“He gave you a pretty good tussle, at all events,” remarked Ned.
“Oh, you are referring to my clothes—and—er—my general condition, I suppose,” said the professor with a smile. “Well, it is not altogether my fault this time. I had little or no difficulty in capturing this lizard, but my appearance is due to what happened when the automobile lost a wheel.”
“Lost a wheel?” chorused the boys. “Were you in an automobile catching lizards?”
“No, I had already captured this fine specimen, and I was riding back with it to the college in the machine, when the wheel came off.”
“What made the wheel come off?” Bob queried. “Must have been a queer kind of machine. Did the wheel just roll off?”
“No, I think it was broken off the axle when the auto toppled down the hill,” said the professor calmly, as he opened the top of the box a trifle to take a peep at his specimen.
“Toppled down the hill! Did an automobile in which you were riding topple down a hill?” asked Jerry in astonishment.
“It did,” the professor answered. “It went over and over. I was made quite dizzy, but I kept tight hold of the lizard. And when we came to a stop, after crashing into a tree, I noticed that the wheel was gone.”
“Great Scott!” cried Ned. “When did all this happen—and where? Aren’t you hurt? Hadn’t you better see a doctor?”
“Ha! I knew there was something I was to remember! It’s a doctor!” cried Professor Snodgrass in triumph. “Your father wants you to send a doctor to him at once, Ned.”