ly
dagger which Serbian robbers always carry. The body of the dead Serb,
however, formed a complete shield, and this, coupled with the fact that
we all thought the colonel dead, saved him from mutilation.

I was not quite an idle spectator, but the fact that at the critical
moment I discovered I had no weapon except for my cane reduced me to
helplessness so far as dealing with this gang of murderers was
concerned. Directly the fight began every Russian, including the armed
militiaman who was supposed to keep order at the station, bolted from
the room, leaving the women and children to look after themselves.
Madame Frank went to the assistance of her husband and covered him as
only a woman can, and as she grasped her husband's revolver the Serbs
slunk back a pace, while I lifted his head and signed to the Serb
officer who had fired at the colonel from behind to lift the dead Serb
off the colonel's body. This he did and then proposed to the band
surrounding us that they should kill us all three. Their knives
glistened and a small automatic revolver was making a bee line for me,
when a voice like the growl of a bear came from the direction of the
door. The whole band instantly put up their weapons. I had stood up to
receive my fate, and over the heads of our would-be murderers I saw a
tall dark-bearded stage villain in a long black overcoat which reached
to the floor, stalk across to the group. He looked at the body of the
dead Serb and then at the prostrate Russian officer who at that instant
began to show signs of returning consciousness. "Ah! Oh! Russky
polkovnik," he roared, drawing his revolver. "Our dead brother demands
blood."

I could not stand and see a wounded friend murdered before my eyes, not
even in this land of blood. I stepped over both bodies and placed myself
between this monster and his victim. I raised both hands and pushed him
back, saying, "I am Anglisky polkovnik, and will not allow you to murder
the wounded Russian officer." He answered that he was "Serbian
polkovnik," and I said "Come into the other room," and by strategy got
him away. His friends, however, told him something which sent him back
quickly to finish his job, but as he re-entered the buffet he
encountered about a dozen British and Czech soldiers with fixed
bayonets, and it was not so difficult now to convince him that it was
not quite good form to murder a wounded man.

We carried the Russian colonel to the British hospital, and as