"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.