“another storm coming, worse luck!” grumbled george.
“going to spoil all our fine plans in the bargain,” added josh; “for if it turns out to be anything as bad as that other whooper, excuse me from wanting to be out on the river in the middle of the night.”
“listen again!” said jack, with a meaning in his manner.
“there she goes, and i must say it’s kind of queer thunder, after all,” buster advanced; “each growl is separate and distinct, and not like anything i ever heard before.”
“sure enough,” continued josh; and then, as though a sudden light had dawned upon him, he turned to jack to add: “say, you don’t imagine now, do you, that can be the booming of big guns we are listening to?”
jack nodded his head in the affirmative.
“it must be,” he said positively.
“sounds just like blasts,” continued josh, “up in the quarry near our town, when they[176] let the same off by electricity at noon, when the men are all out of the workings. boom! boom! boom! boom! let me tell you they must be making things hum over there now, with all that firing going on.”
“what do you suppose they’re doing, jack?” asked george.
“for one thing sending shells into belgrade,” came the reply.
“look, the serbian boy has caught on as well as the rest of us,” said josh, “and it frets him a whole lot, too, you can see by his face. now he’s talking with the little sister, and pointing, as if he might be explaining what that sound means.”
“well, can you blame him for feeling that way?” burst out buster; “when you must remember that their mother is somewhere in belgrade, and with those shells bursting in the city they may get home only to find that they have been left orphans. i guess war is all that general sherman said it was.”
“oh, shucks! we haven’t seen hardly anything of its horrors yet. wait till you read what is happening in belgium about this time, and then it’ll be time to talk,” george told him.
“but why didn’t we hear the cannonading before?” asked buster; “it seemed to hit us all of a sudden.”
[177]
“because there was a shift of the wind,” explained jack. “you know it was on our right before, and since then has changed, so that now it seems to be coming straight from the south.”
as they kept on down the river the sounds, reaching their ears every once in so often, increased gradually in volume.
every time the suggestive sound came to their ears it could be seen that the two young serbians would start and listen eagerly. undoubtedly their thoughts must be centered on the home they had left in belgrade, and they were wondering if the latest shell could have dropped anywhere near that dearly loved spot.
“honest, now,” said josh presently, “after that last shot i could hear a second fainter crash, which i take it may have been the shell exploding in or over the city.”
“it may have been a serbian gun, after all,” george asserted, “and if so, then the shoe was on the other foot, and the shell burst in the fortifications on the austrian side of the danube, perhaps scattering guns and soldiers around as if they were so many logs.”
“that’s what our friend here is hoping deep down in his heart, you can be sure,” jack mentioned, with a glance toward the boy passenger.
“look away down yonder and tell me if that isn’t one of those monitors like my cousin[178] captain stanislaus commands,” said george just then.
josh tested his eagle eye and admitted that, while the surface of the river was misty, which fact made seeing difficult, he believed the other was right, and that the object they were looking at did resemble a “cheese-box on a raft” in marine architecture.
“then we can’t be so very far above belgrade,” jack concluded.
“you mean the monitor may have been doing some of that shelling, do you?” questioned buster.
“i don’t know about that, for none of us have seen any sign of firing aboard the boat; but she’s evidently anchored there to take part in protecting the austrian troops that will soon be attempting to cross to hostile territory. so we must expect to haul in somewhere along here and wait for night to settle down.”
“it would be too risky to try and pass the monitor, i reckon you mean?” george asked.
“you remember how we were brought up with a round turn the other time,” he was reminded; “and if we refused to obey the summons to come alongside a second shot would sink us like a stone.”
“whee! if one of those big shells ever struck this chip of a boat there wouldn’t be enough of[179] her left for firewood,” asserted josh. “so i say just as you do, jack; we mustn’t be too brash and take chances. we can’t expect to fight the whole austrian navy on the danube. the word for us is diplomacy, remember that. we’ve got to play the napoleon style of strategy if we hope to win out in this game.”
jack allowed the boat to continue on her course for some little time longer. he did not mean to take unnecessary chances, but at the same time the further they were down the river before night set in the better, since it would shorten the time they expected to be in the danger zone.
he kept a wary eye on the anchored monitor, for all of them could by this time plainly see that it was one of those strange looking vessels, believed by austria to be just suited to the waters of the danube for offense and defense.
when not employed in this fashion jack was watching the near-by shore for a favorable landing spot. they could proceed to make a fire and act as though fully intending to spend the night there. if by accident they had visitors from the monitor early in the evening they could arrange it so that nothing suspicious would be seen.
the firing had now ceased for the time being, as though enough had been accomplished on either side for the day.
[180]
it was not long before they found themselves up against the bank. jack had picked out a good landing place, for there were trees in plenty, under which they could make themselves comfortable.
“do you think they have noticed us across there on board the monitor?” buster asked, as they stepped ashore.
“it would be strange if they hadn’t,” josh told him. “of course, they can see all that goes on up and down the river, and we were in plain sight. jack, did you expect they might have a pair of field glasses leveled on us, and was that why you had the brother and sister keep inside the cabin lately?”
“well,” replied the skipper, “i saw something flash over there while the sun was shining through that rift in the clouds, and i got the idea they might be using their binoculars. you see, if they should send over to interview us, and the two serbians were absent from the camp, as we mean they shall be, what could we say if asked about them? that was why i wanted them to keep out of sight, while the four of us remained in full view.”
josh did not say anything further, but the look of admiration he gave jack told what his thoughts were. in his mind the other could not be equalled when it came to covering the whole[181] ground and laying out extensive plans, for jack seemed to be able to grasp everything.
“we must keep a watch out on the river and try to be on our guard,” continued the leader. “if they send a boat over here to investigate, we ought to know about it before the men have a chance to land and spy on our camp.”
the boat was tied up, and buster had already taken ashore all he needed for the evening meal; while josh was making a fire in the midst of some stones he had collected in a sort of cairn.
the day had ended in a dismal fashion for one starting out so bravely with blue skies and plenty of warm sunshine. out over the water the haze was thickening, so that when george gave place to josh later on it was next door to impossible to tell where the austrian monitor was anchored.
“i’ve lined it up with this stone here and that tree out on the little point,” george explained; “the boat lies almost directly with the two, so if you happen to see any light over there you’ll know what it means, josh,” he told the other, as he gave up his post.
“as long as you could see the monitor, were there any signs of a boat leaving?” he asked; but george shook his head and told him he had seen nothing suspicious.
