“was it real, and did we see that bridge knocked into flinders?” asked buster, when the terrific racket had in the main died out and it was possible for them to exchange comments or ask each others’ advice.
“as genuine as anything that ever crossed our path,” replied josh. “ugh! wasn’t it fierce, though, to see those poor austrians crawling like ants all over the old thing when it began to break up? some of them were badly wounded, too. i tell you, we’ll be seeing that sight many a time when we wake up from a bad dream.”
“but what are we going to do now, fellows?” george wanted to know.
“the way is clear again,” suggested josh, helplessly.
“and will be right along to-night, unless those austrian engineers try to shove out another lot of their pontoons, to be smashed into kindling wood,” george said.
“there they begin firing again!” exclaimed[219] buster, in a fresh tremor; “oh! i wonder what’s in the wind now.”
“it’s all from over the river on the austrian side, you notice,” jack remarked, after the crash of a shell had been heard not a sixth of a mile below them and apparently close to the bluff that marked the river’s edge.
“they’re as mad as hops over the smart way the serbs knocked their bridge down, seems like,” suggested buster.
“that’s where your head’s level, buster!” exclaimed josh; “if they can’t have the game go their own way they won’t play in the serbs’ back-yard. so now they’re meaning to shell the river bank over here.”
“what for?” asked the fat chum wonderingly. “they can’t see a single one of the serbs’ batteries, or even a man for that matter.”
“but they’ve located the different spots where that hot fire came from, and are hoping to get a few of the enemy guns with their big shells,” continued josh, who could always be depended on to do the explaining when he grasped a subject himself.
“well, then, i do hope they won’t drop a shell over this way and give us a bad scare,” said buster.
“that’s a fact; that gun by which the bridge[220] was cut to pieces did get in its work from near by here!” added george uneasily.
“i heard men talking and horses whinnying between the bursts of firing,” said jack; “so i reckon they cleared out just as soon as their work was done. that’s the case, too, all along the line, the batteries and their supporting columns falling back to new positions so as to avoid the bombardment they know mighty well is going to come.”
sitting there in the boat, they watched the fitful flashes of fire on the ridge far back from the river. it was much more thrilling than any storm they had ever seen; and then would come the crash as each enormous shell exploded on the southern side of the hotly contested stream that served as the border between the hostile countries.
once there was a frightful detonation not far away from where the boys huddled aboard the little motorboat. the austrian gunners had commenced to send missiles toward the spot from which the serb gun had barked. doubtless a terrible hole had been knocked in the bluff, a cavity that looked like a crater resulting from the explosion.
every one of them had felt the shock attending the bursting of the high explosive shell,[221] though luckily none of the fragments chanced to scatter in their direction.
“oh! that was an awful crack!” groaned buster, as though his heart might have tried to jump into his throat and partly choke him. “i do hope they won’t give us an encore. a hundred feet further this way and our name would have been dennis.”
“huh!” grumbled george, “better say it would be mud, because we’d have gone into the river with tons of the earth here.”
“listen! the serbs are replying now!” said jack.
“and that gun sounded exactly like the one that knocked the bridge to bits,” added josh.
“let’s hope, then, the fellows across on the hills there recognize its bark!” george exclaimed with considerable fervor, “and realize that it isn’t around this region any longer. then they won’t bother wasting any more of their ammunition in bombarding this place.”
apparently this was just what happened, for that shell was not followed by others, much to the relief of the boys. buster in his heart even forgave the austrians all they had done to nearly frighten him to death because of their forbearance now.
“no use wasting your good stuff any more, mr. austrian general,” he announced, “because[222] the bully little serbs have been too smart for you. they shot their bolt and then changed partners, just like you might do in dancing the lancers. so call it off and settle down again.”
the firing still kept up, however.
“they’ve got oceans of ammunition up there,” remarked george, “and have been just aching to expend some of it, which is why they keep on whanging away when they haven’t any more chance to hit anything than you’d meet with in finding a needle in a haystack.”
“but they won’t try to keep it up all night long, i hope?” buster observed.
“not much danger of that,” jack told him, knowing the other was fretting.
“i wonder if the boy and his kid sister will manage to get into belgrade, and also find their mother alive?” josh went on to say, showing that even in the midst of all that horrible confusion he could let his thoughts stray to the pair whom they had so generously assisted in their great trouble.
“we’ll hope so, anyway,” george added, for he, too, had been greatly drawn to the winsome little lassie with the bright eyes, now able to see as well as any one.
“i can see lights moving across the river and low down,” announced the keen-eyed josh just then, and his words gave buster a thrill.
[223]
“my stars! i wonder if those stubborn austrians are meaning to tackle the job again and try a second bridge? they may have a new lot of pontoons, you know, and want to use them. some people never can take a hint, it seems, and that one from the serbs was as strong as anything could be. ‘no trespass’ was the sign they nailed to that bridge when they scattered it over the water.”
“‘keep off the grass,’ you’d better say, buster,” corrected josh whimsically.
“i hardly think they’re reckless enough to make another attempt at this place to-night,” jack told them. “when they get ready to try again it will be in a locality further removed from belgrade. they can always hope to catch the serbs off their guard, you know.”
“but then what are those lights moving around over there for?” demanded buster.
“you can see others further down the river in the bargain,” josh explained. “in my humble opinion they’re looking up their wounded, and trying to pick up any who managed to swim ashore below.”
“you notice that the serbs are not interfering with them at all,” jack continued, “which goes to show they believe just as josh here said, and that it’s the red cross corps working along the river bank.”
[224]
“i guess the serbs feel satisfied with what they’ve done to-night,” was george’s comment. “not only have they smashed the bridge of the austrians, but must have killed and wounded hundreds of the enemy. all this with little loss to themselves. it’s going to make them feel their oats, let me tell you.”
“still austria is so powerful that sooner or later a force three times as big as the serbian army can be thrown across the danube to invade the country. when it does come to that, though,” added josh, “i give you my word for it, they’ll fight like tigers.”
“you notice that the firing is dying down again, don’t you?” asked jack.
only an occasional shot still sounded. when it did come the deep grumbling echoes rumbled back and forth between the opposing heights until they died away in softer cadence in the distance.
“how will we go from here, jack?” questioned george. “will it be safe to start up the engine while we’re so close by?”
“i was studying that very thing, george,” replied the other, “and had about made up my mind that it would be much better for us to repeat what we did before.”
“that means push out with the pole, and let the boat float on the current, eh, jack?”
[225]
“after we get a mile or two further down the river we can think of using a little power and increasing our speed. but this is dangerous ground, you know,” was what the skipper went on to say.
buster knew that the time was coming, and very soon now, when they would again be on the move. he was glad of it, and yet at the same time viewed the approaching change of base with fresh anxiety. so many perils seemed to yawn in front of them, and all with ominous aspect.
he stared out upon the darkened river, though, of course, it was little he could see. still, to buster just then it was peopled with enemies of every type, men in boats moving around seeking trouble, and ready to strike hard at the first sign of opposition.
buster found himself between the two horns of a dilemma; he wanted to get away from there, and at the same time hated to incur fresh perils. as generally happened with him, in the end he decided to put himself entirely in the hands of his three mates and let them settle the matter as they thought fit.
which was possibly the best thing buster could have done.
by the time another ten minutes had crept past jack began to bestir himself.
[226]
“is it time?” asked buster dubiously.
“the firing seems to have stopped entirely,” he was told, “and if that’s the case, the sooner we’re out of here the better.”
of course, there would be serb sentries posted all along the river bank, unseen in the darkness, but ever vigilant to detect and report anything suspicious that might take place. on the other hand, some of the austrians might have put out in boats stationed below on purpose, meaning to search for wounded men among the floating fragments of the pontoon bridge.
once jack put some of his strength into his work and they could feel the boat gliding away from the shoal water where they had been lying quietly for such a length of time.
buster drew a long breath, and tried to pierce the gloom by which they were surrounded. if there was anything he hated it was that sense of impending evil, with not the slightest chance to ward it off. still he got a grip on himself, and determined that if the others could stand it he must do the same.
