night,
the little force of Serbians crouched among the deep shadows of the
defile, sometimes without food, always under a heavy fire, now and
again making the rock cliffs about them echo with bursts of their
plaintive, national folk songs. After November 4, 1915, the Bulgarian
attacks became more persistent, and their infantry would hurl itself
up into the pass; then the Serbians would spring up from behind rocks
and ledges and throw themselves at their hated kinsmen with naked
bayonets, shouting such words in their common language as send the
flush of rage burning through the cheeks of men and make things red
before their eyes. Again and again were these sanguinary hand-to-hand
struggles enacted under the towering rock walls of those forbidding
mountains, and again and again the Bulgarians were thrown back.
Meanwhile, the French, only ten miles away, were within sound of the
firing.

As a matter of fact, General Sarrail had already done wonders,
considering the shortness of the time he had had and the small forces
and few facilities at his disposal. It seemed, to those at a distance,
such a small gap to fill. And indeed, so nearly did Sarrail effect the
junction that nothing but the absence of reenforcements at a critical
moment caused him to fail.

As soon as he had landed at Saloniki he had sent every soldier under
his command along the railroad up the valley of Vardar, toward Veles.
Unfortunately, transportation facilities were poor; the road was only
single track; curving and twisting in and out among the rising
foothills and mountain spurs.

His first fighting had been at Strumitza station, where he defeated
the Bulgarians and so assured himself of possession of Demir Kapu
defile, a cleft in the mountains ten miles in length and from which,
had they held it, the Bulgarians could easily, with a comparatively
small force, have prevented any further advance. Having secured this
pass, Sarrail pushed through it to Krivolak, which was reached on
October 19, 1915. But here he was compelled to make a halt, to fortify
this advanced position and to await further reenforcements.

When news of the proximity of the French advance reached Vassitch, he
redoubled his efforts, and on October 22, 1915, he thrust his little
army forward and succeeded in recapturing Veles. This town lay along
the railroad, about thirty-five miles northwest of Krivolak.

Three miles north of Krivolak, on the road to Ishtip, rises a steep
and fo