"Yes, it was rather a close call," observed Bob. "But did you have a good dinner with the colonel?"

"Listen to him, would you!" protested Ned. "All he can think of is eating!"

"Cut it out!" growled Bob, as Ned poked him in the ribs. "I just wanted to know what sort of feed they give the officers."

"Oh," said Jerry significantly. "Merely an academic interest, I suppose."

"Sure!" assented Bob. "That's all."

"Well, the dinner was very good, though I cannot say that I remember what I ate," confessed the professor. "I was thinking too much of something else."

"Do you mean you were puzzled as to how to study the effect of the noises of the French battlefields on grasshoppers and crickets?" asked Jerry.

"No," and the professor shook his head. "This is an altogether different problem. It is, as I might call it, the problem of two girls."

"Two girls!" cried the three Motor Boys in a chorus. "Two girls?" They looked at the little professor, whose eyes, mildly blinking behind his strong glasses, regarded the lads curiously.

"Two girls," repeated the little scientist. "The problem I have to solve concerns two girls."

CHAPTER V MORE GIRLS

Ned, Bob and Jerry looked at one another. Then they turned their glances on the professor.

"Whew!" softly whistled Jerry. "Can it be possible that our dear friend is in love--and with two girls at once? This is getting serious!"

It would have been had Jerry's diagnosis been correct. But it was wrong, as was proved a moment later, when the professor, with a sigh, resumed his narrative.

"Yes," he said, "I am much concerned over two girls--young ladies I suppose would be the more proper designation. I have never seen either of them."

Jerry breathed more freely, and so did his chums. Clearly if the professor had not seen the two girls he could not be in love with them. And the professor in love was something unthinkable. He never would have remembered, from one day to the next, the name of the favored lady.

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