rk seems
possible without it. The price is heavy, but everyone says I shall be
able to get it back when I leave. All the same I shake in my shoes--a
chauffeur, tyres, petrol, mean money all the time. One can't stop
spending out here. It is like some fate from which one can't escape.
Still the car is bought, and I suppose now I shall get work.

[Page Heading: DIFFICULTIES]

We are all in the same boat. Mrs. Wynne has waited for her ambulances
for three months, and I hear that even the Anglo-Russian hospital, with
every name from Queen Alexandra's downwards on the list of its patrons,
is in "one long difficulty." It is Russia, and nothing but Russia, that
breaks us all. Everything is promised, nothing is done. The only _hope_
of getting a move on is by bribery, and one may bribe the wrong people
till one finds one's way about.

_13 January._--The car took us up the Kajour road, and behaved well; but
the chauffeur drove us into a bridge on the way down, and had to be
dismissed. Tried to go to Erivan, but the new chauffeur mistook the
road, so we had to return to Tiflis. N.B.--Another holiday was coming
on, and he wanted to be at home. _I actually used to like difficulties!_

_15 January._--Started again for Erivan. All went well, and we had a
lovely drive till about 6 p.m. The dusk was gathering and we were up in
the hills, when "bang!" went something, and nothing on earth would make
the car move. We unscrewed nuts, we lighted matches, we got out the
"jack," but we could not discover what was wrong. So where were we to
spend the night?

In a fold of the grey hills was a little grey village--just a few huts
belonging to Mahomedan shepherds, but there was nothing for it but to
ask them for shelter. Fortunately, Dr. Wilson knew the language, and he
persuaded the "head man" to turn out for us. His family consisted of
about sixteen persons, all sleeping on the floor. They gave us the
clay-daubed little place, and fortunately it contained a stove, but
nothing else. The snow was all round us, but we made up the fire and got
some tea, which we carried with us, and finally slept in the little
place while the chauffeur guarded the car.

In the morning nothing would make the car budge an inch, and, seeing our
difficulty, the Mahomedans made us pay a good deal for horses to tow the
thing to the next village, where we heard there was a blacksmith. We
followed in a hay-cart. We got to a Malokand settlement about 5 o'clock,
and fo