I  did  not  see  San  Stefano,  myself,  at  the  moment  of
its  greatest  horror.  When  I  did  go,  one  cold  grey  No-
vember morning,  it  was  rather  unwillingly,  feehng  myself
a  little  heroic,  at  all  events  wanting  not  to  seem  too  un-
heroic  in  the  eyes  of  the  war  correspondent  and  the
other  friend  he  invited  to  go.  I  did  not  know  then,  in
my  ignorance,  that  cholera  can  be  caught  only  through
the  ahmentary  canal.  And  my  imagination  was  still  full
of  the  grisly  stories  the  war  correspondent  had  brought
back  from  his  first  visit.  There  was  nothing  too  grisly
to  be  seen,  however,  as  we  landed  at  the  pier.  Chiefly
to  be  seen  were  soldiers,  coated  and  hooded  in  grey,  as
usual,  who  were  transferring  supplies  of  different  kinds
from  small  ships  to  the  backs  of  small  pack-animals.
The  correspondent  accordingly  took  out  his  camera;
But  he  pretended  to  focus  it  on  us,  knowing  the  suscepti-
bility of  Turks  in  the  matter  of  photography  —  a  sus-
ceptibility that  had  been  aggravated  by  the  war.  Seeing
that  the  men  were  interested  rather  than  displeased  at
his  operations,  he  went  about  posing  a  group  of  them.
