The Motor Boys Bound for Home; or, Ned, Bob and Jerry on the Wrecked Troopship

“What happened to you?”

“And what happened to you? Did the Sherman sink?”

It was Ned who asked the first question, Jerry who propounded 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 vessel.

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 sufficiently 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 salvage 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 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 warship.

“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 steward approached Professor Snodgrass, who was standing 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 perfectly 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 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 wireless 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 conjectures, 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 yarn, Ned. All our troubles 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’ locker. 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 radically, 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 affected his mind, and among his hallucinations was one in which he 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 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.”

“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 irrational, 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 detailed 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 professor was so engrossed 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 spoke 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 catching specimens, from cockroaches to sea-leeches, and making learned notes and observations regarding them.

“And to think all our theories about the doctor being a bomber were hot air!” exclaimed Bob, as they stood on deck after the good news had been scattered that another day would see them at New York. “We certainly were 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 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 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 the warship anchored off quarantine, and in due time Jerry and his friends went ashore 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 wreck 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 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 looming on the horizon. The submarine fled before being able to place any bombs, though her crew partly wrecked 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 perilous way to get there. And now we shall take leave—at least for a time—of Ned, Bob and Jerry.

THE END

THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES

By CLARENCE YOUNG

12mo.   Illustrated.   Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid

• THE MOTOR BOYS
  or Chums Through Thick and Thin
• THE MOTOR BOYS OVERLAND
  or A Long Trip for Fun and Fortune
• THE MOTOR BOYS IN MEXICO
  or The Secret of the Buried City
• THE MOTOR BOYS ACROSS THE PLAINS
  or The Hermit of Lost Lake
• THE MOTOR BOYS AFLOAT
  or The Cruise of the Dartaway
• THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE ATLANTIC
  or The Mystery of the Lighthouse
• THE MOTOR BOYS IN STRANGE WATERS
  or Lost in a Floating Forest
• THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE PACIFIC
  or The Young Derelict Hunters
• THE MOTOR BOYS IN THE CLOUDS
  or A Trip for Fame and Fortune
• THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE ROCKIES
  or A Mystery of the Air
• THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE OCEAN
  or A Marvelous Rescue in Mid-Air
• THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE WING
  or Seeking the Airship Treasure
• THE MOTOR BOYS AFTER A FORTUNE
  or The Hut on Snake Island
• THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE BORDER
  or Sixty Nuggets of Gold
• THE MOTOR BOYS UNDER THE SEA
  or From Airship to Submarine
• THE MOTOR BOYS ON ROAD AND RIVER
  or Racing to Save a Life
• THE MOTOR BOYS AT BOXWOOD HALL
  or Ned, Bob and Jerry as Freshmen
• THE MOTOR BOYS ON A RANCH
  or Ned, Bob and Jerry Among the Cowboys
• THE MOTOR BOYS IN THE ARMY
  or Ned, Bob and Jerry as Volunteers
• THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE FIRING LINE
  or Ned, Bob and Jerry Fighting for Uncle Sam
• THE MOTOR BOYS BOUND FOR HOME
  or Ned, Bob and Jerry on the Wrecked Troopship
• THE MOTOR BOYS ON THUNDER MOUNTAIN
  or The Treasure Box of Blue Rock

CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers      New York

THE BOB DEXTER SERIES

By WILLARD F. BAKER

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors

Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid

This is a new line of stories for boys, by the author of the Boy Ranchers series. The Bob Dexter books are of the character that may be called detective stories, yet they are without the objectionable features of the impossible characters and absurd situations that mark so many of the books in that class. These stories deal with the up-to-date adventures of a normal, healthy lad who has a great desire to solve mysteries.

• 1. BOB DEXTER AND THE CLUB-HOUSE MYSTERY
  or The Missing Golden Eagle

  This story tells how the Boys’ Athletic Club was despoiled of its trophies in a strange manner, and how, among other things stolen, was the Golden Eagle mascot. How Bob Dexter turned himself into an amateur detective and found not only the mascot, but who had taken it, makes interesting and exciting reading.

• 2. BOB DEXTER AND THE BEACON BEACH MYSTERY
  or The Wreck of the Sea Hawk

  When Bob and his chum went to Beacon Beach for their summer vacation, they were plunged, almost at once, into a strange series of events, not the least of which was the sinking of the Sea Hawk. How some men tried to get the treasure off the sunken vessel, and how Bob and his chum foiled them, and learned the secret of the lighthouse, form a great story.

• 3. BOB DEXTER AND THE STORM MOUNTAIN MYSTERY
  or The Secret of the Log Cabin

  Bob Dexter came upon a man mysteriously injured and befriended him. This led the young detective into the swirling midst of a series of strange events and into the companionship of strange persons, not the least of whom was the man with the wooden leg. But Bob got the best of this vindictive individual, and solved the mystery of the log cabin, showing his friends how the secret entrance to the house was accomplished.

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THE GREAT MARVEL SERIES

By ROY ROCKWOOD

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors

Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid

Stories of adventures in strange places, with peculiar people and queer animals.

• 1. THROUGH THE AIR TO THE NORTH POLE
  or The Wonderful Cruise of the Electric Monarch

  The tale of a trip to the frozen North with a degree of reality that is most convincing.

• 2. UNDER THE OCEAN TO THE SOUTH POLE
  or The Strange Cruise of the Submarine Wonder

  A marvelous trip from Maine to the South Pole, telling of adventures with the sea-monsters and savages.

• 3. FIVE THOUSAND MILES UNDERGROUND
  or The Mystery of the Center of the Earth

  A cruise to the center of the earth through an immense hole found at an island in the ocean.

• 4. THROUGH SPACE TO MARS
  or The Most Wonderful Trip on Record

  This book tells how the journey was made in a strange craft and what happened on Mars.

• 5. LOST ON THE MOON
  or In Quest of the Field of Diamonds

  Strange adventures on the planet which is found to be a land of desolation and silence.

• 6. ON A TORN-AWAY WORLD
  or Captives of the Great Earthquake

  After a tremendous convulsion of nature the adventurers find themselves captives on a vast “island in the air.”

• 7. THE CITY BEYOND THE CLOUDS
  or Captured by the Red Dwarfs

  The City Beyond the Clouds is a weird place, full of surprises, and the impish Red Dwarfs caused no end of trouble. There is a fierce battle in the woods and in the midst of this a volcanic eruption sends the Americans sailing away in a feverish endeavor to save their lives.

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THE COLLEGE SPORTS SERIES

By LESTER CHADWICK

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors

Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid

Mr. Chadwick has played on the diamond and on the gridiron himself.

• 1. THE RIVAL PITCHERS
  A Story of College Baseball

  Tom Parsons, a “hayseed,” makes good on the scrub team of Randall College.

• 2. A QUARTERBACK’S PLUCK
  A Story of College Football

  A football story, told in Mr. Chadwick’s best style, that is bound to grip the reader from the start.

• 3. BATTING TO WIN
  A Story of College Baseball

  Tom Parsons and his friends Phil and Sid are the leading players on Randall College team. There is a great game.

• 4. THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN
  A Story of College Football

  After having to reorganize their team at the last moment, Randall makes a touchdown that won a big game.

• 5. FOR THE HONOR OF RANDALL
  A Story of College Athletics

  The winning of the hurdle race and long-distance run is extremely exciting.

• 6. THE EIGHT-OARED VICTORS
  A Story of College Water Sports

  Tom, Phil and Sid prove as good at aquatic sports as they are on track, gridiron and diamond.

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THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES

By LESTER CHADWICK

12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid

• BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS
  or The Rivals of Riverside

  Joe is an everyday country boy who loves to play baseball and particularly to pitch.

• BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE
  or Pitching for the Blue Banner

  Joe’s great ambition was to go to boarding school and play on the school team.

• BASEBALL JOE AT YALE
  or Pitching for the College Championship

  In his second year at Yale Joe becomes a varsity pitcher.

• BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE
  or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher

  From Yale College to a baseball league of our Central States.

• BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE
  or A Young Pitcher’s Hardest Struggles

  From the Central League Joe goes to the St. Louis Nationals.

• BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS
  or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis

  Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay.

• BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES
  or Pitching for the Championship

  What Joe did to win the series will thrill the most jaded reader.

• BASEBALL JOE AROUND THE WORLD
  or Pitching on a Grand Tour

  The Giants and the All-Americans tour the world.

• BASEBALL JOE: HOME RUN KING
  or The Greatest Pitcher and Batter on Record

  Joe becomes the greatest batter in the game.

• BASEBALL JOE SAVING THE LEAGUE
  or Breaking Up a Great Conspiracy

  Throwing the game meant a fortune but also dishonor.

• BASEBALL JOE CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM
  or Bitter Struggles on the Diamond

  After Joe was elevated to the position of captain, the team took on a new spirit. But the old captain was jealous and tried his best to bring Joe to grief.

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THE JACK RANGER SERIES

By CLARENCE YOUNG

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in Colors

Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid

Lively stories of outdoor sports and adventure every boy will want to read.

• 1. JACK RANGER’S SCHOOLDAYS
  or The Rivals of Washington Hall

  You will love Jack Ranger—you simply can’t help it. He is bright and cheery, and earnest in all he does.

• 2. JACK RANGER’S WESTERN TRIP
  or From Boarding School to Ranch and Range

  This volume takes the hero to the great West. Jack is anxious to clear up the mystery surrounding his father’s disappearance.

• 3. JACK RANGER’S SCHOOL VICTORIES
  or Track, Gridiron and Diamond

  Jack gets back to Washington Hall and goes in for all sorts of school games. There are numerous contests on the athletic field.

• 4. JACK RANGER’S OCEAN CRUISE
  or The Wreck of the Polly Ann

  How Jack was carried off to sea against his will makes a “yarn” no boy will want to miss.

• 5. JACK RANGER’S GUN CLUB
  or From Schoolroom to Camp and Trail

  Jack organizes a gun club and with his chums goes in quest of big game. They have many adventures in the mountains.

• 6. JACK RANGER’S TREASURE BOX
  or The Outing of the Schoolboy Yachtsmen

  Jack receives a box from his father and it is stolen. How he regains it makes an absorbing tale.

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