bout having tried
to volunteer in the air service, only to be refused. But most of those
who heard Noddy Nixon talk understood him, and were not at all taken
in.

"Where'd you fellows train?" asked Noddy, moving over toward his
Cresville acquaintances.

"Camp Dixton," answered Ned. Then he added to Bob and Jerry: "Come on,
fellows, I think our train's about to pull out."

None of the Motor Boys had any relish for talk with their former
enemy. As for Noddy, he seemed to think he was doing them a favor by
noticing them, and as they turned away he said:

"Camp Dixton isn't in it with Upyank, where our bunch was trained!
We'll show you when we get to France!"

"I hope we don't run across him," murmured Jerry, as they got back to
their seats, for Ned's alarm had proved true, and their train soon did
pull out. Noddy and his crowd were a little later in starting from the
junction, and then, as the Motor Boys were hauled on to their
destination to embark for France, they discussed the past doings of
the bully, and wondered how he would conduct himself in war.

From that they switched to the more pleasant topic of the recent visit
of the girls, and speculated on what had become of Andy Rush.

"They might enlist him and let him talk some of the Huns to death,"
suggested Ned. "He could do that to perfection. But I'm afraid he's
too small to get in the army."

"I wonder if we'll ever find the professor's two girls?" ventured Bob,
meaning thereby Gladys Petersen and Dorothy Gibbs.

"I don't believe we'll have much time to look for them, if the
fighting keeps up as fiercely as it has," and Jerry handed his chums a
paper he had purchased, which gave a detailed account of some of the
first fighting of the American Expeditionary Force, in the Toul
sector, at Seicheprey. This fighting had taken place in April, and it
was late in June when Ned, Bob and Jerry, with others from their camp,
were on their way to France in that great movement of troops which was
to prove the turning, and winning, point of the war. The account in
the paper of the fighting at Seicheprey was a delayed one sent through
the mail by a correspondent.

"Yes, it is getting hot," observed Ned. "But still we promised the
professor we'd help him look for the girls."

"And so we shall, if we get the chance," declared Jerry. "I know what
it would mean to the professor if he lost his half of the fortune and
had to give up his work on the insects of the Amazon.