BACK TO SEMLIN
It was beginning to grow dark when they set out from Steve's house.
Maritza, the old servant who seemed to idolize Steve, had given them a
wonderful meal. Dick liked the old peasant woman. She reminded him of
the stories he had read of old southern mammies. It was plain that she
was wholly devoted to the Dushan family, and that she would do anything
for them. But in spite of that, she ordered Steve around as if he had
been a child of her own, and Steve, who seemed to Dick to possess a
goodly share of independence, accepted her orders with the utmost
meekness.
"She was with the family before I was born," he explained. "I can
remember how she used to order me about when I was a little chap. And
she's pretty nearly as bad with my father, too. I can tell you he does
what he's told. It's a wonder she hasn't insisted on going with him in
the campaign, just to make sure that he changes his shoes when his feet
get wet and wears heavy clothes when it's cold!"
Dick laughed, but he could understand Maritza's attitude well enough.
She had mothered him, too, and, despite his excitement, which made him
inclined to slight his meal, had insisted on his eating generously.
"I don't know what mischief you two boys will be up to to-night," she
had said, "but if you've got a good hot meal in your stomachs you'll be
in a better condition for it, whatever it is."
As they left the house, Steve explained that they had a long walk before
them.
"Horses are at a premium," he said. "Otherwise we might have ridden,
because I could have got them. But they are so badly needed in the field
that everyone has given up all the animals that are at all fit for
service."
"You don't use cavalry very much, though, do you?"
"No, not as a rule. Our men fight better on foot, and a great deal of
our fighting is done in mountainous country that is all split up with
ravines and clumps of woods. It was so, at least, against the Turks and
the Bulgarians. But in this war there will be some chance for cavalry,
at first, anyhow. And, besides, the horses are needed for the guns."
"Oh, yes! I didn't think of that. You don't use motor cars much, I
suppose?"
"We can't. We haven't the roads. If the French get in, they and the
Germans will use cars a great deal, I suppose, for all sorts of things.
But our roads are too bad for that. It's just as well, because the
Austrians have had so much more money to spend than we that they are far
ahead of us. They've got better heavy guns than we, too, but I don't
think they'll get much more chance to use them. We are not going to shut
ourselves up in fortresses. And when it comes to field pieces we can
hold our own with them a good deal better."
"Field guns will be the ones most used, won't they?"
"We think so. We've got light guns that are easy to move about, and
we've got the men who know how to handle them, too. Our men are all
veterans, and that is going to make a lot of difference. They know what
it is to have hard fighting, and if things go against them at first it
won't bother them. My father says that the experience we have had in
actual war will be worth five army corps."
"Who is the commander-in-chief?"
"General Pushkin. Everyone agrees that he was the one great soldier that
the Balkan wars produced. He won his battles against the Turks easily,
and without the loss of great numbers of men, and when the Bulgarians
attacked, we and the Greeks fought the campaign according to his
strategy. The German military attache said that General Pushkin was fit
to command the greatest army in the world. He said he was a military
genius of the first rank, and one of the greatest soldiers developed in
Europe since the time of von Moltke."
"Then he must be good, because the Germans know a good soldier when they
see him."
"He has done everything that has been required of him so far. This war
with Austria will be his great test--only he doesn't regard it as a
test, but as an opportunity. My father says that that is the true mark
of a man's character. He says the weak man, who hasn't got it in him to
succeed, thinks of a difficult thing he has to do, or to try to do, as a
trial, a test, and that the big man, who is sure to amount to something,
simply looks at it as a chance to show what he has in him."
"I know what you mean." Dick nodded. "My own father used to say that,
too. That was the trouble with Mike Hallo, I guess. If things looked
hard he was always complaining, and my father used to get pretty sore at
him sometimes. My father just gritted his teeth and went to work. I
remember hearing them talk about the panic a few years ago. An awful lot
of business houses were smashed then, but my father pulled through,
though Hallo wanted to quit. He said they would only be throwing good
money after bad if they kept on."
They had been walking briskly while they talked, and it was not long
before they came to the flat, marshy ground near the banks of the
Danube. Here it was a sluggish, thick, yellow stream, flowing along
impressively because of its bulk, but lacking every element of beauty
and romance.
"This doesn't look much like the beautiful blue Danube, does it, Steve?"
Dick suggested.
"No," said Steve, with a laugh. "It's not pretty--not here. There is
some fine scenery between here and the coast, though, where it marks the
boundary between Roumania and Bulgaria. And it's all historic. On the
Bulgarian side further down, the ground is high, with a sharp ascent
from the river. There was some fierce fighting in the Russo-Turkish
war--the war that freed Bulgaria, you know, and really helped a lot to
make Servia free, too. At one place the Russians crossed in boats and
stormed the heights, with the Turks above, firing down on them."
"They must have been brave in those days!"
"The Russians? There are no braver troops in Europe--there never have
been!"
"They didn't do very well against the Japanese."
"It wasn't the fault of the soldiers. Their generals were poor, and
everything was badly managed. I think that if the Germans despise the
Russian army they are making a great mistake. Russia learned many
lessons in the war with Japan, and when she fights again, soldiers will
be in command, not politicians. Here we are; this is the boat."
Dick looked curiously at the little craft. She was painted a dull,
leaden grey, and he could guess that at a very short distance it would
be almost impossible to detect her. In other ways, too, she was
especially designed for the business she was intended for.
"Isn't she a little beauty?" said Steve, enthusiastically. "See--that's
armor plate, very thin, of course, but tough and strong, that covers her
entirely on the outside. Then she's decked over with armor plate, too,
so that one can be inside and expose practically nothing. The engine is
sheathed the same way, and all the essential working parts. She can pass
through a rain of bullets without being hurt; it would take a shell to
make any real impression on her, and she's so fast that it would be a
hard job for a man to get her with one."
"I never saw anything like her," said Dick. "You say she's fast, too?"
"Twenty-five miles an hour easily, Dick! That's fast enough for anything
she's ever likely to have to do. The Austrians have launches, armed and
armored ones, but nothing that's in a class with this boat for speed and
power."
"She doesn't carry any guns, though?"
"No. She's meant to run away, not to fight. There are a couple of rifles
and automatic pistols and ammunition aboard, but really she is a scout,
pure and simple, and she would only fight to escape. You see, with such
a lot of armor plate and defensive equipment generally, they had to
figure pretty carefully on weight, or they'd have lost speed. And
speed's the most important thing with a boat like this. All aboard, now!
We'll be off in a minute!"
Dick took his place aboard, and found that there was plenty of room
under the plate of steel that covered almost the whole length of the
little boat. Then Steve followed him, and in a moment the engine was
purring and they were moving away.
"That's the quietest motor I ever heard in a power boat," said Dick.
"Exhaust under water and a special muffler as well," said Steve. "She'd
be useless if she gave herself away when she was a mile from anyone,
wouldn't she?"
"It means less speed, though."
"Yes, that's so. But it doesn't make difference enough to make up for
the safety it gives. You see, we could pass within a cable length of one
of those Austrian monitors now and they'd never know it. We'll have to
do just about that, too, before the night's over, I'm afraid."
"Where are you going to land, Steve? In Semlin itself?"
"No. That would be too risky and there's no need for it. I'm going to
keep right on up the Danube, past the mouth of the Save, and we'll land
above the town and circle back. They'll keep a very sharp lookout now
along the river bank in Semlin, but I don't think they'll be so careful
on this side. They'll trust to their river patrol and the mines."
"You think the river will be mined?"
"Oh, surely!"
"Wouldn't it be a good thing for your side to do some mining, too?"
"It's probably been done already, especially in the Save. We have only
one or two small gun-boats, which wouldn't have a chance in a fight with
the Austrians on water. But I think we'll be able to make them see that
it isn't any too safe for their monitors. We can't beat the Austrians
by main strength, so we'll have to use all the tricks we can. I think
they'll find out before very long that there are more ways of killing a
dog than by shooting him."
Now they were out in midstream. Perhaps a mile above them, as they swung
diagonally across the river, an Austrian monitor, painted a dun color so
that she was almost the hue of the river, was swinging at anchor, squat
and ugly, but menacing and business-like in her appearance, too. Steve
did not lay his course up the middle of the broad stream, however.
Instead, he slipped well over to the east bank, and began moving swiftly
upstream when he was under the shadow of the eastern bank, here rising
fairly well.
If anyone on the monitor observed them there was no sign of it. They
passed her, and another of the same type. On the Hungarian shore, above
them, occasionally they could hear the calling of sentries. The
Austrians were guarding the river carefully, and Steve chuckled a little
as he heard these evidences of careful watching. Then they passed the
mouth of the Save, and were wholly in Austrian or, rather, Hungarian
territory. For now the bank on both sides was part of the Dual Monarchy.
At the confluence of the two rivers a blaze of light swept the water
constantly, but there was still dense shadow under the eastern bank of
the Danube, for the chief concern of the Austrians seemed to be for a
dash of some sort down the Save. Danger from the other direction seemed
not to be thought of at all.
Once past that pool of light, it was a matter of ten minutes of fast
running. Then Steve swerved sharply and cut across the river, to run
into a little, sheltered inlet, and under a door that was raised at a
blast from a peculiar compressed air whistle. They were in a small
boathouse--a perfect concealment for the little motor boat. The house
was built right over the water, and there was no danger now that
prowlers would find her.
Inside, as the boat glided under the door, which slipped down into
place beside her, was a man in Austrian uniform, a fact that startled
Dick tremendously at first. Steve noticed this, and grinned.
"Don't be afraid," he said. "This man is a good Serb, though he is not a
Servian. He is one of us, but he is an Austrian subject, and forced to
serve in their army--which he does willingly enough, since he can help
us greatly by doing so. There are many such Serbs in Austrian uniform
to-day, but most of them will be sent to other parts of the theatre of
war, if Austria has brought on a general war."
The soldier had a boat hook out, and now he drew them to a landing stage
and made the boat fast as they leaped out.
Steve indulged in a low-toned conversation with the Austrian, and
frowned. Then he turned to Dick.
"Dick, I don't like to ask you to do this," he said, "but will you stay
here alone for a few minutes? I find I have to join a secret meeting.
They don't know about you yet, and it is absolutely forbidden to
introduce a stranger at such a meeting without notice. You understand?
I'll be back soon."
"Go ahead!" said Dick. "I don't mind staying here a bit, Steve, and I
see how it is, of course. You can't help it."
"I thought you'd say that," said Steve, greatly relieved. "All right!
I'll be back just as soon as I can, and it certainly won't be long."
Then Steve and the soldier went out. For a few moments there was
silence. And then a closet door opened, and Dick, paralyzed with fear
and dismay, saw a face emerge--the face of Mike Hallo!