Ned, Bob and Jerry on the Firing Line Part 8

Noddy Nixon needs no introduction to my old readers. This rich and impudent lad had, more than once, done his best to injure the Motor Boys, and, with the plotting of Jack Pender and Bill Berry, a Cresville n'er-do-well, had too often succeeded.

"Well, I don't see anything of Bill or Jack," observed Jerry, as he looked toward Noddy Nixon, and noted, that the bully was surrounded by a group of strange recruits.

"Yes, if he's by himself he won't be so hard to handle," agreed Ned.

"But I wonder where he came from? He ought to be in jail!"

"I suppose he came from some training camp--same as we did," observed Bob. "And he looks as though he had been well fed, too. He's as fat as b.u.t.ter."

"That's Chunky all over--thinking of the eating end," laughed Ned.

"Yes, Noddy is fat all right--too fat!" declared Jerry. "He hasn't been drilled as hard as we have, or else he got a desk position somewhere and held on to it."

"Did you hear the bluff he was throwing about trying to enlist in the air service?" asked Ned.

"Yes," agreed his tall chum. "Talk about his being an expert flier!

Say, do you remember his _Tin Fly_?"

"I should say so!" laughed Bob. "The flying machine that wouldn't go up. That was a hot one! But keep quiet--he's looking over this way."

Noddy, indeed, seemed to have his attention attracted to the three friends. At first he looked uncomprehendingly, and then, as the features of the lads toward whom he had acted so meanly became plainer, he stared and finally exclaimed:

"What are you fellows doing here?"

"The same as you, I imagine," was Jerry's cool answer. "We are going to fight in France."

Jerry said afterward he wanted to add that he and his chums had "volunteered" to do this fighting, but he did not think it would be quite fair to the drafted men with Noddy who, to do them justice, were in the same cla.s.s as the best of patriots. The selective service law solved many problems, but Noddy's was not among them. As the boys learned later, the town bully had done his best to evade the draft, and had only registered when threatened with military action.

Then he made a virtue of necessity and talked big about having tried to volunteer in the air service, only to be refused. But most of those who heard Noddy Nixon talk understood him, and were not at all taken in.

"Where'd you fellows train?" asked Noddy, moving over toward his Cresville acquaintances.

"Camp Dixton," answered Ned. Then he added to Bob and Jerry: "Come on, fellows, I think our train's about to pull out."

None of the Motor Boys had any relish for talk with their former enemy. As for Noddy, he seemed to think he was doing them a favor by noticing them, and as they turned away he said:

"Camp Dixton isn't in it with Upyank, where our bunch was trained!

We'll show you when we get to France!"

"I hope we don't run across him," murmured Jerry, as they got back to their seats, for Ned's alarm had proved true, and their train soon did pull out. Noddy and his crowd were a little later in starting from the junction, and then, as the Motor Boys were hauled on to their destination to embark for France, they discussed the past doings of the bully, and wondered how he would conduct himself in war.

From that they switched to the more pleasant topic of the recent visit of the girls, and speculated on what had become of Andy Rush.

"They might enlist him and let him talk some of the Huns to death,"

suggested Ned. "He could do that to perfection. But I'm afraid he's too small to get in the army."

"I wonder if we'll ever find the professor's two girls?" ventured Bob, meaning thereby Gladys Petersen and Dorothy Gibbs.

"I don't believe we'll have much time to look for them, if the fighting keeps up as fiercely as it has," and Jerry handed his chums a paper he had purchased, which gave a detailed account of some of the first fighting of the American Expeditionary Force, in the Toul sector, at Seicheprey. This fighting had taken place in April, and it was late in June when Ned, Bob and Jerry, with others from their camp, were on their way to France in that great movement of troops which was to prove the turning, and winning, point of the war. The account in the paper of the fighting at Seicheprey was a delayed one sent through the mail by a correspondent.

"Yes, it is getting hot," observed Ned. "But still we promised the professor we'd help him look for the girls."

"And so we shall, if we get the chance," declared Jerry. "I know what it would mean to the professor if he lost his half of the fortune and had to give up his work on the insects of the Amazon. Oh, we'll help him all right!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: THOUSANDS OF SOLDIERS WERE CROWDING ON BOARD.

_Ned, Bob and Jerry on the Firing Line._ _Page 57_]

The journey of the boys to the "Atlantic Seaport," as Hoboken and New York, as well as other well-known cities, were called in the newspapers during the war, was not eventful. Their train was one of many hundreds rushing troops to the transports, and in due time Ned, Bob and Jerry found themselves getting off at a big dock in Hoboken and going aboard a transport--a former German liner, her machinery rebuilt after the ship's German crew had done their best to disable it.

"Well, we're here!" announced Jerry, as he eased his pack from his shoulders to the deck, an example followed by Ned and Bob.

"Yes, we're here, and we'll soon be--there!" and Ned nodded in the direction of France--or where he thought it was.

Somewhere a band was playing. Thousands of soldiers were crowding on board, and there would be more thousands after them--a stream that would not end until Prussianism had been dealt its death-blow.

There was a period of seeming chaos while the troops were getting settled and disposing of their baggage. Then the three chums had a chance to look about them, and proceeding to the stern of the vessel they glanced across the Hudson to New York, where the towering buildings showed dimly through a harbor haze.

"Wonder when we'll see them again," remarked Jerry, in a low voice.

Neither of his chums answered. They were thinking, though.

Late that afternoon the preparation and bustle seemed redoubled. More soldiers and a number of officers came aboard, and then, suddenly, after bugles had blared and bells had clanged, there was a tremor through the big transport.

"We're off!" cried Bob.

"For France!" added Ned.

"And I'm glad to be with you!" said a voice behind Jerry, who, turning, beheld Professor Snodgra.s.s.

CHAPTER VIII

THE TRAINING CAMP

My readers may well guess that Ned, Bob and Jerry were glad to see the scientist. He was like part of their "own folks," and though they had many friends among their army chums, and though they liked, and were liked, by their officers, our three heroes felt that with Professor Snodgra.s.s along it was like taking part of Cresville aboard with them.

"So you got here all right, did you?" asked Ned with a smile, as he and the others shook hands with the scientist.

"Yes, I'm here; and I wish we were across. I dread the voyage."

"Submarines?" asked Jerry.

"Oh, no, I wasn't thinking of them," answered the professor. "But I am anxious to get across, not only to begin my study of the effect of war noises on European insects, but to search for those two young ladies.

I have been reading considerable about war conditions in France and Germany since Professor Petersen made me his part heir, and I fear the young ladies may have a hard time."

"Yes, they are very likely to," a.s.sented Ned. "But until we get there we can't do anything to help them. However, we'll do our best for you and them when we do get there--if we have a chance--after getting a Hun or two," he added.