“And what happened to you? Did the Sherman sink?”
It was Ned who asked the first question, Jerry who propounded1 the second. And then he and Ned and Bob clasped hands while about them stood a circle of cheering sailors and soldiers on board the war vessel2.
A boat had been sent to bring the refugees from the Altaire, and when Jerry and his chums were safe on board and the cruiser had moved sufficiently3 far away to be out of danger, the derelict was blown up. Afloat she would be a constant menace to navigation, and it was impossible to salvage4 her.
It was following this necessary destruction of what had once been a fine vessel that Ned and Jerry questioned one another.
Then came explanations. Jerry told how he had managed to get aboard the derelict, and how[238] he had been joined by Bob, the professor, and Judd. And, in his turn, Ned described the life aboard the transport, his talk with Dr. Hallet, and their transfer to the warship5.
“Where is Dr. Hallet now?” asked Jerry.
“He’s shut up in his cabin, I imagine,” answered Ned. “Somehow, he managed to get a cabin to himself. He seems to avoid me. I declare I don’t know what it all means.”
At that moment a steward6 approached Professor Snodgrass, who was standing7 in the group that included Ned, Bob and Jerry.
“Dr. Hallet wishes to see you,” the steward said to Professor Snodgrass. “He has heard of your rescue.”
“Wishes to see me!” exclaimed the little scientist. “Dear me, this is rather extraordinary! I don’t know whether to see him or not!”
“The surgeon told me to tell you, sir,” added the steward, “that Dr. Hallet is perfectly8 normal again. All his trouble has gone, and he is himself once more.”
“Oh, in that case of course I’ll see him!” exclaimed the professor. “It’s all right, boys!” he added to Bob and Jerry. “He must have had the necessary shock to bring back his reason. I hope it will never leave him again. I’ll go to see him at once. I am rejoiced to hear this good news!”
As the professor hurried away Ned looked curiously[239] at his two chums. Then he began to question them.
“Say, what’s it all about?” he asked. “What does the professor mean when he says Dr. Hallet has recovered his reason? Has he been crazy?” burst out Ned.
“Practically so, yes, though harmless,” said Jerry. “The professor explained everything to us while we were on the Altaire. Did you begin to suspect anything?”
“I didn’t know what to think, nor what to expect or suspect,” answered Ned. “At one time Dr. Hallet seemed about to tell me everything, and explain a lot of queer circumstances. Then something happened—I think it was when our wireless9 got to working—and there was too much excitement to think of anything but a rescue. Since we’ve been on this warship the doctor has avoided me. I declare I didn’t know what to think.”
“Nor did we until the professor explained,” said Jerry. “It seems we were all wrong in our conjectures10, but it wasn’t exactly our fault, for the doctor’s trouble made him irresponsible.”
“Does that account for his talk against the professor in the restaurant, and why he had a guard at his cabin?” asked Ned.
“Yes,” was the answer from Bob, while Jerry said:
“I’ll tell you the yarn11, Ned. All our troubles[240] are over now, I hope. We had enough of them while they lasted, and at one time it seemed as if we were all booked for Davy Jones’ locker12. But here we are, and we’ll soon be back home where we can live life as it ought to be lived.”
“We’ll have our meals on time, for one thing,” declared Bob.
“And the folks will be glad to see us,” added Jerry.
“And perhaps some others than just our folks,” put in Ned, with a smile. He was thinking of girls, and, perchance, one in particular.
The story Jerry told, having had it from Professor Snodgrass, was to the effect that Dr. Hallet had once been a colleague of the little scientist with whom the Motor Boys had made so many trips. When the war broke out and Professor Snodgrass went to Europe to study the effect of battle noises on certain insects, Dr. Hallet made a like voyage to take up another branch of science. In some lines he and Professor Snodgrass were associated, working to the same end. In other lines they differed radically13, and often violently, though they were always good friends and helped one another.
Dr. Hallet went too near the front toward the close of the war, and was under fire. He suffered from shell shock, which affected14 his mind, and among his hallucinations was one in which he[241] imagined that Professor Snodgrass was his enemy and was trying to obtain a certain scientific secret from him.
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 concealing15 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[242] 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 hysterical16 fit,” explained Jerry. “The ship’s surgeon suggested this. Professor Snodgrass also looked over some of the doctor’s papers and examined his specimens17, hoping, thereby18, 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.[243] As I said, two or three times he was on the verge19 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.”
“What brought back his mind?” asked Bob.
“I suppose the various shocks connected with the accidents to the Sherman and the search for the derelict all acted on him in a beneficial way,” replied the professor. “At any rate, after having been irrational20, he is himself again, and the surgeon assures me there will be no more trouble.”
Both Dr. Hallet and Professor Snodgrass were allowed on the troopship because of exceptional services rendered the government during the war. Professor Snodgrass had captured a number of Germans, as detailed21 in the book preceding this. As for Dr. Hallet, he had discovered a method of combating one of the German poison gases.
Professor Snodgrass, because of the mental attitude of Dr. Hallet, had come on board the transport quietly, which accounted for the fact that the boys did not see him for some days. And the[244] professor was so engrossed22 with various matters that he was not aware of the presence of Ned, Bob and Jerry. Captain Munson knew something about the condition of Dr. Hallet, and also the efforts Professor Snodgrass was making to cure his friend, but he did not feel at liberty to discuss it with the Motor Boys. That is why he spoke23 to Ned as he did when the doctor started to make an explanation.
“But there will be nothing more to worry about,” declared the professor, concluding his explanations.
Nor was there. Dr. Hallet, though a bit dazed by what he had gone through and having very little real knowledge of his actions following the shell shock, rapidly grew to be himself again. He and Professor Snodgrass joined forces in making scientific observations while the warship bore them and the others homeward. And from the time the professor and the doctor resumed their old relations the Motor Boys saw little of them. For the two scientists were constantly catching24 specimens, from cockroaches25 to sea-leeches, and making learned notes and observations regarding them.
“And to think all our theories about the doctor being a bomber26 were hot air!” exclaimed Bob, as they stood on deck after the good news had been scattered27 that another day would see them at New York. “We certainly were barking up the wrong[245] tree! It was Marie that gave the wrong idea, in a way. But she didn’t mean to. Mighty28 fine girl, Marie!” and Bob sighed.
“Here! None of that!” warned Jerry. “I’ll tell Helena.”
“All right! You do, and I’ll whisper something to Mollie Horton about the French girl who tied up your sore finger!” countered the stout29 lad.
“Better call it a draw,” suggested Ned with a laugh.
And so, as the old proverb has it: “All’s well that ends well.”
And certainly matters ended well for the Motor Boys. The next day the warship anchored off quarantine, and in due time Jerry and his friends went ashore30 and were sent to a demobilization camp. There they obtained furloughs and went home to Cresville, where an enthusiastic reception awaited them.
They told of their parts in the Great War, but they liked best to relate the story of the wreck31 of the troopship, for it was like some wonderful romance, and the terrors of the battlefield were not involved.
“I’d like to know the story of the Altaire,” said Ned, one day. And later he and his chums heard it.
The freighter was attacked by a submarine and her few passengers and crew forced to take to[246] the small boats. Then the Germans took what they wanted in the way of supplies and were about to sink the Altaire when they saw a United States destroyer looming32 on the horizon. The submarine fled before being able to place any bombs, though her crew partly wrecked33 the engine room and destroyed the wireless plant.
The destroyer picked up the crew of the Altaire, but soon after that a storm came up, and there was no chance to salvage the vessel. It was thought that she had sunk, but, fortunately for Jerry and his three companions, she remained afloat. Thus the mystery was cleared.
“But there’s one thing I’m never going to do if we have another war,” declared Ned, as the three chums found a moment to be by themselves after a round of meeting old friends.
“What’s that?” asked Bob.
“I’m never going to be surprised at what a bug-hunting professor does,” was the answer.
“Same here!” echoed Jerry.
And so, the three young soldiers were safe at home, though they had come a perilous34 way to get there. And now we shall take leave—at least for a time—of Ned, Bob and Jerry.
The End
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1
propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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salvage
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| v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救 | |
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warship
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| n.军舰，战舰 | |
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steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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8
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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9
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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10
conjectures
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| 推测，猜想( conjecture的名词复数 ) | |
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11
yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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12
locker
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| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
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13
radically
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| ad.根本地，本质地 | |
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14
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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15
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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16
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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17
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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18
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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20
irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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engrossed
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| adj.全神贯注的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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24
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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25
cockroaches
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| n.蟑螂( cockroach的名词复数 ) | |
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26
bomber
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| n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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28
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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30
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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31
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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32
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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33
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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34
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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