which the Serbians were yet to put up a fight as
heroic as any of the whole campaign.

It has now become quite obvious to the Serbians that they were not to
receive from the Allies the assistance that was necessary to save
their main armies. At this time there were reports of a Russian
invasion of Bulgaria to be led by General Kuropatkin, and it was even
said that the czar had himself sent a telegram to the Serbian Premier,
M. Pachitch, promising him such aid if only he could hold out until
the end of November, 1915. How much of these rumors reached the
Serbians is not known, but at any rate they did not materially affect
their plan of action. There was only one plan now possible, and that
was to effect an orderly retreat to some territory where their enemies
could not follow, and thus keep the army intact. The way behind them,
into the mountains of Montenegro or Albania, lay open. But without
railroads, without even one good wagon road, it was impossible for an
army to pass this way in a body. It would have to break into small
bands, each taking a separate trail by itself. Aside from that there
was no food supply; the soldiers would starve to death. It was true
that the ships of the Allies controlled the Adriatic, but without
roads no adequate food supply could be forwarded to the retreating
armies. Nor did those barren regions offer any local supply; the
poverty-stricken natives could barely maintain themselves. The only
alternative to a retreat through this wilderness was to escape south
over the Greek frontier, where they could join the French and British
forces outside Saloniki.

But this was just the alternative which the Austro-Germans and the
Bulgarians were determined to deny them. The Serbian forces still
numbered somewhere around 200,000; this body, combined with the allied
troops, who would presently be numbering another 100,000, would form a
military force, its rear protected by the British and French ships,
which the Teutons and Bulgarians would never dare to attack, even
though the Greeks still continued neutral. Moreover, there was no
doubt that the Greeks would interfere should the Bulgars cross their
frontier.

This force, then, would continue a constant threat to the lines of
communication and transportation which had just been opened up between
the Central Powers and Turkey, and along which they would soon be
sending large quantities of war munitions to the Turkish forces at
Gallipoli. At any mo