“The same!” laughed Ned; and Jerry chuckled so at the recollection of one of the jokes of their college days that the nurse was forced to say she 159 would order his chums away unless he remained more quiet.
“I’ll be good!” promised the tall lad. “But that is rich! How did it happen?”
“Don’t know,” admitted Ned. “I’m going to have a talk with him if I can.”
“Let me know what he says,” begged Jerry. “I don’t suppose you have heard anything about the professor or his quest for the two girls?”
“No,” answered Bob. “I guess he’ll never find them. It’s worse than looking for a cent down a crack in the boardwalk at Atlantic City. But I don’t suppose you could convince the professor of that.”
“No,” agreed Jerry. “I’m mighty sorry, too. You remember what he said about losing the money he had lent to a friend of his and needing this bequest from Professor Petersen. Well, if you see or hear from him let me know. I won’t be able to get about for a week—maybe more.”
Bob and Ned stayed until the nurse sent them away, but they promised to call again as soon as allowed. Then, as they were relieved from duty, they went to an officer and received permission to talk to the prisoner, Nick Schmouder, after explaining about him.
The man had been a janitor at Boxwood Hall when Ned, Bob, and Jerry attended there. He had been a good friend to the three chums, and, 160 as mentioned, had assisted them in performing what they were pleased to term a “joke.”
The boys had forgotten all about him, and it was with the utmost wonder they met him again under such strange and strenuous circumstances.
“How did you come to get into the war?” asked Bob, as he and Ned talked to the prisoner, who was in a wire cage with hundreds of others.