“You’re of a whole lot of consequence plenty of times, George,” said Josh just then, “and we all acknowledge the corn; but for goodness’ sake please give us a change of tune now. We’ve been hearing about Cousin Stanislaus until even the swallows swinging past seem to be chirping the name; and I expect the fish will give it to us, too, if we catch any to-night.”
George looked a little hurt in his feelings at this thrust, but he subsided all the same, going off by himself where he could ponder upon the freaks of fortune that had thrown him in contact with this relative at the other side of the world, so to speak. From time to time he would smile as though his thoughts were pleasant ones; but none of the others interrupted his meditations.
The day drew near a close, and as they had really come up to Jack’s expectations it might be set down as possible that they would camp somewhere close by the place marked with a cross on the chart.
That would mean only one more day’s journey before they must find themselves in the vicinity of battle scenes, if, as they suspected, the Austrians had started to bombard Belgrade and were being answered shot for shot from their fortifications by the valiant Serbian gunners.
They were fortunate enough to find a particularly good camp site. It was in the midst of some trees that offered them all the comforts they could wish for. At the same time they had no reason to believe they were anywhere near a town, and the river in this spot looked quite lonely and deserted; at least there was no other war monitor in sight, from the deck of which their movements might be observed and deemed suspicious enough to warrant a visit of investigation.
As evening drew on they tied the boat securely and built a fire close by. Buster, as usual, insisted on taking charge of the cooking, while the rest lay around or gathered fuel for the fire.
It was while moving about with this latter purpose in view that Jack suddenly came upon a crouching figure in the brush. At his exclamation the unknown party struggled to his feet. Jack had been alarmed at first, not knowing but what there might be bandits in that vicinity. He quickly saw, however, that he had a peaked looking and very hungry fairly well grown boy to deal with.
Not wishing to let the other see that he had been startled, Jack immediately demanded to know who he was and why he was spying on them. The other made motions to let Jack understand he could not speak English. He then went on to say something in rapid tones, but it was all Greek to Jack.
However, from his appearance and the motions he made to his mouth, as well as showing how empty his stomach was, it was easy to judge that it was the smell of the cooking supper that had drawn him.
“Stay with us, then, and share our meal,” suggested Jack, mostly in pantomime; and evidently his gestures must have had a convincing way of their own, for the hungry boy immediately nodded his head, said something in a fervent tone, and, to Jack’s embarrassment, proceeded to kiss his hand violently.