company at Maidenpek; the loss was not theirs, however, as the
Government would have to reimburse it. It was just like our ill-luck to
wait out of the shower; but for that delay we should have come in for
the affray. I have my doubts as to whether our assistance would have
been particularly welcome to the driver of the diligence. Robbery on the
highroad is a capital offence in Servia.[5]

Arriving at the next village, we found the whole place in a hubbub and
commotion. The men were arming and collecting horses. We went straight
to the post-office to hear the rights of the story; the facts were
mainly as I have related them. The excitement appeared to increase as
the crowd flocked in from the fields. Horses were being saddled, powder
served out, and arrangements made for a systematic battue of the
robbers. After amusing ourselves by watching the warlike preparations,
we rode on to Kucainia.

We were hospitably received by a fellow-countryman who is working the
mines there. We did justice to his capital dinner, and told our robber
story, which our host capped with the rumours of a communistic rising
down south.

After a short stay at Kucainia, we made arrangements for returning over
the Danube; but this time we proposed to strike the river at
Belo-breska, higher up than Milanovacz. We had dropped our other friend,
so H---- and I hired a light cart for the thirty miles to Belo-breska,
my new horse meanwhile being tied on behind, and so we jogged along. The
road was good, but, like the good people in Thackeray's novels, totally
uninteresting. We drove continually through fields of maize--I say
_through_ the fields, for there was no hedge or fence anywhere. The soil
appeared to be splendidly fertile and well cultivated.