"I suppose he came from some training camp--same as we did," observed Bob. "And he looks as though he had been well fed, too. He's as fat as butter."
"That's Chunky all over--thinking of the eating end," laughed Ned.
"Yes, Noddy is fat all right--too fat!" declared Jerry. "He hasn't been drilled as hard as we have, or else he got a desk position somewhere and held on to it."
"Did you hear the bluff he was throwing about trying to enlist in the air service?" asked Ned.
"Yes," agreed his tall chum. "Talk about his being an expert flier! Say, do you remember his _Tin Fly_?"
"I should say so!" laughed Bob. "The flying machine that wouldn't go up. That was a hot one! But keep quiet--he's looking over this way."
Noddy, indeed, seemed to have his attention attracted to the three friends. At first he looked uncomprehendingly, and then, as the features of the lads toward whom he had acted so meanly became plainer, he stared and finally exclaimed:
"The same as you, I imagine," was Jerry's cool answer. "We are going to fight in France."
Jerry said afterward he wanted to add that he and his chums had "volunteered" to do this fighting, but he did not think it would be quite fair to the drafted men with Noddy who, to do them justice, were in the same class as the best of patriots. The selective service law solved many problems, but Noddy's was not among them. As the boys learned later, the town bully had done his best to evade the draft, and had only registered when threatened with military action.
Then he made a virtue of necessity and talked big about 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!"