unbridged.

"Yes, the war has come!" said Steve impressively. "That was to be our
first act--the destruction of the bridge. They will not send their
troops into Servia so easily as that!"

"P--ss--t!"

A sharp hiss came to their ears, seemingly from the water. And not only
seemingly. Looking down, they saw the upturned face of a swimmer. Mischa
hailed him joyfully.

"Peter!" he said.

"Take this rope. We saw what had happened," said the swimmer, "and so I
swam out, and waited until their accursed searchlight was not playing on
you. We will draw you ashore. If they fire, lie low in the boat, and
they will never hit you. But you are safe now unless the searchlight
comes back again. They can never see you in this darkness."

"Good man, Peter!" said Steve, his voice hushed. "Swim back, now. We
have the rope. It is better for you not to come into the boat now."

Peter did not answer, but turned at once and began cutting the water
with long, powerful strokes. Nevertheless, though he made good progress,
he disturbed the water very little, and he had not gone more than a few
yards before it was almost impossible for even those in the boat to see
him. Only a faint rippling of the water behind him marked his trail.

"That was good work," said Dick, admiringly. "We'll get ashore safely
yet, Steve! And a minute ago it certainly didn't seem possible."

There was a tug at the rope a moment later. The searchlights were still
turned downstream, and now there was a brisk cannonading from the Semlin
batteries. There had been no more explosions. It was plain, as, indeed,
they had already been able to see, that the Servian sappers who had
mined the railway bridge had done their work well.

"Down in the boat now!" said Dushan. "They are drawing on the rope, and
they'll begin pulling us along in a moment. I'm going to try to keep
her as she is, but it may be hard if they pull too fast. If they will
keep their searchlight away for just five minutes, we shall be all
right."

"You'd better make that rope fast to something in the boat instead of
just holding on to it," said Dick. "If you don't, you might lose your
hold. Remember how Mischa lost his oars."

"That's a good idea, Dick. I didn't think of it. Here, it's looped
around one of the thwarts now. That ought to hold it all right, if they
do hit me."

Then they all dropped, and in a moment the boat was being drawn along
swiftly through the water. It proved impossible to kee