there as to the
feasibility of trying to reach Cattaro by road, brought no information
definite enough to make the experiment worth the risk of failure. At
best there would be many rough miles to cover, in rounding the numerous
arms of that great starfish, the Bocche di Cattaro, and no boat of the
Austrian Lloyd or Hungarian Croatian lines was available to-day, even if
shipping the motor in that way wouldn't have involved endless red tape,
delay and bother. Nevertheless, with a simmering inspiration in my mind,
I steered the car down a narrow road that led to the harbour, a crowd
pattering after me which, no doubt, was very picturesque if I had been
in the mood to observe it. But my eyes were open for one thing only, and
at the port under the high walls of the fortresses that leap to the
sky, I knew that I had found it.

A good-sized fishing boat with a painted sail aflap against the mast,
lay alongside the quay. Beside it stood gossiping two fine sailor-men,
heroically tall, with features cut in bronze. At the thrum of the motor
and clatter of the crowd they turned to stare, and I drove straight at
them, but in order not to give them a fright stopped short a good five
yards away.

The proud men of these parts are not easily scared, and all that these
two did was to take their black pipes out of their mouths. Not a word of
Slavic have I to bless myself with, but I tumbled out Italian sentences,
and they understood, as I was pretty sure they would. What I asked was,
would they take me and my motor in their boat, immediately, on the
instant, to Cattaro? One grinned; the other shook his head; but he
hadn't wagged it from left to right before I pulled a handful of
Austrian gold and silver out of my pockets, which were luckily
well-filled with the hard-earned money of my chauffeurhood.

The man who had grinned, grinned wider; the man who had shaken his head
did not shake it again. I bargained just enough to please them with the
notion that they were plucking me; and five minutes later we three were
hauling a few planks scattered on the quay, to form a gangway to the
boat.

As for the fascinated crowd, not a man Jack of them but was at my
service, after the display of coin which no bright eye had missed. In no
time we had our gangway laid on to the gunwale, and a couple of sloping
planks to roll the motor on board. The next thing was for me to jump
into the car and begin to drive gently ahead, directing the sailors with