lent orderlies in the ward. An ex-Carlton waiter was very dexterous
in sidling down the ward: on his five fingers a tray perched high,
containing dressing-bowls and pots bristling with forceps, scissors, and
various other instruments.

His chief talent lay in peppering frostbitten toes with iodoform
powder--a reminiscence of the sugar castor.

Our housemaid was a leather tanner, whom Jo's baby magpie mistook for
its parent, as he fed it at intervals every morning. A Czech in typhus
cloths spent his days down in the disinfecting, operating and bathrooms.
He had been an overseer in a factory and had added to his income by
writing love-stories for the papers. A butcher was installed in the
kitchens. Once a week he became an artist, killing a sheep according to
the best Prague ideals.

All our prisoners, about forty in number, clung to the English hospitals
as their only chance of life, for in other places sixty per cent. had
died of typhus.

The Serbs, though bearing no animosity, could do little for them. We saw
the quarters of some men working on the road. These were show quarters
and supposed to be clean. Each room had an outside door. On the floor
was room for six men and hay enough to stuff one pillow. They had no
rugs, and the Serbs could give them none. The cold in the winter must
have been intense.

We had come back to this little world after seven weeks' wandering, and
almost immediately Jan had gone off to Kragujevatz with a broken motor.

While he was away Jo got letters from England and Paris, which made her
realize that things were rather in a mess, and we should have to go
home. We had left England intending to stay in Serbia three months, and
had been then nearly nine.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XV

SOME PAGES FROM MR. GORDON'S DIARY

OCTOBER 2ND. Got a wire from Kragujevatz to say that the motor
hood is ready and that we must go over to get it fitted. We cleaned and
oiled the car, and at two ran it down the hill, but it would not start.
Found two sparking plugs cracked and the magneto very weak. When we had
fixed it up it was too late. Four a.m. to-morrow morning.

OCTOBER 3RD. Started in the dark, Mr. Berry, Sister Hammond,
Sava, I, and a female relation of some minister or other who wanted to
go to Kralievo. The motor working badly, as it is impossible to get the
proper spare parts. Three young owls were sitting in the middle of the
road scared by our headlights; we hit one, the other