"But we can't get on!" exclaimed Roger. "Those Germans don't seem to have any guns, but they're two to our one, not counting those lying down. We can't get on the raft, Jimmy." "We've got to!" was the desperate answer. "We'll fight 'em with bare knuckles for a place there. It's our lives or theirs! Roger, we've got to fight!" and Jimmy rolled up his sleeves while the raft with the four live Germans and three dead ones swept nearer and nearer to the rock that formed a refuge for the two Khaki Boys. CHAPTER XX THE CAVE FIGHT Perilous in the extreme was the strait in which Jimmy and Roger found themselves. They realized that they could not remain very long on the rock in mid-stream in their present weakened end drenched condition. It was barely large enough for them, and just as the raft came in sight a new peril became manifest. This was the fact that the river was rising. Roger had noticed it and called Jimmy's attention to it just as the Germans came around a bend in the stream. There had been considerable rain, and more was in prospect. The stream would probably rise suddenly, and then it would be impossible for the Khaki Boys to maintain their position on the rock. The torrent would sweep over it. But a more immediate need confronted them. They felt that they must take refuge on the raft as the only means of getting out of the desperate situation where fate had swept them. "Get ready!" called Jimmy to his chum, as a swirl of the current brought the raft nearer the rock. "What's the game to be?" asked Roger. "We'll leap on the raft as it floats past. If the Germans will let us share it with them, well and good. If not--well, we'll just have to fight them, that's all. As I said, it's our lives or theirs." "If they haven't any arms we stand a chance," returned Roger. "But if they try any shooting----" "I don't believe they have a gun or a revolver," interrupted Jimmy. "If they had, they'd have begun shooting before this. Come on now, get ready!" The attitude of the Germans on the raft, at least those who by their attitude showed themselves to be unwounded, or at best but slightly wounded, was strange. They seemed stunned, as if they had passed through some terrible experience. And, as Roger and Jimmy learned later, the men had taken part in a desperate engagement, and their whole command had been practically wiped out. These few had managed to escape to the raft, but the horror of what they had gone through seemed to make them temporarily incapable of using all their faculties. It was due to this, perhaps, that Roger and Jimmy were able to accomplish what they did. For as they leaped aboard the raft, there was only slight resistance at first. One or two of the Germans tried to push the lads off, and they would have succeeded had they used their strength to its best advantage.