“Did you hear the bluff he was throwing about trying to enlist in the air service?” asked Ned.
“Yes,” agreed his tall chum. “Talk about his being an expert flier! Say, do you remember his Tin Fly?”
“I should say so!” laughed Bob. “The flying machine that wouldn’t go up. That was a hot one! But keep quiet—he’s looking over this way.”
Noddy, indeed, seemed to have his attention attracted to the three friends. At first he looked uncomprehendingly, and then, as the features of the lads toward whom he had acted so meanly became plainer, he stared and finally exclaimed:
“What are you fellows doing here?”
“The same as you, I imagine,” was Jerry’s cool answer. “We are going to fight in France.”
Jerry said afterward he wanted to add that he and his chums had “volunteered” to do this fighting, but he did not think it would be quite fair to the drafted men with Noddy who, to do them justice, were in the same class as the best of patriots. The selective service law solved many problems, but Noddy’s was not among them. As the boys learned later, the town bully had done his best to evade the draft, and had only registered when threatened with military action. 55
Then he made a virtue of necessity and talked big about having tried to volunteer in the air service, only to be refused. But most of those who heard Noddy Nixon talk understood him, and were not at all taken in.
“Where’d you fellows train?” asked Noddy, moving over toward his Cresville acquaintances.
“Camp Dixton,” answered Ned. Then he added to Bob and Jerry: “Come on, fellows, I think our train’s about to pull out.”