When he came up a second time he dashed the water from his eyes and endeavored to look around him. All was semi-dark on the river and everything was quiet.
“Well, I’m out of that, anyway, unless they send word back to start a search for me,” he told himself. “But what am I to do next?”
Fortunately for our hero, he had on only his light summer outfit, so his clothing did not weigh heavily upon him. The water was cool, but not cold, and this was rather refreshing than otherwise after his many days of confinement during which it had been impossible to get anything like a bath.
The river was rather swiftly flowing, and the young lieutenant allowed himself to be carried along by the current, meanwhile, however, striking out in the direction of the other shore. This he knew would be bringing him just so much closer to the firing-line. As he swam along he used his left leg, and thereby ascertained that the wound he had sustained was little more than a scratch, for which he was thankful.
Dave had passed down the river a distance of several hundred yards, and was within fifty rods of the opposite shore, when an object coming down the stream caught his attention. It was a large rowboat manned by two soldiers who were singing some sort of an army song in noisy, guttural tones.
“I’ll have to take care that those fellows don’t discover me,” the young lieutenant reasoned, and then struck out toward the distant shore in an endeavor to evade the on-coming craft.
Had the two soldiers in the boat been perfectly sober they would probably have kept on a straight course and passed Dave. But, as it chanced, both of them had been drinking heavily and were consequently somewhat befuddled. They managed their oars in anything but a skillful manner, and as a consequence when the boat was close to our hero it suddenly swerved around, hitting Dave in the shoulder.
The blow was not a hard one, but it was sufficient to send the young lieutenant under and to knock a good deal of the wind out of him. When he came up he was at the stern of the rowboat, and this he clutched with both hands.
“Ha! who is there, Hans?” bawled one of the German soldiers.
“I don’t know. Let us find out,” answered Hans, and, dropping his oar, he stumbled to the stern of the boat and caught Dave by both wrists. Then the other German soldier also leaped back, and between them they hauled Dave up and into the craft.