“I only took one of the most beautiful specimens of a green spider I have ever seen,” was the answer of the professor. “I saw it on your coat collar, and I was so afraid it would get away. I had to act quickly. The only way was to grab you, for if you had felt the spider on your neck, it might have tickled you, and you would have brushed it off. Then it would have been lost for ever. Ah, but I have you, my little beauty!” and the professor peered in between a crack in his fingers to make sure that the spider had not escaped. A moment later he had popped it into one of his specimen boxes.
“A—a spider?” gasped Mr. Snook, as if he had not understood.
“A green spider,” corrected Mr. Snodgrass. “A most perfect specimen. It was on your coat collar. A moment later it would have crawled on your neck.”
“An’ if it had, I’d have squashed it, sure!” cried Mr. Snook. “I sure would have squashed it! A green spider! Why I’d a squashed it, if it had been a red, white an’ blue one! I hate ’em! Ye must be crazy t’ want ’em!”
“I want them for scientific purposes,” said Uriah Snodgrass, and then he briefly explained that he traveled for a college that wanted all the specimens he could collect.
“A college perfesser,” murmured Sim. “Say, Jake, it’s a good thing we didn’t jab him.”
“I guess it is. An’ t’ think of any mortal man wantin’ such things as bugs!”
“Well, everybody to their notion,” said Mr. Snook grimly. “If ye want spiders ye’re welcome t’ ’em. But that don’t alter th’ fact that you folks have got t’ come along with me.” He was less excited now.
“But I don’t understand,” spoke Jerry. “What is the charge, and who makes it? Were you waiting here for us?”
“That’s what I was,” declared the constable. “I got a telephone t’ be on the lookout for ye. I was warned ye’d be desperit, an’ try t’ escape, so I swore in Sim an’ Jake as my special deputies. It looks like I’d need ’em, too. Jake, stand by on this side of me, an’ Sim, you git on th’ other. If they starts t’ run, jab ’em. Now, I arrest ye in th’ name of th’ law,” and in turn he laid his hand on the shoulders of Jerry, Bob, Ned and the professor. “Are ye comin’ along peaceable, or shall I have t’ use force?” he asked again.