“Paste it in your hat, George,” advised Josh, “for I reckon you’re the only one in the bunch liable to make trouble. If they want to take me back and give me free lodging, I’ll go as meek as Mary’s little lamb. But whatever you do, George, please be careful how you fling that German of yours around loose. If you called one of those fiery Hungarian officers a donkey by mistake I think he’d want to run you through the ribs with his sword.”
“Huh! wait and see. That German you pretend to make so much fun about may some day keep you from being hung or stood up against a blank wall. Stranger things than that have happened, let me tell you, Josh Purdue.”
“They keep pushing us right along,” announced Buster, beginning to feel quite an interest in the affair by this time.
“Get ready to give them the right of way, Jack,” jeered Josh. “We wouldn’t want to act greedy, you know, and claim the whole river. And when they whiz past look out you don’t get splashed, Buster.”
“Goodness! I hope you don’t mean to say they might swamp us away out here in the middle of the river. But there, I know you’re only being true to your name, Josh. Who’s afraid? You don’t get me to worrying any if I know it.”
“Look again and see what’s happening!” suddenly snapped George, with a ring of triumph in his voice.
“They’re waving to us, for a fact!” admitted Buster. “Now what d’ye suppose that can be for, Jack?”
“Just saluting our little flag, mebbe,” suggested the unconverted Josh.
“They are demanding that we pull up and wait for them, that’s what!” asserted George, with a superior air that he liked to assume on occasions like this.
“Is he right there, Jack?” asked Buster eagerly.