back just yet, but we could oblige them with the soap, for a case had
been broken open, and the waggon was strewn with bars. We also gave some
to the engine-driver, as a bribe to shunt us gently.

We imagined that the soap had burst because of the shunting, but in our
second truck discovered that this same shunting had been strangely
selective. It had, for instance, opened a case of brandy, it had burst a
box of tinned tongue, and even opened some of the tins which were strewn
in the truck. And yet the truck had been sealed, both doors. Several
cases of biscuits, too, had been abstracted, and all this must have
happened under the very noses of the Englishmen who had supervised the
loading. Some of the prisoners said that they were starving, so we
distributed our spare crusts amongst them, and they ate them greedily
enough.

In the fields by the railway were queer pallid green plants which
puzzled us. They were like tall cabbages, and shone with a curious
ghostly intensity in the gloaming.

We dangled our feet over the side of our waggon watching the flitting
scenery. At one point we passed a train in which were other English
people, who stared amazed at us and waved their hands as we disappeared.
Dusk was down when we passed Vrntze, and we reached the gorges of Ovchar
in the dark. We thundered through tunnels and out over hanging
precipices, the river beneath us a faint band of greyish light in the
blackness of the mountains.

Uzhitze in the morning at 4.30; it was cold and wet. Jan wanted to hurry
off to the hotel, but Jo sensibly refused, and we settled down till a
decent hour.