on schedule. When we got to Batum, we
found that the city, which was occupied by the Turks, was being
besieged by the Georgians. We went ashore, looked the situation over
and saw that it was not good. We remained anchored in the harbor. The
next morning the Georgians attacked and hot fighting resulted. Most
of it was with small arms only, but when the bullets begun to spatter
against our destroyer, the captain decided that we better get out,
which we did, and we steamed back to Constantinople. With this delay,
we were off schedule and instead of arriving on Monday it was
Wednesday. When I returned home I found that Nelka was gone, with a
note left for me. The note said that as I had not returned on Monday
and as news had reached Constantinople that heavy fighting was on in
Batum, that she was leaving to look for me. I was furious, because it
was so utterly useless.

Upon inquiry I found that she had boarded a small Italian freighter
plying the cost of Asiatic Turkey. The boat named San Georgio had
left on Tuesday and had no wireless. The boat's company explained
that she was due back in about three weeks.

I went to explain the situation to Admiral Bristol at the American
Embassy. He said that he knew about Nelka having gone, for while
disapproving of it and advising her against it, he had helped her get
the Interallied visas which were necessary to be able to leave the
city. Normally it took about a week to get these visas, British,
French, Italian and United States. Nelka got them in 3 hours.

While the Embassy reassured her and told her there was nothing to
worry about, her main objective of getting on a boat was to try to
communicate with me on the destroyer by wireless. It later developed
that, after she had left on the San Georgio and they were out at sea,
then only did she discover that the boat carried no wireless.
Therefore her main objective of communicating with me was not
possible but this she discovered too late.

She had booked passage first class and upon arriving found