"I don't care if some one did catch this turtle first," Johnnie said at last. "I'm going to carve my mark on him just the same."[p. 79]
So he began to cut "J. G." in the exact center of the back of Timothy Turtle, much to that old fellow's rage.
And when Johnnie Green had finished the letters he cut the date below them.
"What you goin' to do with him now?" Red asked Johnnie then.
"Turn him loose!" Johnnie replied.
"Aw—don't do that! Lemme have him!" Red coaxed.
Johnnie Green said that he was sorry—but he intended to set his captive free, just as he had planned.
He soon found that turning Mr. Turtle loose was no easy matter. Strange to say, Timothy Turtle did nothing to help. On the contrary, he made the task as hard as he could for Johnnie Green, trying his best to bite that young man.
In the end Johnnie had to cut the rope that held Timothy's head. And when that[p. 80] furious old fellow at last found himself in Black Creek once more he still wore a noose of rope, like a collar, around his neck.