The wheelbarrows we used were the property of a French company which, before the war, was undertaking a highway to Beirut.

A family council was held in my home, and it was decided to send my sister, a girl of twenty-three, to some friends at the American Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, so that we might be able to move freely without the responsibility of having a girl at home, in a country where, as a matter of course, the women-folk are seized and carried off before a massacre.

At Beirut we knew that there was an American Consul-General, who kept in continual touch with the battleship anchored in the harbor for the protection of American interests.

The crowding in the tents was unspeakable; the water-supply was almost as inadequate as the medical service, which consisted chiefly of volunteer Red Crescent societiesamong them a unit of twenty German nurses sent by the American College at Beirut.

Fifty warships were sent to Beirut, and ten thousand French troops were landed in the Lebanon, to create order.

Leaving Beirut in haste, Wood and his friend sought shelter with the Druses, who received them with open arms.

It was he who broke the power of Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mehemet Ali; it was he who guided Admiral Stopford in the bombardment of Beirut; it was he, again, who brought about the landing of English troops in Syria in 1841; we find him afterwards in Damascus as British Consul, and wherever he went he was always busy spreading English power and prestige.

What a blessing the college was for the people of Beirut!

[ILLUSTRATION: HAIFA] CHAPTER IX A ROBBER BARON OF PALESTINE Beirut is a city of about two hundred thousand inhabitants, half of whom are Christians and the rest Mohammedans and Jews.

In general Beirut was a rather quiet and safe place.

The Beirut people are famous for their fighting spirit, but this spirit was not manifested after a few weeks of intimate acquaintance with the American blue-jackets.

As I racked my brain for a promising plan, a letter came from my sister in Beirut with two pieces of news which were responsible for my final escape.

Beirut is a four days' trip from our village, and roads are unsafe.

I began wondering if I could not possibly get to Beirut and get my sister aboard the Chester, which offered, perhaps, the last opportunity to go out with the refugees.

Then once more I slipped out into the night to make my secret way to Beirut.

How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?" Five nights I journeyed, and at last one morning beautiful Beirut appeared in the distance and I found myself in the forest of pines that leads into the city.

I smiled sweetly and replied that I was the orderly of a German officer who was surveying the country a few hours to the south and that I was going to Beirut for provisions.

It was all so simple, and it brought me safely to Beirut.

[ILLUSTRATION: BEIRUT, FROM THE DECK OF AN OUTGOING STEAMER] The day was dying and a beautiful twilight softened the outlines of the Lebanon and the houses of Beirut.

[ILLUSTRATION: BEIRUT, FROM THE DECK OF AN OUTGOING STEAMER] The day was dying and a beautiful twilight softened the outlines of the Lebanon and the houses of Beirut.

France was the largest holder, as she was also the constructor, of Syrian railways, and the harbour of Beirut, without doubt destined to be one of the most flourishing ports of the Eastern Mediterranean, was also a French enterprise.

Of those there are three obvious ones, Alexandretta, Tripoli, and Beirut, of which Beirut is a long way the first in importance and potentiality of increased importance.

Of those there are three obvious ones, Alexandretta, Tripoli, and Beirut, of which Beirut is a long way the first in importance and potentiality of increased importance.

Aleppo is already connected with Tripoli and El Mina (the actual port of Tripoli), and also with Beirut by branch lines making a junction at Homs, and thus all those ports will be brought together on one system.

From Homs lines would run northward to Aleppo, due west to Tripoli, and south-west to Beirut.