“And then there was more excitement, I suppose,” said Jerry.
“There was—considerable,” admitted the professor. “Then you boys came in, and—well, it’s all over now. But I surely feared for a moment they might shoot my snake.”
“Yes, it was rather a close call,” observed Bob. “But did you have a good dinner with the colonel?”
“Listen to him, would you!” protested Ned. “All he can think of is eating!”
“Cut it out!” growled Bob, as Ned poked him in the ribs. “I just wanted to know what sort of feed they give the officers.”
“Oh,” said Jerry significantly. “Merely an academic interest, I suppose.”
“Sure!” assented Bob. “That’s all.”
“Well, the dinner was very good, though I cannot say that I remember what I ate,” confessed 34 the professor. “I was thinking too much of something else.”
“Do you mean you were puzzled as to how to study the effect of the noises of the French battlefields on grasshoppers and crickets?” asked Jerry.
“No,” and the professor shook his head. “This is an altogether different problem. It is, as I might call it, the problem of two girls.”