e have nothing to do with English Missions."

Fearing that we had come to the wrong place we retired.

At another time we were climbing up back stairs to what had been the
temporary lodgings of the English legation. But it was empty and
deserted; Sir Ralph Paget had not yet come.

There were bread shops, but they were all shut and guarded by soldiers.
Jan saw some bread in a window. He went into the dirty cafe, which was
crowded with soldiers, some sitting on the floor and some on the tables.

"Whose bread?" asked he.

"Ours."

"Will you sell me a loaf?"

"We won't sell a crumb."

We bought some apples from a man with a Roman lever balance, and chewed
them as we went along.

At the hospital the "Stobarts" were packing up. A motor was coming for
them in the afternoon. We heard that Dr. May and the Krag people were at
Studenitza, an old monastery, halfway along the road to Rashka. On the
flat fields behind the station were another gang of "Stobarts," the
dispensary from Lapovo. One Miss H---- was in trouble, for thieves had
pushed their arms beneath the tent flaps in the night and had captured
her best boots.

"There are cases full of boots on the railway," said some one,
consoling.

"But those are men's boots," said another.

Part of the morning we spent sitting on the banks of the Ebar River and
watching the bridge, wondering if Ellis would come with his car. Ten
times we thought we could see it, and each time were deceived.

The French aeroplanes came in. They hovered over the town seeking a flat
place, finally swooping down on to the marshy plain on which the
"Stobarts" were encamped. They landed, dashing through the shallow
puddles and flinging the water in great showers on every side. As each
landed it wheeled into line and was pegged down. Behind them was a line
of cannons, the Serbian engineers were hard at work, smashing off their
sighting apparatus, destroying the breech blocks, and jagging the lining
with cold chisels. Some of the cannon were Turkish. All the morning,
through the noise of the town, the shouting of the bullock drivers, the
pant of the motor cars, and the steady tap, tap of the engineers'
mallets, came the faint booming of the battle at Mladnovatch, not
fifteen miles away.

After lunch we went again to the cafe. Again it was full, and we were
forced to wait for a table. Just as we sat down a woman with a drawn,
anxious face came up to us, clutched Jo by the arm and said eagerly-