As the afternoon began to pa.s.s Jack looked earnestly ahead many times.
He wondered what awaited them in that mysterious region whence they were headed. All sorts of strange things might crop up to confront them as they proceeded on their dangerous course; still, no one even gave the idea of turning back a thought.
He had managed to let the Serbian boy know what they meant to do about getting his sister and himself on his native soil. How those black eyes snapped as the plan was unfolded to him! Jack fancied he could see unshed tears there also, showing how their generosity must have affected the other. He could not express his grat.i.tude by repeating that one word "thank" again, but he did display it by almost fiercely seizing Jack"s hand and actually kissing it, an act that made the American boy feel exceedingly queer, because he was not accustomed to such things.
They kept, as a rule, closer to the right bank of the river, for that would in time prove to be the one on which the Serbian capital was located. Besides, Jack believed it would answer their purposes better in case circ.u.mstances forced them to make a hurried landing, so that their pa.s.sengers might conceal themselves in the brush.
The sun was hot again, and as the afternoon began to wear along they found that the breeze created by their own swift pa.s.sage was the only invigorating thing to be met with.
"But it"s beginning to cloud up, you can see," Josh remarked, when Buster complained that he was melting away with the heat; "and once the old sun gets out of sight it"ll be a whole lot more comfy."
"I"ve been watching those clouds," remarked Jack, "and they please me a whole lot, because we must have a cloudy night if we"re ever going to run past the batteries on both sides of the river."
"Whew! that sounds as if we might be away back in the civil war, trying to pa.s.s Memphis on a gunboat, with the Confeds whanging away at us to beat the band. But, of course, you don"t expect to have any real trouble getting by, do you, Jack?"
"So far as I can see, there"s no reason why we should meet up with any,"
the skipper informed him.
"And once we"re well by Belgrade the worst will be over," cheerily observed Josh. "You see, the railroad runs down through Serbia from the capital, and any invasion must, of course, follow the Morava River, because Serbia is a mountainous country, and there are pa.s.ses through which troops have to go if ever they hope to reach Nisch down near the middle of the nation."
"Seems like you"ve been reading up on Serbia, Josh," ventured George.
"I have, all about the last war between the Balkan States," Josh admitted. "And let me tell you right here, if the Austrians and the Germans ever try to invade that little country of born fighters they"ll find they"ve bitten off more than they can chew. The Serbians know every foot of ground, and can lay in ambush on the heights, dropping rocks down on the enemy, and using all sorts of quick-firing guns to cut them down in windrows."
"If only all these Balkan countries were agreed on a single policy,"
said Jack, "they could snap their fingers at the Teuton alliance, for no force could ever be brought to bear against them that would smash their defenses. But petty jealousies keep them apart, and may be their undoing in the end."
The sun vanished about this time, the clouds having risen far enough to cover his blazing face.
"That feels a heap better," announced the panting Buster; "and it looks like we mightn"t glimpse old Sol again to-day. For one I"m glad.
Sunshine is all very well in winter time, but when it"s hot summer I prefer the shade."
The others laughed at his odd way of putting it, for Buster often expressed himself in a peculiar fashion. Josh said he "mixed his metaphors," though Buster was never able to get him to explain what he meant by saying that.
Just then something came stealing to their ears that caused the boys to exchange meaning glances. It was a distant grumbling that died away almost as soon as it reached them, a sort of complaining, reverberating boom that brought a thrill with it.
CHAPTER XV
THE BOOMING OF BIG GUNS
"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 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 sh.e.l.ls 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 sh.e.l.ls 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."
"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 sh.e.l.l 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 sh.e.l.l exploding in or over the city."
"It may have been a Serbian gun, after all," George a.s.serted, "and if so, then the shoe was on the other foot, and the sh.e.l.l 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 pa.s.senger.
"Look away down yonder and tell me if that isn"t one of those monitors like my cousin 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 sh.e.l.ling, 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 anch.o.r.ed 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 pa.s.s 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."