“Look away down yonder and tell me if that isn’t one of those monitors like my cousin Captain Stanislaus commands,” said George just then.
Josh tested his eagle eye and admitted that, while the surface of the river was misty, which fact made seeing difficult, he believed the other was right, and that the object they were looking at did resemble a “cheese-box on a raft” in marine architecture.
“Then we can’t be so very far above Belgrade,” Jack concluded.
“You mean the monitor may have been doing some of that shelling, do you?” questioned Buster.
“I don’t know about that, for none of us have seen any sign of firing aboard the boat; but she’s evidently anchored there to take part in protecting the Austrian troops that will soon be attempting to cross to hostile territory. So we must expect to haul in somewhere along here and wait for night to settle down.”
“It would be too risky to try and pass the monitor, I reckon you mean?” George asked.
“You remember how we were brought up with a round turn the other time,” he was reminded; “and if we refused to obey the summons to come alongside a second shot would sink us like a stone.”
“Whee! if one of those big shells ever struck this chip of a boat there wouldn’t be enough of her left for firewood,” asserted Josh. “So I say just as you do, Jack; we mustn’t be too brash and take chances. We can’t expect to fight the whole Austrian navy on the Danube. The word for us is diplomacy, remember that. We’ve got to play the Napoleon style of strategy if we hope to win out in this game.”
Jack allowed the boat to continue on her course for some little time longer. He did not mean to take unnecessary chances, but at the same time the further they were down the river before night set in the better, since it would shorten the time they expected to be in the danger zone.
He kept a wary eye on the anchored monitor, for all of them could by this time plainly see that it was one of those strange looking vessels, believed by Austria to be just suited to the waters of the Danube for offense and defense.