nny situation--but ended in another laugh. It is a good thing we can
work in a laugh now and then.

The day was chiefly occupied with perfecting arrangements for getting
off our German refugees. The Minister wished the job on me, and I with
some elements of executive ability myself gave the worst part of it to
Nasmith, the Vice-Consul-General. Modifications became necessary every
few minutes, and Leval and I were running around like stricken deer all
day, seeing the disheartening number of government officials who were
concerned, having changes made and asking for additional trains. During
the afternoon more and more Germans came pouring into the Consulate for
refuge, until there were over two thousand of them there, terribly
crowded and unhappy. Several convents were also packed, and we
calculated that we should have two or three thousand to get out of the
country. In the morning the Legation was besieged by numbers of poor
people who did not know which way to turn and came to us because they
had been told that we would take care of them. We were all kept busy;
and Leval, smothering his natural feelings, came out of his own accord
and talked and advised and calmed the frightened people in their own
language. None of us would have asked him to do it, but he was fine
enough to want to help and to do it without any fuss.

A crowd of curious people gathered outside the Legation to watch the
callers, and now and then they boo-ed a German. I looked out of the
window in time to see somebody in the crowd strike at a poor little worm
of a man who had just gone out the door. He was excited and foolish
enough to reach toward his hip pocket as though for a revolver. In an
instant the crowd fell on him; and although Gustave, the messenger, and
I rushed out we were just in time to pull him inside and slam the door
before they had a chance to polish him off. Gustave nearly had his
clothes torn off in the scrimmage, but stuck to his job. An inspired
idiot of an American tourist who was inside tried to get the door open
and address the crowd in good American, and I had to handle him most
undiplomatically to keep him from getting us all into trouble. The crowd
thumped on the door a little in imitation of a mob scene, and the Garde
Civique had to be summoned on the run from the German Legation to drive
them back and establish some semblance of order. Then de Leval and I
went out and talked to the crowd--that is to say, we went out and he