nder the
bridge.

"You're getting ripe for London, Cheetah," said Amanda softly.

"I want somehow to get to work, to get my hands on definite things."

"How can we get back?"

She had to repeat her question presently.

"We can go on. Over the hills is Ochrida and then over another pass is
Presba, and from there we go down into Monastir and reach a railway and
get back to the world of our own times again."

8

But before they reached the world of their own times Macedonia was to
show them something grimmer than Albania.

They were riding through a sunlit walnut wood beyond Ochrida when they
came upon the thing.

The first they saw of it looked like a man lying asleep on a grassy
bank. But he lay very still indeed, he did not look up, he did not stir
as they passed, the pose of his hand was stiff, and when Benham glanced
back at him, he stifled a little cry of horror. For this man had no face
and the flies had been busy upon him....

Benham caught Amanda's bridle so that she had to give her attention to
her steed.

"Ahead!" he said, "Ahead! Look, a village!"

(Why the devil didn't they bury the man? Why? And that fool Giorgio and
the others were pulling up and beginning to chatter. After all she might
look back.)

Through the trees now they could see houses. He quickened his pace and
jerked Amanda's horse forward....

But the village was a still one. Not a dog barked.

Here was an incredible village without even a dog!

And then, then they saw some more people lying about. A woman lay in
a doorway. Near her was something muddy that might have been a child,
beyond were six men all spread out very neatly in a row with their faces
to the sky.

"Cheetah!" cried Amanda, with her voice going up. "They've been killed.
Some one has killed them."

Benham halted beside her and stared stupidly. "It's a band," he said.
"It's--propaganda. Greeks or Turks or Bulgarians."

"But their feet and hands are fastened! And--... WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN
DOING TO THEM?..."

"I want to kill," cried Benham. "Oh! I want to kill people. Come on,
Amanda! It blisters one's eyes. Come away. Come away! Come!"

Her face was white and her eyes terror-stricken. She obeyed him
mechanically. She gave one last look at those bodies....

Down the deep-rutted soil of the village street they clattered. They
came to houses that had been set on fire....

"What is that hanging from a tree?" cried Amanda. "Oh, oh!"

"Come on...."