Jack, taking an observation, made an important discovery, and followed it with an announcement that gave his comrades considerable pleasure.
"There"s a break in the storm clouds over there in the west, boys, and I guess we"ve got to the end of this trouble!"
"With no damage done except a wetting for two of us," added Josh, trying to act as though that counted for next to nothing, considering the benefits that had probably sprung from the work of Jack and himself.
"Why, it seems to me the rain has let up, too, Jack!" exclaimed Buster, forcing his head through the opening in the tarpaulin cover of the well.
"In a few minutes more we can get rid of this old thing and breathe free once more," Jack told him.
"Well, I"m sure I"ll be mighty glad," said Buster, "because I"m nearly stewed as it is, with the heat below here; and that breeze feels mighty good to me. It won"t be near as warm after this storm, that"s sure."
"Like as not, Buster," advised Josh, shivering a little because of his wet condition, "we"ll all be frozen stiff before an hour goes by. Queer things happen over in this Danube country, I"m told."
"Rats! You can"t scare me, Josh," Buster immediately informed him; "course, since you"re all wet through and through _you_ might freeze, but not a healthy specimen like me. This time we"ll have to make a fire for you other fellows, if we can find enough dry wood to burn, that is."
Jack"s prediction was soon fulfilled. The break in the storm clouds grew rapidly in magnitude until quite a large sized patch of blue sky became visible. They soon had the tarpaulin dragged on top of the cabin roof to dry out; and when the sun appeared the pair who had been drenched took positive delight in sprawling there and letting the warm rays start drying their garments on them.
"Well, seems like we got through that sc.r.a.pe O. K.," ventured Buster; "but we"re not yet out of the woods by a big lot. We"ve got a broken engine on our hands, and no means of fixing the same, even if we knew how to do it. What"s to be done now, Commodore Jack?"
Somehow the others always thought to give Jack his full t.i.tle when relying on him to get them out of a sc.r.a.pe. But Jack let this significant fact pa.s.s, for he knew these three chums from the ground up, and could not hold a single thing against any one of them. And, as usual, he had a remedy ready for every disease.
CHAPTER IX
THE HUNGARIAN MOB
"There"s only one thing we can do," Jack told them, "which is to work the boat along closer to the western sh.o.r.e. Before long, unless my map of the river is all wrong, we ought to strike a town by the name of Mohaca, a railroad place situated on a sharp bend of the Danube, and there must be some one in that town who can do the necessary repairs to our engine, if we hold over half a day."
The others admitted that the plan proposed by their leader sounded good to them. And accordingly they set to work first of all to get the trailing anchor aboard, so that their progress would be delayed no longer.
Buster was much relieved. Besides, it was Josh who was saturated to the skin now, and when one means to be cheerful it counts for considerable "whose ox is gored," as Buster liked to put it.
Still he felt sorry when he saw Josh shivering, for the air had become suddenly quite cool after the pa.s.sing of the storm, and insisted on wrapping a blanket about the slim boy.
All of them kept watch for signs of the town below. The afternoon was wearing on very fast now, and they hoped to arrive before sunset. It might be a difficult matter to find the machinist they wanted if they reached the town on the bank of the Danube after darkness had set in.
"I reckon it"s at that bend below there," said Jack; "if you look sharp you can see the sun glinting from what looks to me like a church steeple, with a cross on the same."
"You hit it that time, Jack," a.s.serted Josh, "because that"s just what it is. For one I"ll be glad to get where we can have a fire and dry out."
They were compelled to work pretty hard in order to get the boat over close to the sh.o.r.e where the town stood. The current seemed to run in a contrary direction, and did its best to frustrate their efforts.
Jack, however, remembering many other times when they had been aboard motorboats that acted queerly, or else broke down, had seen to it that there was a push-pole lashed to the side of the craft. The river at this point proved to be comparatively shallow, so that it was easily possible to reach bottom.
By changing hands, and each one having a turn, they kept where they wanted to go, and in this way made the town.
It did not differ from other places they had been seeing along the Danube, and after the storm it looked rather subdued. In the morning they would find the customary amount of life in the place, together with the usual display of soldiers" uniforms, Jack did not doubt in the least.
As they were pa.s.sing slowly along in search of some place where they might hope to have their broken-down engine repaired on the following day, as well as a harbor of refuge for the coming night, loud cheers drew their attention to the railroad which ran close to the river bank.
"It"s only another train-load of troops going to the front!" announced Josh, as they saw numerous heads thrust from the windows of the carriages, together with wildly waving hands.
"They think it"s a picnic to start with," said George, "but before long they"ll sing a different tune, I guess; that is, those who live through the first battle. In these days of quick-firing guns and the terrible sh.e.l.ls, the chances a fellow has of coming back home are mighty small.
No soldiering for me if I know myself."
"Oh, that"s all hot air you"re giving us, George," scoffed Josh. "You know mighty well that if our country was in danger, and you were old enough, you"d enlist right away. So would we all of us, as well as Herb and Andy at home. You"ve got your faults, George, as all of us have, but being a coward isn"t one of them by a long shot."
George did not make any reply to this speech, but smiled as though he felt rather pleased to know even Josh had such a good opinion of his fighting abilities.
The long train with its shouting crowds pa.s.sed from sight. Evidently these troops were headed for the Servian border, and expected to see warm service there, fighting against the brave little country that had long since won its independence from the Turks.
"I think I see what we"re wanting to find," remarked Jack presently.
"It"s the usual boatyard you find in nearly all river towns," added Josh; "and we ought to be able to make arrangements for having our engine looked over and repaired in the morning."
"Make your minds easy on that score," advised George, calmly enough; "for even if we don"t run across a machinist who can do the job, trust me to tackle it."
"What! you?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Buster.
"Why not?" demanded George, as though aggrieved that any one should for a moment question his ability in that line. "Haven"t I taken the engine of my Wireless to pieces many a time and put it together again?"
"That"s right, you have," spoke up Josh, "because you never could let well enough alone, but must be monkeying around your engine all the time. That"s why Jack insisted in the beginning of this voyage that you were to be a pa.s.senger and let him act as pilot and engineer."
"But the engine"s broken down, isn"t it?" demanded George.
"Sure it has," Josh admitted, "but that was a sheer accident, and you didn"t have a thing to do with it."
"There"s no reason to believe we"ll get left about finding a machinist here," Jack remarked, to calm the troubled waters. "I think that sign tells us as much. But we"ll soon know."
They managed to push the boat inside the enclosure. Here they found a number of river craft of various types, and Jack noticed that among them were several launches, from which fact he judged that the man did all kinds of general repairing.
A short time later they landed and found the owner of the shop. He could understand English, fortunately enough, so they were able to make a bargain with him. Doubtless he must have charged them an exorbitant price, for upon their accepting his terms he showed them unusual courtesy, even telling them to push the boat inside his house, where he could get to work at the engine in the morning.
He also informed the boys that if they chose to sleep aboard they were at perfect liberty to do so. Should it storm again they would have the benefit of a roof over their heads; and they could cook their supper at the fire he would leave in the forge.
Buster immediately declared it would be a jolly thing all around.
"You know we do feel more or less cramped aboard our boat," he went on to remark, with considerable eagerness. "And if you say the word, why, I"ll take my blanket and camp out here on the floor. There are plenty of chips to make a soft bed, even if they don"t smell as sweet as hemlock browse such as we have at home."
"And another thing," added Josh, "Jack and myself can get nice and dry at the fire here in the forge. I think the man must have noticed that we"d been soaked."
"Yes, and he soaked us some more in the bargain," complained George, "according to the price we agreed to pay him for the easy job of mending a broken engine. See, you might have saved all that money if you"d had enough confidence in me to let me run the job."
"Perhaps!" said Josh dryly, and there was such a world of meaning in that one word as p.r.o.nounced by him that George immediately fell silent, not caring to bring about another verbal controversy.