A QUEER QUESTION
So unexpected was the news given by the captured Boxwood Hall janitor
that for a moment or two Ned and Bob could scarcely believe it. That
the information, so much desired and so ardently sought after, should
come to them by accident, while, doubtless, Professor Snodgrass was
using every energy to that end, seemed scarcely believable. Yet there
could be no doubt of it. Still Ned was a bit cautious, and restrained
his stout chum from rushing to the hospital to tell Jerry.
"We don't want any mistake in this," remarked Ned. "Are you sure,
Nick, that this is the same Professor Petersen whom we mean, the same
one Professor Snodgrass means?"
"I don't see how there can be any mistake," declared the former
janitor. "I often heard Professor Petersen speak of Professor
Snodgrass, and I know him well enough. I could tell him in the dark."
"Yes, I guess that's right," assented Ned.
"But there may be two Professor Petersens--the name is not uncommon in
Germany, at any rate."
"There is no mistake," declared Schmouder. "I admit there may be
several Professor Petersens, but hardly two who would have nieces
named Dorothy Gibbs and Gladys Petersen."
"That seems to clinch it," declared Bob.
"Yes, I guess so," agreed his chum. "But what else can you tell us
about them, Nick, and where are the girls now?"
The German prisoner shrugged his shoulders.
"As for where they are now, I do not know," he answered. "My father
and mother live in a little town not far from Metz. It was there
Professor Petersen came sometimes to study and write his books, when
he was not in his own country or in your country, lecturing or
visiting Professor Snodgrass.
"Just before this terrible war, which I wish with all my heart I had
never seen, Professor Petersen came to this little town, bringing for
the first time his two nieces. I happened to be there on a visit--I
came to see my parents, and now I wish I hadn't.
"No, I will not say that!" quickly exclaimed the man. "I am glad I saw
them; but I wish I had sent for them to come to the United States to
see me. It would have been safer for them and me, for we shall lose
this war--I can see that."
"You said it!" declared Bob, with energy.
"Tell us all you can," urged Ned. "We have a great interest in finding
these girls."
"Well, I am sorry I cannot tell you more," replied Schmouder. "As I
said, I came back just before the war broke out, was caught and sent
to the army. I saw Professor Petersen in my home town then with the
two young ladies. There was some story about his having been
reconciled to them after a long estrangement, but I did not pay much
attention to that.
"All I know is that I saw the young ladies and knew they were the
nieces of the professor. They had been traveling in France and
Germany, it was said. Then the professor left just before war was
declared. He suspected it was coming, and said he had certain
investigations he wished to make before the fighting started. He left
the two young ladies in charge of my father and mother, telling them
he would be back as soon as he could, and that, thereafter, he would
look after them."
"What happened next?" asked Bob.
"The war," answered Schmouder succinctly. "That spoiled everything. I
had to go away and leave my parents. What has become of them I do not
know."
"Haven't you heard from them?" asked Ned.
"Not lately, no. Soon after I was forced to join the army I had a
letter, in which they told me they were going farther into Germany to
be safer."
"And what about the two girls and Professor Petersen?" Bob queried.
"What happened to Professor Petersen I cannot tell you," was the
answer. "As for his two nieces, my father wrote that they had gone on
some scientific expedition shortly after the professor left them, and
were not expected back for a month."
"Were they scientists too?" asked Ned.
"I believe so," answered the former janitor. "They loved study, as did
their uncle. At any rate they, too, went into the interior of Germany
just before the war broke out, and what has happened to them I do not
know any more than I know what happened to Professor Petersen."
"We can tell you what happened to him," said Ned. "He died in America,
and left a lot of money."
"So!" exclaimed Schmouder. "Well, it will do no one any good these
terrible days."
"Maybe it will, and perhaps it won't," replied Bob. "At any rate, he
left half his fortune to Professor Snodgrass on condition that our
friend find the two nieces and give them the other half of the
fortune."
"Ach! Well, I shall be glad if the young ladies get something," said
Schmouder.
"Yes, but the trouble is they won't get it if they can't be found,"
said Ned. "And Professor Snodgrass won't get anything, either. Now if
you could only tell us where these two girls are to be found,
why----"
"That I could not do--no one could in these days!" declared the
prisoner earnestly. "I will help you all I can. I am an American at
heart, and I hope you will believe me when I say that every gun I
fired sent its bullets only into the ground. I could not shoot at my
former friends. Germany is no longer a friend to me!"
"Nor to any one else," declared Bob. "Gee! but it's tough to be so
near the solution and then to fail."
"Don't give up yet," advised Ned. "We can tell Professor Snodgrass
what we have learned, and maybe he can find a way to get in
communication with the young ladies. It's a pity Professor Petersen
didn't give them half his fortune when he was alive, and save all this
bother."
"Yes, it would have been a good idea!" scoffed his chum. "The girls
and Professor Snodgrass would have been better off. But, as a rule,
people don't do that sort of thing. I haven't noticed your father--nor
mine--giving away half of his possessions. However, the money may be
lost entirely now. I don't see how it can be paid over, inherited or
whatever the term is anyhow, in these days. Maybe the war has wiped
out Professor Petersen's fortune."
"I hardly think that," said the former janitor. "He was not a German,
and his wealth was not in that country. He was a very careful man, and
if he left any money to any one you may be sure it is waiting for
them, wherever they are."
"That's the point!" exclaimed Bob. "The money may be all right, but we
can't find those for whom it is intended. And if Professor Snodgrass
can't locate the girls, all the fortune goes to a humane society."
"Ach! So?" exclaimed Nicholas Schmouder. "Well, it is better that than
Germany should get it. Please tell your friends that I did never fire
my gun at them--always into the ground," he said wistfully, as the
boys turned away from the prisoners' wire cage.
"We'll do the best we can for you," they said. But there was little
they could do to make life any easier for their old friend, who,
through no fault of his own, was in a bad predicament.
When next they had a chance to visit Jerry the two chums told him all
they had heard, and the wounded lad suggested that they should write
to Professor Snodgrass at once, urging him to come on and have a talk
with Schmouder. This Ned and Bob did, though there was no certainty
that their letter would reach the scientist, or that he would be able
to obey the instructions in it. They had his last address, but he was,
at best, uncertain in his movements, and now, with the great forward
movement of the American armies beginning, it was hard for any one to
get to the front.
"But we've found out something, anyhow," declared Ned. "The girls are
somewhere in Germany, if they are still alive, and it may be possible
for Professor Snodgrass to give them half the money and keep the other
half for his own necessities."
"Yes, it may, and it may not. I hope it will, though."
Jerry, thanks to the nature of his wounds and to his healthy
constitution, made a remarkably quick recovery, and though he was not
ready to go back to the front-line trenches when his chums had to
report for duty, it was probable that after their next rest period he
would join them.
It was hard for Ned and Bob to say good-bye to their chum. They might
never meet again, and they knew it. But it was the fortune of war, and
had to be borne.
Fate, however, was kind to them, and Ned and Bob were sent to a quiet
sector. After some slight skirmishes, which, however, were hard enough
on those engaged, they were again sent to the rear to recuperate.
There they found Jerry chafing against being kept out of the
fighting.
"Feel all right?" asked Ned.
"Sure! Never better. I want to get at the Huns again."
"Didn't hear from Professor Snodgrass, did you?" inquired Bob.
"No. But I wrote to him again. Schmouder has been sent back to the
rear to work with other prisoners, but I have his camp location so the
professor can interview him if he thinks it needful. And say, a rather
queer thing happened while you were away."
"What?" asked Ned.
"Well, Noddy Nixon came to see me."
"He did!" cried Bob. "Well, the nerve of that shrimp! After he took
our wood!"
"What did he want?" asked Ned.
"Oh, nothing in particular, as far as I could make out. Just seemed to
want to be friendly. Asked me a lot of questions about how I was
treated in the hospital and whether I got enough to eat."
"You did, didn't you?" asked Bob.
"Sure. But I don't quite see what Noddy was aiming at. However, I
didn't trouble my head much about it until yesterday."
"Why yesterday?" Bob demanded.
"Well, the surgeon who patched me up came and inquired if Noddy was a
particular friend of mine."
"Of course you told him he was!" laughed Ned.
"Like fun I did! No, I said I hadn't any use for him, but I didn't go
into particulars. After all, Noddy is fighting on our side."
"You mean he's making a bluff at it!" growled Bob. "But go on. Where
does the queer part come in?"
"Here," answered Jerry. "The surgeon told me Noddy took him to one
side and asked very particularly whether a wound in the hand or one in
the foot hurt the most. That's what he wanted to know."
"He did!" cried Ned. "Well, what's queer about that?"
"Don't you see," resumed Jerry, "it looks as though----"
But Jerry never finished that sentence, for as he was speaking came
cries of alarm from outside the hospital and the firing of several
guns, while some one shouted:
"An air raid! An air raid! The Huns are coming!"