which stuck the funnel of the steamer so
mysteriously sunk one night. We had heard that the Turkish gun flat
which had transported us had burst her boilers, so now the Montenegrins
had no steamers left.

The road was level and better than many we had come over, though once or
twice the carriages were hopelessly mired, and had to be pushed across.
West's horse had ideas about side streets, and bolted down each as he
came to it.

We met the Adriatic Commission. Mr. Lamb and Mr. George Paget, returning
after so long an absence, were in the first carriage. We recognized Mr.
Paget at once, for though either of them might have liked old arms, only
one would have collected old cookery books. The rest of the commission
came along later. They stopped us. We expected questions about the
Serbs; but no. They said--

"Can one buy underclothing in Scutari?"

Their baggage transport had been sunk by an Austrian submarine and they
had only what they were wearing. We wished each other luck and went on.
There was no hope of arriving at Alessio that night, we had started too
late. As evening was falling, we came to an Albanian inn and decided to
put up.

There was a stable full of manure on the ground floor, through which one
had to pass, and in the dark one was continually slipping into the
midden or running one's head unexpectedly into horses' hindquarters. Up
a rickety stair were two rooms. The floor rocked as we walked over it,
and every moment we expected to go through and be precipitated into the
manure below. The walls and floor were so loosely made that the wind
blew through in all directions, and we called it the "castle in the
air." We supped on chickens which we had brought from Scutari, and
Whatmough and Elmer made a fire in the yard and got us cocoa. By this
time we were all getting fed up with romantic surroundings, and wanted
something more solid. The swarthy countenances about the bonfire, the
queer costumes in the flickering fire, left us unmoved.

Sleep was impossible. The wind caught one in every corner, threatening
lumbago. Stajitch fled and camped outside in one of the carriages,
despite the rain.

[Illustration: ALBANIAN MULE DRIVERS CAMPING.]

We started as early as possible--dawn. Whatmough, Cutting, Jo and Jan
lost the road, but were eventually rescued by a policeman. About eleven
one of the carriages broke down, and we had to repair it with tree and
wire. Here the houses were again like fortresses, and