CHAPTER XXV
THE BLACK BOX
The three chums, standing in the wet and muddy trench, looked at one another as this significant remark was made. Bob either did not catch what was said, or did not understand, for he asked his companions:
“What did he say?”
“S. I. W.,” repeated Jerry.
“Self-inflicted wound,” translated Ned. “So Noddy Nixon did that to himself to get out of the big battle! Well, it’s just like the coward! I’m glad he isn’t in our company!”
“So am I,” added Jerry.
“Self-inflicted wound,” repeated Bob.
“Well, he’s out of the fighting now,” declared Ned, “though he’ll have the worst time he ever had in his life. He’d better be dead by a Hun shell.”
Silence fell upon the three in the trench while, not far from them, they could hear the commotion caused as Noddy was taken away to a hospital. And there, for some time, he remained safely if not comfortably in bed, while his companions endured 202 the mud and the blood of the trenches, meeting death and wounds, or just escaping them by a hair’s breadth to drive back the hordes of the Boches.