The second day of our stay at Maidenpek was principally devoted to inspecting some copper mines belonging to an English company.  They appeared to be doing pretty well.  We next arranged to ride over to Kucainia, a place some twenty-five miles off.  It was settled that we were to start at seven o’clock in the morning, but a dense white fog obliterated the outer world—­we might have been on the verge of Nowhere.  It was more than two hours before the fog lifted sufficiently to enable us to proceed.  We went on our way some three miles when a drenching shower came on, and we took shelter in the cavernous interior of an enormous, half-ruined oak-tree.  Natural decay and the pickaxes of the woodman seeking fuel for his camp-fire had hollowed out a comfortable retreat from the storm.  Surrounding the tree was a bed of wild strawberries, which helped to beguile the time.  When at length the clouds cleared away, we resumed our saddles with dry jackets.  But, as it turned out, the half-hour we spent under the tree lost us the chance of some fun.

I must remark that our road lay the whole way through a majestic forest.  We were actually on the highroad to Belgrade, yet in many places it was nothing more than a grass-drive with trees on either side.  Looking some way ahead when we found ourselves on a track of this kind, we observed in the distance two men on horseback standing their horses in the middle of the road, apparently waiting for some one to pass.  One of the fellows, armed with the usual long Turkish gun, seeing our approach, came forward as if to meet us.  We instinctively looked to our revolvers, but as he came up we saw that the stranger on the black horse (he must have been once a splendid roadster) had no sinister intentions upon us.  It turned out that he was the pope from a neighbouring village.  He was in a great state of excitement, but shook hands with us all round before uttering a word.  He then told us that the diligence from Belgrade had been stopped only half an hour ago by five brigands at the bottom of the very hill we had just passed.  The booty was by no means insignificant.  The robbers had made off with 7000 florins in gold; but what seemed rather significant was the statement that though the driver and the conductor of the diligence were both well armed, they had offered but little or no resistance.  They declared they were overpowered by numbers.  If there had been a shot fired we certainly must have heard it.

Later we ascertained that the money belonged to the copper-mining 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]