On the whole their captive behaved in a most foolish manner. Instead of drawing his head as far as he could into his shell, he thrust his neck out as far as it would go.
And that was exactly what the boys wanted him to do. Before Timothy Turtle—who was somewhat slow-witted—before he realized what their plan was, Johnnie Green and his friend Red had slipped one noose around his head and another around his body. And after turning[p. 74] their captive right side up they staked him out upon the sand so that he could not move.
"There!" Johnnie Green cried when they had Timothy Turtle where they wanted him. "That's the way the Redskins do with their enemies."
And his friend the red-haired boy danced something that might have been an Indian war dance.
Anyhow, neither old Mr. Crow nor Timothy Turtle had ever seen anything like it.
XVI
JOHNNIE GREEN'S INITIALS
Timothy Turtle found himself in a very uncomfortable position, staked out as he was on the bank of Black Creek, with one rope about his body and another about his neck.