“And we could make up a little purse among us,” added the now penitent George, “enough to carry them across the border and into their own country.”
“That’s fine of you to mention that, George,” Jack told him, “but you are forgetting something. Serbia is at war with Austria, and so you see no trains can be running to the border that would allow a Serbian young fellow to pass. If he ever gets across the river to Belgrade it must be with our help.”
“You’ve got a plan fixed, I guess, Jack?”
“I’ve been thinking it over, and wanted to hear what your ideas might be before I mentioned it,” the other explained. “But, now that you ask me, I’ll tell you what I’d like to do. We can find room for them aboard the boat when we start in the morning. Unless we are overhauled on the way there’d be little danger on account of our having Serbians with us, a boy and a child at that.”
“I agree with you there, Jack,” said George, now evidently seeking to make all amends possible for having allowed himself to believe the stranger a desperate character, when in truth he was only a kind and protecting big brother.
“Ditto here,” added Josh glibly, as though he were a parrot.
“We will have to tie up by the time another night comes along,” continued Jack, “and if it’s cloudy we can hope to try and pass the hostile batteries by keeping in the middle of the river and just floating with the current, never showing a single light. But before that we might make a landing on the Serbian side and put the brother and sister ashore.”
Josh and George exchanged looks, nodding their heads as if in approval.
“Now, I call that a good scheme, if you want to know it,” declared the former.