It was easy to make the owners of the gardens and groves understand that a purchase of fruit was desired, and a delicious variety was heaped before the boys in return for the silver coin which Sidney tendered. And how they did feast! Only one who has been entirely without fruit and vegetables for many days could understand what that abundance meant to the boys. Besides, the semi-tropical fruits reminded them of their own Southwestern home, and created a longing of homesickness that was painful in its intensity. As it was easy to obtain food, so also there was an open hospitality that made the tramp of two or three days across to Tiflis an enjoyment rather than a task. Possibly the people were not more hospitable than those of Daghestan, and it may be that the soft air and beautiful surroundings lent to them a seeming of suave courtesy. At any rate, the boys thoroughly enjoyed that part of their journey, and it was the first time that they had felt real enjoyment. While the valleys were filled with luxuriant growth, fostered by the streams that were conducted in canals over their surface, the mountains were more forbidding, and that condition, also, reminded the boys of their own Southwest. They found Tiflis situated where the Kura River emerged from between high bare mountains. There ended the long tramp of hundreds of miles, and the boys paused and looked back at the sky-line of white that marked the crest of the great Caucasus Range over which they had climbed. As they looked, and their minds ran back over the way by which they had come, the distance to the Caspian, where they had left the steamer, seemed infinity. “I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t know what was ahead of us when we left Nizhni, Sid,” said Raymond as they gazed. “If we had known I don’t believe I should have been willing to tackle it. But it would have been easy if we could have come by wagon through the Dariel Pass, as we planned.” At Tiflis the boys saw evidence of war preparations again, in companies of soldiers that were passing in the streets. They proceeded directly to the railway station, where they tried, without success, to obtain news of the war. The railway agent replied “Yes” to every question they asked, but that was not very enlightening, as their questions were varied. So they purchased second-class tickets to Batum, and took the first train that arrived. CHAPTER XIX GOOD-BYE TO RUSSIA