i," he said, twisting a cigarette.

"Well, find out," said Jan.

He lounged away and presently returned with another.

"The colonel has evacuated," said the other; "he went naturally with the
Ministry of War to Rashka last night."

We went back in a fury to the mayor.

"You knew this," we cried angrily to him.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Where can we get bread?"

He took up the passes and looked at them. His face lightened.

"This one," he said, turning to another, "is written--Give them bread to
the value of three francs. We will give them three francs."

"No you won't," said we; "you'll give us bread. You cannot leave these
English sisters to starve."

After some grumbling he said we could inquire at the "first army." We
made him write out an order; we also made him give us a clerk to
accompany us. He gave us a tattered old man whose toes were sticking
from his boots.

We presented both orders at the "first army." It refused at once. We
threatened it with the War Office and with the mayor. After some demur
it sent us across the town again to the "magazine" office.

At the magazine office we were more wily. We presented our little order
for three humble loaves. He first said "Nema," then admitted that there
was bread and that we could have it. We then showed the order for the
other loaves.

"No, no," he cried, "you cannot have all that bread."

We pointed out that it was not much for a whole mission. He still
refused. So Jo got up and made a little speech. It was a nasty little
speech, but they deserved it, for we had found that they had bread.

She pointed out that the English Missions had now been working in Serbia
for a year, gratis; that no matter if we got no transport we were going
to get to England, and that it would not look well in the English papers
if we wrote a true account of our experiences, saying that they had
allowed the English Missions to starve. The threat of publicity finished
him. He grumbling consented to give us ten loaves in addition to our own
to last for two days. Not daring to leave them, and to send an orderly
for them, we rolled them up in Jo's overcoat and staggered down the road
to the hospital.

On the way we met an old Serbian peasant woman. She walked for a while
with us, turning her eyes to heaven and crying--

"What times we live in. Only God can help, only God."

At the hospital we met Sir Ralph Paget. He told us that the Transport
Board had promised him t