Burd Alling usually had the appearance of being half asleep. But he proved at this juncture to be quite as wide awake as anybody. He uttered a whistle of amazement and flung himself across the little round bed and scrambled up the short trunk of the pear tree.
“Hey! Where are you going?” demanded Darry. “You’ll break another branch of that tree, you big elephant! It’s damaged enough already.”
But the girls knew what Burd was after. They waited eagerly for him to reach for the object swinging from the broken limb of the tree. He gained his intent and slid back to the wet ground.
“It is! It is!” shouted Amy in delight.
“Oh, dear! And I almost believed one of the Dogtown children had it,” sighed Jessie.
“Well, I declare! You don’t mean to say that is Mark’s watch?” cried Darry in amazement.
“That is exactly what it is,” declared his chum. “I’ve seen it a hundred times. And anyway,” he added, grinning, “there isn’t likely to be two such watches kicking about the Norwood premises.”
“Well, it beats my time!” ejaculated Darry. “How did the silly fellow hang his watch in that tree when he was coming down in his plane? It gets me!”
“We’ll take it to him when we drive the girls over to the concert to-morrow,” said Burd.
But at that Amy uttered a squeal and reached for the watch with clutching fingers. “No you don’t, Mister Alling!” she cried, taking the watch and chain out of his hand with a sudden swoop. “Jess saw it first. She is going to give it to Mark Stratford.”