This touching story moved all of the boys profoundly and weighed on their spirits to such an extent that Alan finally said:
“What do you fellows say to playing the Good Samaritan and taking Lieutenant Racoszky out of here in the _Flyer_ to some place where he can get the medical attention that his bravery deserves?”
“That’s just what I was thinking,” answered Bob.
“And I,” echoed Buck. “But where shall we take him?”
“Why not to Vienna, the capital? The very best hospitals and surgeons in the country are there and--so are his wife and baby. The sight of them would undoubtedly do him as much good as all of the expert medical attention he would receive.”
“The very thing! A great idea!” exclaimed the other boys. “But what about that crabbed old count, her father! Do you think that he will relent enough to permit Racoszky to see his daughter?”
“That,” said Ned briefly, “is up to us and can, I think, be managed. Anyway, it certainly is worth the trial. Now let’s go to the commandant and see if he will permit us to remove the lieutenant.”
The governor, they found, was only too pleased to afford his faithful officer this unexpected chance of recovery, and helped remove the invalid to a soft bed they had made ready in the airship’s spare stateroom.
“By nightfall we shall have him in competent hands there in Vienna,” said Ned, already at the wheel.
“Good luck and tell them there in the capital that Przemysl still holds out,” called the commandant.
“No fear that we won’t do that!” the boys cried, and, amid the increasing whir and roar of the powerful propellers, the _Ocean Flyer_ once more swept up into the sky and out over the great plain where the Russian encampment lay.
Buck threw a large, black, pear-shaped object overboard and down at the crowd below waving good-byes.
“Great heavens, what was that? A bomb?” exclaimed Bob, startled.
“No,” Buck replied solemnly, “that was a smoked ham--our last one, too.”
The course of the _Flyer_ to the Austro-Hungarian capital was southeasterly, and it was already dusk by the time the vicinity was reached. Had it only been lighter the boys might have been treated to a magnificent view of the outlying ranges of the Alps directly in front of them, with the ancient historic city lying there below on the right bank of the lordly Danube.