card-houses while Jo was hospitably given a real camp-bedstead in a
corner of the Stobarts' kitchen, on the floor of which slept their men
and also West, whose arm was getting worse.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XIX

NOVI BAZAR

We awoke to find where we were. The little encampment which we had seen
to our left on entering the town, was now far on our right. The flat
plain--where was the large tent with the red cross painted over it--had
been our bed, the tent behind us; to our right was the brown hill topped
by the old Turkish blockhouse; and in front a cut maize field with its
solid red stubble sloped directly to the river, beyond which lay the
village massed on the opposite slope up to a white church. Immediately
below us on the river edge were the roofs of the "Stobarts'" refuge and
of the Scottish women's hospital. Poplar trees in all the panoply of
autumn sprang up from the valley with their tops full of the blackest
crows, who cawed discordantly at the dawn. Our fire had gone out, but
the Austrian had left enough wood, another was quickly started; but we
found that Angelo in making his curries had melted all the solder from
the empty biscuit tins and not one would hold water. So there was a
hurried transference of biscuits from a whole one.

From where we sat sipping our cocoa, we could see the hurried coming and
going of motors in the main square, and groups of bullock waggons and
soldiers about the fence of the church. A great street which split the
village in two from top to bottom--the old Turkish frontier--was almost
empty. The corporal proposed to visit the military commandant in search
of hay and bread. So Jan dragged on his wet boots and set off with him
down the hill, collecting Jo from the "Stobarts" on the way.

We crossed the rickety wooden bridge, passed between the _alfresco_
encampments--like travelling tinkers--of waggoners and soldiers which
lined the roads, up the great frontier street and so into the square.
All that now was SERBIA was concentrated in this little village. Private
houses had suddenly become ministries; cafes, headquarters; and shops,
departmental offices. The square was the central automobile station, and
cars under repair or adjustment were in every corner. Beneath the church
paling a camp of waggoners had a large bonfire and were cooking a whole
sheep on a spit. Austrian prisoners with white, drawn faces were
wandering about, staring with half unseeing eyes; a Serbia