we get we’ll be on the lookout for the reptile.”
“And the man, too,” added Fenn. “We want to find out who he was.”
“Of course,” agreed Bart. “We should have given the alarm when we saw him going in the school, but it’s too late now. Come on back, and take our medicine.”
It was not a very happy quartette of lads who made their way back to the Darewell High School. They went directly to Professor Long, who turned his physics class over to another instructor, and conducted the chums to his private room.
“Well?” he asked suggestively.
“We couldn’t find the bracelet or the turtle,” said Bart.
“I was afraid not,” was Mr. Long’s quiet comment. “I have notified the detectives.”
“You – you’re not going to have us arrested – are you?” blurted out Frank. “My father – ”
“Have no fears on that score,” answered the professor. “I have not the slightest grounds for thinking you boys stole the bracelet,” and, perhaps unconsciously, he emphasized the word.
“We never took the bracelet!” declared Ned stoutly.
“Of that I am not so sure,” was the retort. “I do not accuse you – that would not be right. You have accused yourselves, after a fashion. What I think is this: I believe the bracelet was accidentally taken out of the cabinet in the confusion, and, perhaps, dropped on the way to Fenn’s house. That is why I am sending for the police. Some person may have picked it up, and may be keeping it. I believe that is all now. You may return to your classes,” and though he tried to speak calmly, there was a note of disappointment, not to say displeasure, in Mr. Long’s voice.
Naturally the story was all over the school by the noon recess, and Bart and his chums were besieged with questions. They had held a brief consultation, and resolved to make only certain statements. These were to the effect that though they had played the trick with the reptiles, they knew nothing of the bracelet, and their search for that and the turtle, had been without avail.
Needless to say, that few, if any, of the students had the least suspicion against the chums. Nor, for that matter, did any of the faculty entertain any unjust thoughts. It was regarded more as an accident. Mr. Long being the party who suffered, could, perhaps, be excused for thinking that perhaps the boys had taken the bracelet in a joke, and were now afraid to return it. In fact he hardly knew what to believe. In due time the police came to the school, made an investigation and questioned our heroes. They went away as wise as they came. But, as several days passed, and there was no trace of the bracelet, there was an undefined air of suspicion directed against the chums. It was not in so many words, but nevertheless they felt it.
Two weeks passed, during which, in all of their spare time, Bart and his chums made a search for the turtle in such places as the reptiles were wont to be found. But, of course, they discovered none wearing a diamond bracelet on its neck, though they did find a few specimens which Fenn added to his collection. It was not the time of year when turtles abounded.
Several football games were played, and there seemed to be no ill spirit manifested against the four lads, until one Saturday about three weeks after the disappearance of the diamond ornament. Then, during a hotly-contested game with the Fernwood High School, one of the opposing players remarked to Bart, after a hard scrimmage:
“We’re not used to playing against diamond robbers, and maybe that’s why we can’t break through your line.”
Bart’s answer was a blow that knocked the sneering lad down, and resulted in Bart being ruled out of the game. From then on the Darewell eleven seemed to go to pieces, and they lost the game.
There were many sore hearts among the students that night, and accusing glances were cast at Bart. His chums felt his position deeply.
“I know it was a hasty thing to do,” said Bart, contritely, “but I couldn’t help it.”
From then on there seemed to be a spirit manifested against the four chums, and, naturally, they resented it. The others would not desert Bart, and when he refused to apologize to the lad he had struck, and was permanently ruled off the eleven, Ned, Frank and Fenn resigned. They resisted the pleading of the manager to remain, so that the school eleven would not be crippled.
“It’s the school’s place to stick by us, as much as it is ours to stick by the eleven,” declared Frank. “The fellows are beginning to think we took that bracelet. We’ll show them that we didn’t, and, in the meanwhile, it’s better that we don’t take part in any games.”
His chums agreed with him, and for a time it seemed as if they would be sent to Coventry. But a calmer spirit prevailed, and when some of the school societies took up the matter it was agreed that the four had a right to do as they pleased, and that the lad who had made the offensive remark was in the wrong; and so matters quieted down.
But the football season ended anything but brilliantly for Darewell, and the four chums felt this bitterly in their hearts, though they could do no differently than they had done.
“I should think you boys would hire a detective on your own account,” said Alice Keene to her brother, one November evening, when the four chums were at Bart’s house. “You could get one easily, and perhaps he could locate the bracelet for you.”
“We’ll do it ourselves,” remarked Bart firmly.
“If we could only find the turtle we’d have it, I’m sure,” declared Fenn, who had not lost faith in his odd theory.
“We’ve looked in every likely place where turtles are around here,” said Frank.
“Yes; and now we ought to go farther off,” came from Ned. “I say fellows, what’s the matter with going on a little hunting expedition soon? The weather is just right, we all have guns, and I think the trip would do us good.”
“Why not make it a big hunting expedition while we’re at it?” suggested Frank.
“A big one? What do you mean?” asked Bart.
“Why, I mean go camping, as we did not long ago. We don’t mind the cold, or ice and snow. We could make a winter camp, around the Christmas holidays, and have lots of sport.”
“And a Christmas tree in the woods!” cried Alice. “That would be lovely! Jennie Smith and I would come out and see you – if it wasn’t too far.”
“Yes, Jennie’d recite poetry, and you’d insist on making us drink hot ginger tea, so as not to catch cold,” observed Bart.
Alice looked a little hurt, until Ned added:
“Well, I’m sure ginger tea would be all right in a snow storm, such as we had the last time we camped in the winter.”
“Of course,” agreed Alice, gratefully.
“It would be a good thing to get away from school and the town of Darewell for a while, at least,” was Bart’s opinion. “People are beginning to think we really stole that bracelet.”
“Oh, Bart!” remonstrated Alice, reproachfully.
“Well, it’s the truth,” he went on doggedly. “I’d as soon have ’em say it as look it. I’d like to get away for that reason, and, of course, it would be sport to have a winter camp again.”
“Then let’s do it,” proposed Ned. “At the same time we can look for mud turtles.”
“You won’t see many, unless there’s a thaw,” was Fenn’s opinion. “But you can count on me going.”
“And me,” added Frank and Ned.
“Hasn’t anything been learned of the missing bracelet yet?” asked Mrs. Keene, coming into the room, in time to hear some of the conversation.
“No,” answered her son, “and it’s my opinion that it never will be found, until – ” He paused in some confusion.
“Until when?” asked his mother.
“Until