“But it will be something to tell the folks back home,” said Bob, as the three chums sat down together, able to eat and talk without the fear of a German bullet or shell.
“Yes, if we ever get there,” admitted Ned.
“And, all this while, we haven’t heard a word from the professor,” said Jerry. “I’m worried about him.” 237
So were his chums, and if they could have seen their friend at that moment their anxiety would have been justified.
For briefly to chronicle the adventures that befell the little scientist: The morning he had wandered from his temporary French boarding place without his hat, he really had gone in pursuit of a strange and rare butterfly.
Then, as so often happened, he became so engrossed in his scientific work that he forgot all about everything else, and, before he knew it, he was miles away from home—or what passed for home in those days.
It was late afternoon when Professor Snodgrass finally captured the butterfly which had eluded him so long, and put it carefully away in a pocket case. Then he began to think about getting back. His stomach told him it was long past his dinner hour.
Just how it happened he never knew, and probably it would never happen again, but he managed to wander across No Man’s Land at a place secluded, and thinly guarded, and found himself behind the German lines.
Professor Snodgrass was not aware of this. He saw only that he was approaching a small French village down a pleasant valley, so far away from the immediate theater of war that the distant guns made but a dull rumble. 238
At first the little scientist thought it was his own humble village he was coming to, and it was not until he saw some German soldiers about, and noted the queer looks on the faces of the French inhabitants, that he realized his mistake.