ing of
our arrival two men had been shot there, and it is doubtful, even had
we insisted on going, whether the authorities would have permitted it.
It is not good to visit localities just after shooting affrays. In
this instance the peasants on both sides were excited, and we
reluctantly gave up the trip to which we had looked forward for some
time. However, there was plenty left to shoot over, and we had much
good sport with pelican, duck, and crane.

One rather unpleasant incident occurred during our stay, which very
nearly ended seriously.

The lakes and swamps over which we shot lay at about an hour and a
half's walk from the town, and it was necessary to be there by
daybreak. We had ordered our paddlers to await us one morning at dawn,
and on our arrival were considerably annoyed to find no one there but
a boy. After a short wait we started, taking the boy and the larger
londra, or canoe, Marko and Stephan paddling as well. A longer delay
would have spoilt our morning, as the fowl disappear long before the
sun is well up in the heavens. About an hour later we discerned a boat
paddling furiously towards us, and, coming alongside, the inmates
proved to be our missing crew. Seizing our canoe, the spokesman
addressed our boy, abusing him roundly, saying he had stolen his
canoe, and demanded the paddles peremptorily. The boy looked at us
helplessly, and naturally refused, for we were in the middle of a
lake. The man then became livid with rage, rocked our canoe violently,
threatening to overturn us into the water. Then his hand dropped on
his revolver, and in his face appeared unmistakably the lust to kill.
All this passed so quickly that we had listened to the altercation in
open-mouthed astonishment. The rage and violence took us utterly by
surprise, for nothing of the kind had ever happened to us before from
the naturally courteous Montenegrins. However, now the man's rage
communicated itself to us, and in the twinkling of an eye both Marko
and myself had covered him with our firearms--we both had guns at our
side--and Stephan began to talk. Stephan was a violent-tempered man,
and now he let himself go. He spoke for some minutes, and it was
lurid. The muzzle of my carbine began to wobble, for his fluency and
comprehensiveness were distinctly amusing, while our attacker, who
soon let go the butt of his revolver, listened with pained but
undisguised admiration. "And now, thou accursed one," wound up
Stephan, after h