Then he would return and relieve his friend, who should proceed to do the same thing.

I foresaw that there would be some fun when the first batch returned, but I did not dare to protest.
I was desperately anxious to get past the Austrian frontier, for I had a half-notion we might be searched there, but Schenk took his _Sylvesterabend_ business so seriously that I would have risked a row if I had tried to argue.
The upshot was what I expected.

We got the first batch aboard about midnight, blind to the world, and the others straggled in at all hours next morning.

I stuck to the boat for obvious reasons, but next day it became too serious, and I had to go ashore with the captain to try and round up the stragglers.

We got them all in but two, and I am inclined to think these two had never meant to come back.