"Very soon, once we're up the hill," said Steve. "The men can help there. They didn't know I had come back, but they will soon miss us and come back to see what has happened. Mischa has been my father's servant for years, and he would go through fire and water for me, I know."
"Good! Steve, have you noticed? They've stopped firing!"
"About time, too! What a lot of ammunition they have wasted! Well, they have plenty! We haven't, and when we shoot it will be when we're pretty sure that there are Austrians in the way!"
"Yes. Steady, now—careful! Don't jolt him even a little—it won't take much to start that bleeding up again."
Tenderly, carefully, they lifted the wounded man and got him on the stretcher. Then with the utmost care, lest they disturb the rough bandaging, they raised it. And when they had it up and were about to start, in broken step, to make the movement smoother, there came a fearful test of their nerve. A dull roar sounded behind them, and above their heads a whistling, shrieking sound, that they had learned to know well that night! It was the hiss of a shell, and in a moment it burst. But it had overshot the mark, and when it burst, though their hands shook, they held their firm grip on the stretcher, and that last, wanton shot had no more effect than its predecessors. It was the last. They finished the ascent safely. And there they found Mischa and the rest, who relieved them and carried the stretcher to the road a few hundred yards beyond, where, by great good luck, they met a marching regiment, with a real surgeon.
Their work for Obrenovitch was done.
CHAPTER VIII
A NEW EXPLOIT
Dick dropped into the background when they encountered the soldiers, and let Stepan do the talking. Now that the strain was over, he was feeling very tired and he wanted only to get to a place where he could sleep. But Stepan would not allow him to escape so easily. He told everyone within hearing of Dick's feat in going back to look for the wounded captain. The surgeon, bending over the bandages and making little adjustments, looked up quickly.