“Wasps!” cried Jerry, as he swung and swatted at some still buzzing around him. “What in the world did you expect to do with them, Professor Snodgrass? And why did you have them in the black box?”
“I had them to show to one of the headquarters officers,” was the answer. “But I think I had better postpone the explanation until we get 214 rid of our pursuers. Let’s go under those bushes. I think we shall be safe then,” and the professor unceremoniously dived under a clump of shrubbery, an example followed by Jerry and some of the others.
Ned and Bob, who had managed to accompany the professor and their tall chum, were stung several times before they, also, found shelter beneath the thick leaves, and howls of pain from a number of soldiers indicated that they, too, felt the stings of the insects.
For a while there was as bad a rout of the headquarters staff as if the Germans had overwhelmed it. But finally the insects were dispersed, most of them flying off to the woods, while those that remained were beaten off, so that the officers and men began to drift back again. The professor and the Motor Boys came out of hiding, and then curious looks began to be cast at the scientist and the black box, which was now empty. The displaced cover showed how the wasps had gotten out.
“Is this the new weapon for causing a German retreat that you promised to show me?” asked the colonel of the professor, trying not to smile as he put the question.
“Yes,” answered Professor Snodgrass, “it is. I am sorry, but I am afraid there are no specimens left to show you. Some one must have tampered 215 with the fastening of the case, and the insects came out.”
“I can offer personal testimony that they came out,” said the colonel, trying not to squirm. “They came, they saw, and they conquered. And all I have to say is that I thank you for your interest in the matter, but that we shall have to decline to add your new and very efficient, but uncontrollable, weapon to the Allied armament.”
“Does that mean you can’t use the wasps?” asked the professor.
“I’m afraid it does,” said the colonel. “You see they are too uncertain—like the poison gas the Germans first used. It came back on them. The wasps might do that to us.”
“Yes,” agreed the little scientist, “they might.”