“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 168 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. 169
“Feel all right?” asked Ned.