"He's coming with a rush, I tell you!" said Giraffe, who had better opportunities for seeing than any of the others, so that it did appear as though at times it paid to have a neck that would stretch.
The ferryman had now thrown off the last rope and was stooping down to take hold of the setting pole. Another minute or so would decide the question.
Bumpus was so worked up that he could not keep still. As usual, he advanced some wild idea, for while not as a rule fertile in expedients there were times when it seemed as though that slow brain of the stout boy worked furiously.
"There, hang the luck, fellows, the ferryman has seen him!" burst out Bumpus, in the deepest disgust; "he's going to wait up for the soldier, and take him aboard."
"Our cake will be dough," added Giraffe, gloomily, "if it happens that the man on horseback comes from the town where we got turned back, and orders us to go back with him, to be shut up in a German dungeon. I've heard a lot about what terrible nasty places those fortress prisons are, but I never thought I'd be in danger of finding out for myself."
"Do we have to give in so tamely as all that?" asked Bumpus, with a spurt of spirit that would have become a warrior; "suppose now he does try to browbeat us, ought four husky scouts from good old America get down and kiss the shoes of just one bullying German soldier, because he wears a helmet on his head. Thad, it's up to you to say the word, and we'll all jump on him!"
"Don't be so rash, Bumpus!" Giraffe warned him, while Thad said:
"We'll wait and see what happens before we lay plans that must make every man of the Kaiser's army our enemy. Here he comes now. Every one keep a still tongue in his head but Giraffe; and while about it let's hide these little flags. If he asks who we are tell him the truth, though, remember, Giraffe!"
The horseman was now coming down the bank. Already he seemed to eye the four passengers aboard the ferryboat, as though they interested him more or less.
"What is it?" asked the other, in a whisper.
"You might take occasion to ask the ferryman while we're crossing, whether we can strike the road leading north to Grevenbroich, after getting over. Get that name, do you?"