With the Serbs in Macedonia

NIGHT WORK 171
the enemy uncomfortable. Those French
gunners put in some really splendid work,
sticking to their 75's with bombs dropping all
round them— and, incidentally, drenching us
with shrapnel and nose-caps. On one occasion,
indeed, we were all so impressed with the
courage and good shooting of the 23rd Section
des Autos-canons de 75 that we sent them a
letter of congratulation.
The road we were working was difficult and
interesting. Our job was to carry supplies and
ammunition up a mountain pass to Petalino.
The road had been specially cut and blasted for
the purpose by hundreds of Serbian soldiers and
German and Bulgarian prisoners. A river ran
through the gorge, the turbulent, unsavoury
Cerna, and it always seemed to be running the
wrong way. Instead of rising in these mountains
it flowed through them, and the effect as we
climbed above it was most curious. The river
appeared to be running up-hill.
The scenery was wild and picturesque in the
extreme— barren, rocky mountains, treeless,
and with only a sprinkling of scrub here and
there, waterfalls on each side of the road, great
clefts in the hills, and always and all around the
beautiful lighting effects and astonishing range
of purples which make one forgive much in
Macedonia.