CHAPTER XXX
ALL’S WELL--CONCLUSION
“What happened to you?”
“And what happened to you? Did the _Sherman_ sink?”
It was Ned who asked the first question, Jerry who propounded thesecond. And then he and Ned and Bob clasped hands while about themstood a circle of cheering sailors and soldiers on board the war vessel.
A boat had been sent to bring the refugees from the _Altaire_, andwhen Jerry and his chums were safe on board and the cruiser had movedsufficiently far away to be out of danger, the derelict was blownup. Afloat she would be a constant menace to navigation, and it wasimpossible to salvage her.
It was following this necessary destruction of what had once been afine vessel that Ned and Jerry questioned one another.
Then came explanations. Jerry told how he had managed to get aboard thederelict, and how he had been joined by Bob, the professor, and Judd.And, in his turn, Ned described the life aboard the transport, his talkwith Dr. Hallet, and their transfer to the warship.
“Where is Dr. Hallet now?” asked Jerry.
“He’s shut up in his cabin, I imagine,” answered Ned. “Somehow, hemanaged to get a cabin to himself. He seems to avoid me. I declare Idon’t know what it all means.”
At that moment a steward approached Professor Snodgrass, who wasstanding in the group that included Ned, Bob and Jerry.
“Dr. Hallet wishes to see you,” the steward said to ProfessorSnodgrass. “He has heard of your rescue.”
“Wishes to see me!” exclaimed the little scientist. “Dear me, this israther 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 perfectly normal again. All his trouble has gone, and he ishimself 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 hadthe necessary shock to bring back his reason. I hope it will neverleave him again. I’ll go to see him at once. I am rejoiced to hear thisgood news!”
As the professor hurried away Ned looked curiously at his two chums.Then he began to question them.
“Say, what’s it all about?” he asked. “What does the professor meanwhen he says Dr. Hallet has recovered his reason? Has he been crazy?”burst out Ned.
“Practically so, yes, though harmless,” said Jerry. “The professorexplained everything to us while we were on the _Altaire_. Did youbegin to suspect anything?”
“I didn’t know what to think, nor what to expect or suspect,” answeredNed. “At one time Dr. Hallet seemed about to tell me everything, andexplain a lot of queer circumstances. Then something happened--Ithink it was when our wireless got to working--and there was too muchexcitement to think of anything but a rescue. Since we’ve been on thiswarship the doctor has avoided me. I declare I didn’t know what tothink.”
“Nor did we until the professor explained,” said Jerry. “It seems wewere all wrong in our conjectures, but it wasn’t exactly our fault, forthe doctor’s trouble made him irresponsible.”
“Does that account for his talk against the professor in therestaurant, 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 yarn, Ned. All our troubles are over now, I hope.We had enough of them while they lasted, and at one time it seemed asif we were all booked for Davy Jones’ locker. But here we are, andwe’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 asmile. He was thinking of girls, and, perchance, one in particular.
The story Jerry told, having had it from Professor Snodgrass, was tothe effect that Dr. Hallet had once been a colleague of the littlescientist with whom the Motor Boys had made so many trips. When the warbroke out and Professor Snodgrass went to Europe to study the effect ofbattle noises on certain insects, Dr. Hallet made a like voyage to takeup another branch of science. In some lines he and Professor Snodgrasswere associated, working to the same end. In other lines they differedradically, and often violently, though they were always good friendsand helped one another.
Dr. Hallet went too near the front toward the close of the war, and wasunder fire. He suffered from shell shock, which affected his mind, andamong his hallucinations was one in which he imagined that ProfessorSnodgrass was his enemy and was trying to obtain a certain scientificsecret from him.
In order to effect, if possible, a cure of his friend, ProfessorSnodgrass, on the advice of the physicians treating Dr. Hallet, didnot dispute this false idea. On the contrary he even encouraged it.The state of mind of the doctor accounted for his violent talk againstthe professor in the restaurant, and his queer actions led Marie, thepretty 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 theblack box he imagined he was concealing some insects from the gaze ofProfessor Snodgrass, and also from us. He included us in his fear, itseems. There never was a bomb on the ship. All the accidents were dueto 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 whetheror not Dr. Hallet might not have tried to set off a bomb.”
“Nothing like it!” laughed Jerry. “We were all wrong in thinkinghim that sort of man. He did act queerly, but it was because he wassuffering from shell shock. And he made such a fuss about the chancethat Professor Snodgrass might steal some scientific secrets thatCaptain 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?” askedNed.
“He went in to see if he could not quiet the doctor, who had a sort ofhysterical fit,” explained Jerry. “The ship’s surgeon suggested this.Professor Snodgrass also looked over some of the doctor’s papers andexamined his specimens, hoping, thereby, to get a line on somethingthat 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 doctorhimself 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 sinceI don’t know. At the time the whales attacked us Professor Snodgrasssaid he wished Dr. Hallet could see them. He thought perhaps interestin them would give him the necessary shock which would bring back hisreason.”
“Well, something must have happened to him,” said Ned. “He acted almostrational with me after you and the professor were lost overboard. As Isaid, 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 weretransferred to this warship, he acted strangely again.”
“But he is all right now,” said Professor Snodgrass, who came on deckagain after a visit to his colleague. “His mind has cleared, and we areagain united friends. He realizes what he has gone through, but he hasno 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 abeneficial way,” replied the professor. “At any rate, after having beenirrational, he is himself again, and the surgeon assures me there willbe no more trouble.”
Both Dr. Hallet and Professor Snodgrass were allowed on the troopshipbecause of exceptional services rendered the government during the war.Professor Snodgrass had captured a number of Germans, as detailed inthe book preceding t
his. As for Dr. Hallet, he had discovered a methodof 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 factthat the boys did not see him for some days. And the professor was soengrossed with various matters that he was not aware of the presence ofNed, Bob and Jerry. Captain Munson knew something about the conditionof Dr. Hallet, and also the efforts Professor Snodgrass was making tocure his friend, but he did not feel at liberty to discuss it withthe Motor Boys. That is why he spoke to Ned as he did when the doctorstarted to make an explanation.
“But there will be nothing more to worry about,” declared theprofessor, concluding his explanations.
Nor was there. Dr. Hallet, though a bit dazed by what he had gonethrough and having very little real knowledge of his actions followingthe shell shock, rapidly grew to be himself again. He and ProfessorSnodgrass joined forces in making scientific observations while thewarship bore them and the others homeward. And from the time theprofessor and the doctor resumed their old relations the Motor Boyssaw little of them. For the two scientists were constantly catchingspecimens, from cockroaches to sea-leeches, and making learned notesand observations regarding them.
“And to think all our theories about the doctor being a bomber were hotair!” exclaimed Bob, as they stood on deck after the good news had beenscattered that another day would see them at New York. “We certainlywere barking up the wrong tree! It was Marie that gave the wrong idea,in a way. But she didn’t mean to. Mighty fine girl, Marie!” and Bobsighed.
“Here! None of that!” warned Jerry. “I’ll tell Helena.”
“All right! You do, and I’ll whisper something to Mollie Horton aboutthe French girl who tied up your sore finger!” countered the stout 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 thewarship anchored off quarantine, and in due time Jerry and his friendswent ashore and were sent to a demobilization camp. There they obtainedfurloughs and went home to Cresville, where an enthusiastic receptionawaited them.
They told of their parts in the Great War, but they liked best torelate the story of the wreck of the troopship, for it was like somewonderful romance, and the terrors of the battlefield were not involved.
“I’d like to know the story of the _Altaire_,” said Ned, one day. Andlater he and his chums heard it.
The freighter was attacked by a submarine and her few passengers andcrew forced to take to the small boats. Then the Germans took whatthey wanted in the way of supplies and were about to sink the _Altaire_when they saw a United States destroyer looming on the horizon. Thesubmarine fled before being able to place any bombs, though her crewpartly wrecked the engine room and destroyed the wireless plant.
The destroyer picked up the crew of the _Altaire_, but soon after thata storm came up, and there was no chance to salvage the vessel. It wasthought that she had sunk, but, fortunately for Jerry and his threecompanions, 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 themselvesafter 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 hadcome a perilous way to get there. And now we shall take leave--at leastfor a time--of Ned, Bob and Jerry.
THE END