Fenn ran over and examined them, but he took care not to lose his first specimen.
“They’re a common variety,” he declared. “I don’t want ’em for my collection, and Professor Long has several like them.”
“And neither one wears a diamond bracelet—how sad,” chimed in Bart, laughingly.
“That’s all right—make fun if you want to,” said Fenn, a bit sharply, “but it’s no joke to be under the disgrace of the implied accusation that we stole the bracelet.”
“I know it,” agreed Bart soberly, “but looking for mud turtles that might possibly have it on their necks isn’t going to help matters any. We might much better look for the man who was in the school just before we were. If any one took it, he did—not some turtle.”
“Oh, it’s possible that a turtle did poke its head and neck through the bracelet when it was in the cabinet,” said Ned, “but, of course, it’s out of the question to think that we can find that turtle, or, for that matter, that the bracelet would remain on the turtle’s neck.”
“Guess you’re right,” admitted Stumpy. “Well, I’ve got a good turtle for my collection, anyhow.”
“Isn’t it funny so many of ’em are out to-day?” asked Ned, as the four walked on, Fenn carefully carrying his prize. “It’s so near winter I should think they’d be going to sleep, like a bear, in a hollow log, if they do sleep in logs.”
“Oh, they curl up and go to sleep in some warm place for the winter,” declared Fenn, who considered himself a sort of authority on the reptiles. “But the reason so many are out to-day is because it has suddenly turned warmer. They’ll soon be going into permanent winter quarters though. But come on, it’s getting dark. Let’s get a move on.”
“I shouldn’t wonder but what we’d have snow,” observed Bart, casting a look at the clouds. “It’s about time.”