OFF FOR FRANCE
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
butter."
"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 class 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!"
[Illustration: 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 Snodgrass.