CHAPTER III
THE RACE
“Well, I feel better,” announced Bob Baker, with a satisfied sigh as hearose from the restaurant table.
“I should think you would!” commented Jerry. “You ate as much as thetwo of us,” and he nodded at Ned.
“I did not!” cried the indignant Chunky. “I’ll leave it to the waiter.”
“Oh, don’t call public attention to a thing like that,” put in Ned.“Let it go. Come on out and finish our ride. It’s too nice to bestaying inside, even in a restaurant.”
It was a beautiful fall day. The fierceness of the summer heat hadgone, but the tang of late fall had not yet come, and it was perfectweather for automobile riding.
Jerry and his chums were soon in the car once more, this time Nedtaking the wheel. They drove out past the place where Mr. Hobson hadmet with his accident--an accident with a most fortunate outcome--andthere the boys saw some men from the garage engaged in pulling thedisabled car up the bank.
“That was some tumble!” called one of the men, as the boys paused tolook on.
“You’d have thought so if you’d seen it,” agreed Jerry.
It was just getting dusk when the three lads reached Jerry’s home.
“I’ll drive you chaps home, and put up the car,” he said, for theautomobile, though owned jointly by the lads, was kept in a garageowned by Mrs. Hopkins.
“What are you going to do to-night?” asked Ned, as he was set down athis residence.
“Nothing special,” Jerry replied.
“Let’s go to the movies,” suggested Bob. “They’ve got some Southerntravel scenes, according to the bills outside, and if we go down Souththis winter we may see some of the places where we expect to be thrownon the screen.”
“I’d just as soon,” agreed Jerry, and Ned nodded his assent.
“I’ll come over to your house, Ned, after supper,” Bob went on, “andJerry can call there for us.”
“All right,” Jerry assented, and then he swung the car in the directionof his home.
“Did you have a nice ride?” his mother asked him.
“Fine!” he exclaimed. “Saved a man’s life, too!”
“More adventures!” Mrs. Hopkins exclaimed, thinking of the conferencethat afternoon.
“No, it was the other way around,” Jerry explained. “Mr. Hobson had theadventure, we just rescued him from it,” and he told of the overturnedautomobile.
“Such reckless driving!” his mother murmured. “I hope you boys don’trun your car so fast.”
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Jerry virtuously. “I wonder if she could have meantanything by that?” he asked himself as his mother went out of theroom. “But I don’t believe she heard about that hay wagon. I hope not,anyhow.”
“Jerry! there’s a letter for you on the mantel,” his mother called backto him as she went upstairs.
“Wonder who it’s from,” mused the tall lad. It was in a long envelope,without any return designation, and Jerry’s name and address weretypewritten, so he could not guess the sender, as he might have donehad it been in script.
“Some advertisement,” the lad went on, somewhat disappointed, as hedrew out a booklet. With it was a letter, and when Jerry had glanced atthe signature, before reading the epistle, he cried in delight.
“Why, it’s from Professor Snodgrass! What in the world is he up tonow?”
Readers of the former books of this series concerning Ned, Bob andJerry (volumes which will be mentioned more at length later) willremember Professor Uriah Snodgrass, a most earnest scientist. His questafter rare bugs and queer animals furnished our heroes with more thanone adventure, and took them into various queer places.
“Professor Snodgrass!” went on Jerry. “I haven’t heard from him in along while. I wonder where he is now?”
A glance at the top of the letter showed him.
The epistle was dated from Fordham, a New England city, and at the topof the page, in embossed letters, was the name “Boxwood Hall.”
“Dear Jerry,” the letter read, “no doubt you will be surprised to hear that I have been appointed instructor of zoology, among other subjects, at Boxwood Hall.”
“Surprised is no name for it!” murmured Jerry, reading on.
“For some time the faculty has been trying to induce me to settle down here, but I have preferred to roam about, completing my collection of beetles. As that is about finished, I have decided to accept the chair here. It is an excellent college, and there are a number of fine students here, but I shall miss the trips I used to take with you boys. Perhaps, though, during the vacations, I may be able to be with you for a time. I am making a collection of butterflies that are to be found in this section of New England. I have a number of fine specimens mounted, but as winter is approaching there will be little further chance to add to my collection until the spring.
“I am sending you one of the Boxwood Hall catalogues, thinking you may be interested in it. If you are ever in this neighborhood, please come to see me. I am sure you will like it here. I understand there are good football and baseball teams here, and if you get here this fall, on one of the many trips you take, you may see a good game. I don’t know much about such things myself. Please give my regards to your mother, and remember me to Ned and Bob.”
“Well, what do you know about that!” exclaimed Jerry. “ProfessorSnodgrass at Boxwood Hall! I’ve heard of that college, and it’s a goodone. Well, I guess he’ll miss chasing around the country after bugs,but the college certainly has one good instructor! I must tell theboys.”
“Any news in your letter, Jerry?” asked Mrs. Hopkins at the suppertable that evening.
“Professor Snodgrass has taken the chair of zoology at Boxwood Hall,”he replied. And then Mrs. Hopkins was called to the telephone, so Jerryhad no chance to mention the catalogue he had received.
A little later he went with his chums to the moving picture show,telling them the news of the professor. At Ned’s house, after the show,the boys looked at the catalogue, which contained many half-tone cutsof the college buildings and grounds.
“Seems to be a nice place all right,” commented Bob.
“Where is it?” asked Ned.
“It’s about a mile outside of Fordham,” said Jerry, who had glancedthrough the prospectus. “I didn’t know, before, what a large placeBoxwood Hall was. See, it’s located right on Lake Carmona, and theyhave a boathouse on the college grounds. Lake Carmona is one of theprettiest in New England, they say, though I’ve never seen it.”
“I was at the upper end of it once,” Ned stated, “but I didn’t get nearBoxwood. And so the dear old professor has settled down. Well, we suredid have good times with him!”
“That’s right!” agreed Jerry. “Maybe we’ll get a chance to run up andsee him.”
“I hope so,” remarked Bob. “Look! Here’s the professor’s name in thelist of the faculty,” and he pointed it out in the catalogue. “He’sgot half the letters of the alphabet after it, too.”
This was not strictly true, though Professor Snodgrass had receivedmany degrees from prominent colleges for his scientific work. Hehad written several books, too, on various subjects connected with“bugology,” as the boys called it.
After some discussion of the new position which had been accepted bytheir friend, the professor, and some reminiscent talk of the timesthey had spent with him, Jerry and Bob went to their respective homes,agreeing to go for another automobile ride on the morrow.
“Well, what shall we do now?” asked Jerry of his chums one afternoon,several days after the receipt of the letter from Professor Snodgrass.“I don’t just fancy any more autoing for the present.”
“What’s the matter with a ride in the motor boat?” asked Bob, for theboys owned one. It was kept in the boathouse near the residence of Mrs.Hopkins.
“Suits me,” agreed Ned, while Bob began:
“We can drop down the river t
o Anderson’s place and----”
“Get something to eat,” cut in Jerry.
“I didn’t say so!” Bob cried.
“No, but you thought it all right. Come on.”
The boys started for Jerry’s home, and at the foot of the long, greenlawn that led up to the front porch Ned cried:
“I’ll race you to the front steps to see who pays for the ice creamsodas. Last man there pays!”
“All right!” assented Jerry.
“Give me a start,” begged Bob.
“Go on!” yelled Jerry. “You’re not so fat as all that. We start even.”
“I’m entitled to a handicap,” insisted Bob.
The boys were laughing and shouting, and making considerable noise.
Bob insisted that he would not race unless he was given the advantagehe claimed because of his stoutness, and finally Ned and Jerry agreed,letting Bob have his “head start.”
“Are you ready?” yelled Jerry.
“Let her go!” shouted Ned.
“Go!” cried Bob, and the three lads raced toward the piazza.
Ned and Jerry cut down Bob’s lead in a short time, and Jerry, by reasonof slightly longer legs, soon passed Ned. They all three approached theporch, Jerry and Bob reaching it at the same moment. They were bothgoing so fast they could not stop, and a moment later Bob tripped andwould have fallen had he not given a jump up in the air, and landed onthe porch. Then he slipped, and fell with a bang, spinning along thepiazza floor, while Jerry and Ned, laughing and shouting, jumped upafter him. Then, seizing him, one by each foot, they pulled him thelength of the smooth porch, which had no railing.
THEY PULLED BOB THE LENGTH OF THE SMOOTH PORCH.]
“Whoop! That was some race!” yelled Ned.
“And I beat!” declared Bob.
“Go on! You did not! You were disqualified by falling!” declared Jerry.“I’m the champion!” and he executed a clog dance on the veranda.
At that moment the front door opened, and there stood Mrs. Hopkins,while behind her were Mr. Slade and Mr. Baker. Mrs. Hopkins did notsmile, and there were rather serious expressions on the faces of thetwo gentlemen.
“Oh, was it you making all the noise, Jerry?” his mother asked.
“I guess we did our share,” admitted Ned, a little sheepishly.
“Come in, boys,” said Mr. Baker. “We have an announcement to make toyou.”