"Thank you; I will," promised the scientist. "And now I think I had better go back and see about Ticula and Pete Bumps. Pete may be worried about me."

"Just a moment," suggested Ned. "If we are to help you in the search for these two girls, we ought to know something more about them."

"That is right," assented the professor; "and I hope you will help me. The problem of finding the two young ladies would be easy were it not for the war. But they have been missing since the conflict started, and I can get no trace of them. I hope they are still living, for, if they are dead, all the wealth Professor Petersen left goes to a humane society for the care of distressed cats and dogs and to provide a shelter for them. Not that I object to cats and dogs," he hastily added, "but I think some other form of scientific activity might be chosen. However, Professor Petersen was very peculiar, and, after all, it was his money. Will you boys help me?"

"Indeed we will!" cried Jerry. "But how are we to go about it? What part of France were the girls last in?"

"And what are their names?" Bob demanded.

"And what do they look like?" asked Ned.

"That last question I can answer first," said the professor. "I happen to have recent pictures of them. They sent them to their uncle following the deaths of their parents, and after the reconciliation, and Professor Petersen left them to me, with certain other material, documents and such, to aid me in the search. Here are the girls--their names are Gladys Petersen and Dorothy Gibbs."He reached in his pocket and took out a folded paper. As he opened it he gave a start and hastily closed it again. "That isn't it," he murmured. "Those are some dried specimens of _ameba_ that I wish to study under a microscope."

"What are _ameba_?" asked Jerry. "Fish?"

"Not exactly," answered the professor with a smile, "though I secured these from a little pond on the other side of the camp. _Ameba_ are microorganisms of the simplest structure--a protoplasm which is constantly changing in shape. Very interesting--very interesting indeed, but not the pictures of the girls. Ah, here they are," he added, as he replaced the first paper and took out a second. From the folds of that he produced two unmounted photographs at which the boys gazed with interest.

They saw the likenesses of two pretty girls in traveling costume, and the pictures had, obviously, been 

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