man in the dark," said the
professor.

Stajitch assured him he knew nothing; but the professor walked away,
murmuring that the English were undermining a good Serb boy's character.

And that was the last of the professor.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXIII

INTO ALBANIA

We caught the mayor in the morning. He was in his shirt-sleeves and he
said that the auto had been arranged for. It came and we packed in. On
the back perched a boy who outsmelt any Serb we had ever found. It
seemed impossible that a human could so smell and yet live. Suddenly the
boy drew a packet from his pocket and the smell became intolerable. He
unwrapped a piece of cheese and, gasping for breath, we watched it
disappear. When it had gone we breathed more freely, but the odour still
clung to the youth, and we were not sorry when the auto pulled up at the
village of Plavnitza on the edge of the lake. A man, who said that he
had been sent to help us, dragged us to the telephone office. He worried
the instrument for a while and announced that the boat would be here in
two hours. It would have come earlier, but somehow they couldn't make
steam get up. We expected it to come in four, and so went off to get
something to eat.

The lake was very high, coming right up to the road. All the low fields
were covered with water as far as one could see. The girl at the inn was
shuddering and shivering with malaria, and we gave her some quinine. At
last the steamer came.

We had to pack into one of those cockhat boats, as the quay was
separated from the village by half a mile of water. When we got to the
steamer, the captain leaned over the side and shouted--

"Where are the mattresses?"

"What mattresses?" said the harbour-master.

"When are you going to start?" demanded we, clambering on board.

"When I get the mattresses," said the captain.

"But what mattresses?" replied the harbour-master.

"I was sent to get mattresses," said the captain, "and here I wait till
they come."

This was a nuisance, nobody had said anything about the mattresses.

"I shan't go till to-morrow anyhow," said the skipper.

"I think we'd all better go back to Podgoritza and come again
to-morrow," said the man in charge.

"We don't move from here," said Jo, firmly. "If he won't go we'll sit on
this boat--which was sent for us--and sing songs all night so that he
shan't sleep."

The captain refused to move without the mattresses and we refused to go
back, so