Jack glanced in every little while, and saw that George was getting on splendidly, having tied a tourniquet above the wound in order to stop the bleeding. He was now engaged in winding a bandage tightly around the arm in a most professional way.
The man appeared to be very grateful. He said something once in a while, but as none of them could understand a word of Magyar they had to guess at its meaning. Actions speak louder than mere words, however, so they knew that the patient appreciated their efforts in his behalf, and that he was trying to tell them as much.
Finally, to the great relief of Buster, the job was done, and the man had his coat on again, though that left sleeve hung empty at his side.
“And I want to say, George,” remarked Buster, as he shut off the light and handed the little pocket torch back to the owner, “that you did the job up as neat as wax. If ever I have the misfortune to get jabbed by a bullet I want to engage you as the chief surgeon right now. I’d feel myself in good hands, all right.”
Of course, this pleased George very much. It was not so very often that he did anything to call for such fulsome praise; but he knew Buster meant every word he uttered, because Buster was candid and sincere.
“I’m beginning to wonder what will strike us next,” George went on to say. “We are sure neutral in this world war, because one day we hold out a helping hand to a couple of young Serbs in trouble, and right afterwards pick a wounded Austrian out of a sinking pontoon and look after his hurts.”
“Well, that’s the way it goes,” asserted Buster, with a philosophical air. “You never can tell what will happen, and especially when there’s a silly old war on. We may run across others who are clinging to fragments of that bridge until we gather up a boatload.”
“Then there’d be nothing else for us to do but run over to the Austrian side of the river and land the whole bunch,” George told him.
Josh meanwhile had kept a good lookout. Several times he sighted other pontoons and floating planks, but as they did not happen to be in the direct way of the motorboat he had not given the warning whistle to cause Jack to stop.
He had watched in every case to ascertain whether there happened to be occupants to these boats, but discovered none. If men had floated away on them when the Serbian gun smashed the bridge, they must either have made their way to the shore and been taken off by search parties or else gone down into the depths.