CHAPTER X
CLEVERLY DONE
"My stars! it's us they're after, fellows!" Buster was heard to gurgle,when the knocks ceased as suddenly as they had begun.
No one had to be told that, for they all knew it just as well as Buster.George turned an anxious look on Josh; and then, perhaps unconsciouslyplacing their hopes on their leader, both of them wheeled to face Jack.
"I knew we'd be sorry if ever we tried stopping over at one of theseratty little towns," muttered George.
"But there they start to knocking again!" exclaimed Josh. "If we don'tdo something, and pretty quick at that, they'll start to pulling thisshanty down over our heads, even if it is made of stones."
Jack had to think fast. He knew Josh spoke the truth, and that so far asoffering resistance went they were practically helpless against the mob.He could easily imagine how in some manner suspicion had been excitedagainst the four young strangers stopping over night at the river town.One word would lead to another in these exciting times, until all sortsof extravagant surmises must result; and finally some bold spirit musthave suggested that they proceed to the boathouse and drag the unknownparties out, to question, perhaps hang them.
So far as trying to escape was concerned, it seemed equally hopeless.Besides the double door there was also the small one, which theproprietor had securely locked before leaving them. Both led to thestreet.
To be sure, there were the water gates, but to leave in that way mustnecessitate abandoning their motorboat, something the boys would be lothto do. Further than this, there was no small boat handy, even if theycould manage to get it out on the river without being noticed andpursued.
As to attempting to swim off, that was impossible, since they could notmake any headway with their clothes on, and leaving these behind was notto be considered for a minute.
So Jack quickly decided that the only thing left for them was to throwopen the double doors and trust to their customary good luck to makefriends with the clamorous mob without.
"I'm going to open up, fellows," he told the others. "You keep back ofme, and say nothing unless I ask you to speak. Leave it all to me tomanage."
"You just bet we will, Jack," assented Josh.
"I should say yes," Buster hastily added.
"It's a risky thing to do, Jack," remarked George, "but seems that wehaven't got much of a choice. We're between the devil and the deep sea.Go ahead, then, and let's see how our luck holds good."
Jack waited no longer. Indeed, it would have been dangerous to have heldthe clamorous crowd in waiting much longer, for their pounding on thedoor had assumed a more threatening phase, several having taken it uponthemselves to pick up heavy stones, with which they started to beat thewoodwork furiously, while all manner of loud cries arose.
Suddenly the double doors were swung wide open. The outcries ceased asif by magic. Jack, looking out, saw that fully fifty people stood in themoonlit street. Most of them were men and boys, though a sprinkling ofwomen could also be seen.
They were typical Hungarians, just such people as one would expect tomeet in a river town along the lower Danube. Some were flourishing whatappeared to be clubs, and the whole aspect of the mob lookedthreatening indeed.
It required considerable nerve to calmly face this crowd, but Jackactually smiled, and waved his hand in friendly greeting, while Busterheld his breath in very awe, and the other two trembled a little betweenexcitement and alarm.
One burly man in the front of the mob called out harshly. Jack could notfor a certainty know what he said, but it was easy to guess he must bedemanding who they were, where they came from, and what they were doingin this part of the country in these perilous times.
So Jack, waving his hand to entreat silence, called out:
"Is there any one here who can talk English!"
Somehow his question created considerable surprise. Evidently the crowdhad suspected that they were Serbians or natives of Montenegro, both ofwhich states at the time were antagonistic to Austria-Hungary.
Several voices were heard announcing that they could understand andspeak the English language. Jack swept his eyes around to see who thesepersons were, and, discovering that one of them stood in the front rankof the crowd, he pointed at the man as he went on to say:
"Please push your way up here. We will tell you everything you want toknow, and you can explain to your friends."
The man did so, looking very important. Perhaps that was the first timein all his life that he had been called upon to act in such a capacityas interpreter, and he felt as though placed upon a pedestal.
"Now, if you will please give me a chance, all of you," continued Jack,"I will with the greatest pleasure tell everything. In the first place,we are not, as you think, English boys, but Americans. Of course, youknow about America, for we have many thousands of good Hungarians overthere working with us, who send millions on millions of dollars backhome every year for the old folks. Tell them what I have just said, willyou?"
The man had listened intently. He collected his wits, and then, turningaround so as to face the rest, commenced speaking. At the same time hemade good use of both hands, in the Hungarian fashion, to emphasize hispoints.
Some few of the more unruly made remarks among themselves as heproceeded, but on the whole the crowd listened intently. It was alreadyapparent to Jack that he had gone about the business in the right way,and had succeeded in making a good impression.
He had read recently in a paper, whether it were true or not, that thetens of thousands of Hungarians in the United States, men in the minesand working on public improvements, and girls in service, sent back homeduring the course of a year as much as a hundred and fifty milliondollars. Even if a third of that amount came across the sea it could beunderstood that the people of the dual monarchy must have a very tenderspot in their hearts for _America_, where so many of their compatriotswere making big wages and happy.
"Keep it moving, Jack," whispered Josh. "I tell you they're already onthe run. Lay it on thick, and don't spare the adjectives. They like tohear things praised up to the skies. And say something nice about oldFrancis Joseph, because, you know, they worship him."
"Cut it out, Josh," growled George; "leave Jack alone to run this game,can't you?"
The man had by now finished telling what Jack had said to him. He againturned with a look of expectancy on his face, waiting for the second"installment of the story," as Josh afterwards called it.
"We are American boys," continued Jack, "who have come over here on avacation. In our own country we own three motorboats, with which weoften cruise up and down the Mississippi River and others. So, havingheard so much about your beautiful blue Danube, we made up our minds tospend a month or six weeks voyaging down it. This boat does not belongto us. We hired it from a man in a town part-way between Vienna andBudapest. We can show you the paper both parties signed proving how wepaid a certain sum in advance for the use of it until we reached theBlack Sea. Now tell them all that, please, while I get our Americanpassports ready to show you, as well as letters we have received fromour home while in Budapest."
It took the interpreter a long time to translate all this. He struggledheroically to master every detail, though Jack feared he might get mixedmore or less in his endeavor to find words to express the Englishmeaning.
The crowd listened intently.
It would have been amusing to watch their faces as seen in the brightmoonlight had the danger element been lacking. As it was, the boys werestill on the anxious seat, not knowing "which way the cat would jump."
Jack was the exception, it may be said. He felt that his tactics and thefrank way he was taking the crowd into his confidence had already madea favorable impression upon most of the men. They in turn would be aptto suppress any of the more boisterous spirits who might feel likegetting out of bounds.
Truth to tell, it was as much the manner of Jack Stormways as what hesaid that worked this change in the feelings of the populace. No one ofintelligence
could very well look upon his smiling face and believe illof him.
By the time the man had managed to translate all that second batchof explanations to his fellows Jack was ready for him again. He hadmeanwhile collected from the other three their passports, properly visedthrough the efforts of the American consul in Vienna, and also severalletters addressed to the general delivery at Budapest, with the Americanstamps and postmarks to prove where they had come from.
These papers he now handed to the man who could speak and read English.Each one Jack opened and explained, after asking Josh to fetch the lampforward so that its light could be utilized.
Meanwhile the crowd listened and pushed and gaped, some exchanging lowcomments; but Buster was delighted to see that the threatening gestureshad stopped. From this he felt that Stormways' stock was rising fastand would soon bull the market.
It took a long time to go over the four passports with their seals, andthen read extracts from the letters. The man spoke several times, askingquestions, which proved that he meant to conduct his examination in athorough manner. Jack was in truth pleased to find that he had to dealwith so intelligent a party, for the travelers had really nothing toconceal.
He even mentioned about the three Hungarian officers who had overtakenthem some miles below Budapest, coming in a speed launch, and how theyhad parted the best of friends after looking the boys over.
Seeing that the crowd was becoming impatient, Jack cut his explanationsshort and asked that the interpreter make his report to his friends. Hehad taken the advice of shrewd Josh, and managed to speak highly of theaged emperor; while this may have been done artfully as a stroke ofdiplomacy, Jack really knew nothing but good of Francis Joseph, of whomhe had often read, so that he did not feel that he was attempting anydeception.
Still holding the sheaf of passports, the man started to harangue thecrowd. He seemed to improve as he gained new confidence, and Jack sawthat he was something of a crude born orator, able to sway others bythe force of his will and words.
Jack believed the best part of their luck lay in having picked on thisparticular man. Another might have bungled things and made them worsethan they were originally.
It took a very long time to explain about the papers, the letters andeverything else. Jack even heard the man mention the emperor's name, andfrom this judged that he was repeating what the boy had said in orderto prove that the four strangers from America were favorable to theAustrian side of the controversy.
"He's got 'em whipped to a standstill, Jack," muttered Josh in the earof the other. "They'll do whatever he tells 'em, you mark me. I guess Ican read all the signs if I can't understand the lingo."
Jack himself believed the same thing. He no longer felt his heart heavywithin him, with the prospect of having their fine cruise broken off andthemselves thrown into some prison, from which it would take all theefforts of the American Ambassador to release them.
Before the man who was speaking had finished there were desertions fromthe mob, possibly some of those more ardent spirits who had hoped tohelp hang a suspected Serbian spy and were grievously disappointed.
When the speaker closed with what seemed to be a fervent perorationthere followed a general shout and much waving of hands. Jack caughtthe one word America, and judged that the cheers were intended for hisnative land, for surely many of these people had good reason to think ofthe haven of the oppressed as a Paradise flowing with gold, milk andhoney.
Then the mob began to disintegrate. A number who could speak Englishcame crowding around. They wished to shake hands with the fourstout-hearted lads who were not to be deterred from continuing theirhazardous voyage down the Danube by the mere fact that hostilitieshad begun, and that there must be heavy firing between the Austrianbatteries and monitors and the hostile forces in Belgrade, the Serbiancapital, situated on the southern bank of the river.
By degrees they went away, after giving this popular demonstration.Somehow Buster changed his mind completely after seeing how those sameshouting men could turn into friends. He even remarked afterwards thathe thought the Hungarians were a warm-hearted race, and that he wasgrowing to like them immensely; though when he first saw the mob hebelieved they were a lot of cutthroats eager for the lives of helplessAmerican boys.
The interpreter was the last to go. Jack was seen to shake handsheartily with him for the third time ere saying good-by.
"I reckon now, Jack," remarked George, as they closed the double doorsonce more, shutting out the bright moonlight, "you slipped a bill ofsome kind in that fine fellow's hand the last time you said good-by tohim?"
"Never mind about that, George," retorted the other; "if I did, that'sbetween the two of us, and nobody need know about it. It was worth tentimes as much just to see the way he swayed that crowd. From howling atus they came to cheer us, and a good deal of the change was due to hisoratory."
"As for me," piped up Buster, with a great sigh of relief, "I never willforget this experience. There was a time at first when I thought ofhaving my head put on a pike and carried in a procession around town,just like the mob used to do in the French Revolution; or, if it wasn'tthat, I expected they'd get a rope and swing us all up, Wild Westernway. I tell you I'm shaking yet from being so anxious about youfellows."
Josh and George laughed at hearing this, and the whole of them went backto their seats.