r
condition, relatively, than themselves. For he had been given a bath
and cleaned after his wounds were dressed, whereas Ned and Bob were
still caked with the mud, dirt, and grime of battle. But it was
honorable dirt, as a Japanese might say. Most honorable and
cherished.

"Well, how about you, old man?" asked Ned, as the Red Cross nurse said
they might talk a little to their injured chum.

"Oh, I'm all right. Feel fine! Just knocked out a little. Save a few
Huns for me for the next rush."

"Oh, we'll do that all right," agreed Bob. "Too bad you had to get
yours just as we won the game."

"We won it, so I hear," observed Jerry.

"Yes, cleaned 'em up," went on Ned. "And whom do you guess we caught
in the last batch of prisoners?"

"Not Professor Snodgrass!"

"No. But some one who knows him. Nick Schmouder!" exploded Bob.

"What? Not the janitor at Boxwood Hall? The fellow who helped us get
the goat upstairs into the physics class?"

"The same!" laughed Ned; and Jerry chuckled so at the recollection of
one of the jokes of their college days that the nurse was forced to
say she would order his chums away unless he remained more quiet.

"I'll be good!" promised the tall lad. "But that is rich! How did it
happen?"

"Don't know," admitted Ned. "I'm going to have a talk with him if I
can."

"Let me know what he says," begged Jerry. "I don't suppose you have
heard anything about the professor or his quest for the two girls?"

"No," answered Bob. "I guess he'll never find them. It's worse than
looking for a cent down a crack in the boardwalk at Atlantic City. But
I don't suppose you could convince the professor of that."

"No," agreed Jerry. "I'm mighty sorry, too. You remember what he said
about losing the money he had lent to a friend of his and needing this
bequest from Professor Petersen. Well, if you see or hear from him let
me know. I won't be able to get about for a week--maybe more."

Bob and Ned stayed until the nurse sent them away, but they promised
to call again as soon as allowed. Then, as they were relieved from
duty, they went to an officer and received permission to talk to the
prisoner, Nick Schmouder, after explaining about him.

The man had been a janitor at Boxwood Hall when Ned, Bob, and Jerry
attended there. He had been a good friend to the three chums, and, as
mentioned, had assisted them in performing what they were pleased to
term a "joke."

The boys had forgotten all about him, a