TAKING CHANCES
“Better take a little turn ashore, Josh and George, while I’m getting
breakfast ready,” advised Buster; “you’d hate to say you’d passed
through Budapest without even setting foot in the city.”
“If you go, be careful not to get lost,” added Jack, looking as though
almost tempted to veto the arrangement; but George proudly declared he
felt sure of being able to find his way about.
“Don’t be more than half an hour at the most, fellows,” sang out
Buster after the couple, and they waved their hands at him as if they
understood.
About the time breakfast was ready Jack went ashore to look for the
absent ones, but there was as yet no sign of them. In fact, the two who
were left aboard had more than half finished their meal and were
becoming really worried when the others made their appearance.
George looked a trifle chagrined, while Josh was chuckling to himself.
“What’s the joke? Tell us, Josh,” demanded Buster.
“Oh, yes, hurry up and give him the full particulars,” sneered George,
looking daggers at his companion.
“Why, you see, George here tried some of his German on a gendarme we
happened to meet,” explained Josh between gurgles. “Say, you ought to
have seen how surprised that cop looked. I’m afraid George got his nouns
twisted and called him some sort of bad name. Anyhow, he was for taking
us to the lock-up; but I managed to soothe him down some by showing him
my letters with the American postmarks on them, and letting a silver
coin slip into his hand. But he shook his head and looked as if he could
eat poor George. All the way back George has been racking his brain
trying to understand what it was he really called that uniformed
gendarme. I rather think it stood for pig.”
“Well, let that rest, will you, Josh?” growled George. “What I’m most
interested in just now is pig of another kind, for I see Buster has
fried some bacon for us. Mistakes will happen in the best regulated
families, they say, and I own up I’m afraid I did get my nouns slightly
mixed.”
“Slightly!” echoed Josh, with a shrug of his shoulders. “Well, if the
boys could only have seen how that big cop scowled at you they’d have
had a fit.”
As Josh was also hungry, he wasted no more time in explanations, and so
the incident was forgotten for the present. Later on it would doubtless
give Josh occasion for considerable additional merriment and be the
cause for more or less acrimonious conversation between the pair.
While they were eating Jack proceeded to settle with the owner of the
boatyard for the accommodations, for a bargain had been struck with
him. People over in old Europe are not apt to do things without a
consideration, especially when tourists are concerned.
By the time George and Josh had finished their morning meal everything
was in order for making a start.
“It’s pretty tough to be running away like this without having a chance
to see what sort of movies they have over here in Budapest,” complained
George, who was known to be a steady attendant at the little theatre in
his home town, where all manner of dramas, as well as world-wide views,
were nightly screened.
“So far as that goes,” Josh told him, “they’re pretty much all alike
here and at home. Chances are you’d see some cowboy pictures of the
wild and woolly West; for they do say those are the ones they like best
abroad. They know all about Buffalo Bill over here. You know we saw an
Austrian edition of some highly colored story about his imaginary
exploits hanging up when we passed that book stall.”
Working the boat free from all entanglements, they were soon afloat once
more on the river. The motor had started working as though it meant to
do good service. Jack himself as a rule took charge of the machinery,
not but that George knew all about such things, but he had a decided
failing, which was to “monkey” with things even when they were running
satisfactorily, and thus bring about sudden stoppages through his
experiments.
“Look at the beautiful bridge we’re going to pass under,” sang out
Buster presently. “It makes me think of one we saw in London.”
“There’s a bunch of Austrian officers walking across,” said Josh, “and
see how one of them is pointing to us now.”
“Bet you they’re suspicious of us right away, and mean to order us to go
back,” said George disconsolately.
“Rats!” scoffed Buster. “Don’t you see they’re only admiring our little
flag?--that’s all. I’ve got the same fastened in the stern, where it
can show well. I only wish it was five times as big, that’s all. But it
stands for what we are--true-blooded Americans, every one of us.”
The officers even leaned over the parapet of the bridge to stare at the
boat as it passed under. When the boys looked back a minute or so later
they saw that the uniformed Hungarians had hurriedly crossed over and
were now gazing after them.
“Shows how seldom Old Glory is ever seen in these parts,” said Josh,
“for they hardly know what to make of it. If I had my way, can you guess
what I’d do? Make the flag of the free so well known and respected that
everywhere people’d kowtow to the same and take off their hats.”
“Now they’re hurrying off the bridge, seems like, as if they’d just
remembered an engagement somewhere,” reported Buster.
“I only hope they don’t start any sort of trouble for us, that’s all,”
George went on to say, but, finding that no one seemed to be paying any
sort of attention to his grumbling, he stopped short, as his kind always
do.
Jack held the wheel and guided the boat along through the numerous mazes
of moving river craft. He was a skillful pilot and could be depended on
to mind his business every time. Unlike George, Jack was plain and
practical, whereas the other never seemed satisfied with what he had,
but was always trying to better conditions, often to his own and others’
discomfort, as well as possible delay.
By degrees they were now leaving the twin cities behind them, and the
river began to appear more open and free to travel. The boys, as usual,
were calling each other’s attention to such features of the landscape
that attracted their admiration, or it might be some of the buildings
they passed.
All of them were on the watch for special sights, and in this way the
time passed rapidly. The little motor was a very good one, and chugged
away faithfully as it had continued to do hour after hour ever since the
start, which was made far down the river below Vienna.
They overtook other vessels frequently, since the Danube is navigable
for the greater part of its long course. Rising away over in Germany
near the border of Luxemburg, it winds its sinuous way through the
greater part of Germany and Austria-Hungary, strikes the Serbian border,
turns sharply to the east, and then touches Bulgarian territory, forms
the dividing line between Rumania and Bulgaria, then crosses the former
monarchy, and serves as a border between Rumania and Russia, to finally
empty into the Black Sea.
It is by long odds the greatest river in Europe, and in all the world
there can be found no stream upon whose borders live so many different
nationalities. That was one reason Jack Stormways had yearned to cruise
down the Danube; and he was even now trying to get all the pleasure
possible out of the trip, though the clouds had arisen so early in the
venture.
Budapest was now far in the rear, though they could see the smoke that
arose in a few localities, coming from certain factories producing
articles for which the Hungarian capital is famous.
Josh happened to notice about this time that George seemed to be amusing
himself by shading his eyes with one hand and looking backward.
“What now, old croaker?” he ventured to say. “Do you imagine you see a
patrol boat chasing after us hotfooted, with orders to bring us back and
throw us in a black dungeon, charged with being desperate spies?”
“Laugh as much as you want to,” retorted George stubbornly, “but all the
same there _is_ a boat hustling along after us.”
“You don’t say!” gibed Josh, without bothering to turn his head to look.
“Well, since when have we taken out a mortgage on the Danube, please
tell me? I guess it’s free cruising ground for anybody who can afford to
own a steam yacht, or even a common little dinky motorboat.”
“She certainly is coming hand over fist after us,” asserted Buster.
“Well, the river is sure wide enough for two, and when she comes up
we’ll give her a chance to pass us by. Whew! but I’m sleepy, if you want
to know it,” and Josh yawned and stretched, but still declined to bother
turning his head.
A little while later George again made a remark.
“Now that they’re coming closer, I believe I can see several people in
uniforms aboard that swift little boat.”
Jack took a look on hearing this.
“You’re right there, George,” he assented; “but then there’s nothing to
hinder Magyar officers going on the river when they choose. In fact, I
imagine they pass plenty of their time that way when off duty.”
Josh could not hold out after that any longer, but condescended to
lazily turn and indifferently survey the approaching craft.
“Oh, she’s a dandy for speed, all right,” he frankly admitted, “and
could make circles around our old tub if the skipper wanted. Yes, those
are soldiers on board, I’ll admit, but how can you decide that they want
to overhaul us, I’d like to know?”
“I’m only guessing when I say that,” acknowledged George; “but now that
I look sharper it strikes me one of those officers is the tall chap
wearing the feather in his hat that we noticed on the bridge. How about
it, Jack?”
“He looks like that man, but then there are probably scores in Budapest
who wear that same kind of hat, Alpine style. He’s probably an officer
of the mountaineer corps, those fellows from the Carnic Alps who can do
such wonderful stunts in scaling dizzy heights.”
“Well, we must soon know if there’s going to be any sort of a row,” said
George, “because in ten minutes or less they’ll overtake us.”
“There must be no row, remember, boys,” advised Jack. “If we attempted
to resist arrest we’d soon be trapped, for they would send word
down-river way about us by telegraph or telephone, and officers would be
on the watch for us all along the route. Don’t forget that.”
“Paste it in your hat, George,” advised Josh, “for I reckon you’re the
only one in the bunch liable to make trouble. If they want to take me
back and give me free lodging, I’ll go as meek as Mary’s little lamb.
But whatever you do, George, _please_ be careful how you fling that
German of yours around loose. If you called one of those fiery Hungarian
officers a _donkey_ by mistake I think he’d want to run you through the
ribs with his sword.”
“Huh! wait and see. That German you pretend to make so much fun about
may some day keep you from being hung or stood up against a blank wall.
Stranger things than that have happened, let me tell you, Josh Purdue.”
“They keep pushing us right along,” announced Buster, beginning to feel
quite an interest in the affair by this time.
“Get ready to give them the right of way, Jack,” jeered Josh. “We
wouldn’t want to act greedy, you know, and claim the whole river. And
when they whiz past look out you don’t get splashed, Buster.”
“Goodness! I hope you don’t mean to say they might swamp us away out
here in the middle of the river. But there, I know you’re only being
true to your name, Josh. Who’s afraid? You don’t get me to worrying any
if I know it.”
“Look again and see what’s happening!” suddenly snapped George, with a
ring of triumph in his voice.
“They’re waving to us, for a fact!” admitted Buster. “Now what d’ye
suppose that can be for, Jack?”
“Just saluting our little flag, mebbe,” suggested the unconverted Josh.
“They are demanding that we pull up and wait for them, that’s what!”
asserted George, with a superior air that he liked to assume on
occasions like this.
“Is he right there, Jack?” asked Buster eagerly.
“I think that’s what is meant,” assented the pilot and engineer of the
powerboat the boys had chartered. “They are suspicious of us, and mean
to have a look in before allowing us to proceed.”
“But why should anybody be suspicious of four honest-looking boys out
for a little fun?” demanded Josh. “We’ve met heaps of other people
before now, and they acted just as nice as you please. I don’t
understand it.”
“Well, you must remember,” admonished Jack, “that something _terrible_
has happened since yesterday morning. Every military man in Germany and
Austria has been on needles and pins about this war business ever since
Serbia defied Francis Joseph and some of her adventurers murdered the
heir apparent to the Austrian throne. And now that war has broken out,
they are all eager to show their fidelity to their country.”
“But will you stop for them, Jack?” asked Josh.
“It would be foolish not to,” he was told, “because you can see it’s
only a matter of ten minutes at most when they will have overhauled us.
It pays to be courteous, especially, I’m told, when dealing with the
military authorities over here. Besides, in war times they rule the
roost.”
“I guess they do all the time,” muttered Josh; “but then you’re right
about it, Jack. We must get ready to show them just who and what we are.
If they’re sensible men they’ll let us go on down the river as we’ve
planned.”
“And supposing they happen to be unreasonable men?” queried Buster.
“Oh, some of the dungeons may be large enough to hold you, perhaps,”
laughed George; “but I can see your finish on a diet of bread and water,
mostly water. You will waste away to a shadow before you get out,
Buster.”
The other only gave him a scornful look, as much as to say he was not
worrying any about that part of the game, for he knew he could rely on
Jack to pull them all through safely.
So Jack shut off the power, and the clumsy but comfortable boat lay
wallowing on the surface of the river, awaiting the coming of the speedy
craft containing the Hungarian army officers.