In order to effect, if possible, a cure of his friend, Professor Snodgrass, on the advice of the physicians treating Dr. Hallet, did not dispute this false idea. On the contrary he even encouraged it. The state of mind of the doctor accounted for his violent talk against the professor in the restaurant, and his queer actions led Marie, the pretty waitress, to give the queer scientist the name of “le cochon.” Of course that was not deserved.
“Did Dr. Hallet try to blow up the ship?” asked Ned.
“Of course not!” exclaimed Jerry. “That time we met him with the black box he imagined he was concealing some insects from the gaze of Professor Snodgrass, and also from us. He included us in his fear, it seems. There never was a bomb on the ship. All the accidents were due to defects in the machinery—the bursting of steam pipes and the like.”
“Yes, I’ve since heard that,” Ned admitted. “But I didn’t know whether or not Dr. Hallet might not have tried to set off a bomb.”
“Nothing like it!” laughed Jerry. “We were all wrong in thinking him that sort of man. He did act queerly, but it was because he was suffering from shell shock. And he made such a fuss about the chance that Professor Snodgrass might steal some scientific secrets that Captain Munson, at the doctor’s request and on the professor’s advice, posted a guard in front of the stateroom. It was not needed, of course.”
“Well, how did it happen we saw Professor Snodgrass in there?” asked Ned.
“He went in to see if he could not quiet the doctor, who had a sort of hysterical fit,” explained Jerry. “The ship’s surgeon suggested this. Professor Snodgrass also looked over some of the doctor’s papers and examined his specimens, hoping, thereby, to get a line on something that might turn his mind into a new channel. It was then we saw him. But he did not see us. Dr. Hallet closed the door quickly.
“But nothing seemed to answer; though, after a while, the doctor himself seemed to quiet down. He requested the guards to be taken away, and this was done. Then came the crash, and what happened to him since I don’t know. At the time the whales attacked us Professor Snodgrass said he wished Dr. Hallet could see them. He thought perhaps interest in them would give him the necessary shock which would bring back his reason.”
“Well, something must have happened to him,” said Ned. “He acted almost rational with me after you and the professor were lost overboard. As I said, two or three times he was on the verge of telling me something, but I can realize now that he was not normal. Then, after we were transferred to this warship, he acted strangely again.”
“But he is all right now,” said Professor Snodgrass, who came on deck again after a visit to his colleague. “His mind has cleared, and we are again united friends. He realizes what he has gone through, but he has no complete idea of how queerly he acted.”