too."

"As to Greece, I cannot say. Her people are not Slavs. But we and the
Bulgarians are blood brothers. We would not have fought except for
Austrian trickery and Austrian lying--that they call diplomacy."

"Will Bulgaria fight again in this war?"

"I do not know. There is a great effort being made to revive the Balkan
League and add Roumania to it. Roumania is stronger than any of us now,
because, though she helped us at the end of the war with Bulgaria, she
did no real fighting at all, and it did not exhaust her to gain what she
did from the wars. If we can win what Austria denied us before, and
Bosnia and Herzegovina, perhaps, as well, we will not grudge Bulgaria
what we had to keep from her in Macedonia after the war with Turkey, and
we will help her, too, to recover Adrianople. You remember that the
Turks took that back from her when we had beaten her down."

"So Bulgaria may be on your side?"

"Yes. And I think it very likely, because she is near us and far from
Austria, which might offer to help her. If she attacked us, too, Greece
would come to our aid. But that depends on many things. If Russia helps
us, that will make a difference. And it is a question of what Italy will
do, also. But this is not getting us anywhere. You are game to come with
me?"

"Yes."

"Then let us start. We are going to get a motor boat on the Danube--not
on the Save--and try to run the gauntlet of the Austrian monitors. I
think it is safe enough, because they believe that they have the river
entirely under their control. I think it will be easier to get into
Semlin than it was to get out last night."

"Well, I'm ready whenever you give the word."

CHAPTER IX

BACK TO SEMLIN

It was beginning to grow dark when they set out from Steve's house.

Maritza, the old servant who seemed to idolize Steve, had given them a
wonderful meal. Dick liked the old peasant woman. She reminded him of
the stories he had read of old southern mammies. It was plain that she
was wholly devoted to the Dushan family, and that she would do anything
for them. But in spite of that, she ordered Steve around as if he had
been a child of her own, and Steve, who seemed to Dick to possess a
goodly share of independence, accepted her orders with the utmost
meekness.

"She was with the family before I was born," he explained. "I can
remember how she used to order me about when I was a little chap. And
she's pretty nearly as bad with my father, t