Bart Keene's Hunting Days Part 32

"Where is my chum?" he asked. "The lad who fainted."

"Oh, he's coming around all right," answered a man. At that moment Fenn himself came through the press of people around Bart. He had recovered from the shock caused by the sudden pressure on his sore arm.

"Are you all right?" asked Bart, anxiously.

"Sure. How about you?" inquired Stumpy. "I hear you made a great shot."

"Don't talk about it," pleaded Bart, who was now almost as nervous as a girl. "Where are Ned and Frank?"

"Following that man, I suppose," began Fenn, and then he stopped suddenly, for people looked curiously at him.

"Yes, we must look them up," went on Bart, but he felt that a further chase would be useless.

"Say, you fellows aren't going to disappear until you do me a favor,"

began the rescued lineman, good naturedly. "I want you to come to my house, and meet my wife. She'll want to know the boy who saved me from a horrible death. It isn't far," he added, as he saw Bart was about to decline. "Please come. I'm not going to work any more to-day. I'm too shaky."

They saw that it would not be kind to refuse, and the electrician led the way for Bart and Fenn through the crowd, who parted with murmurs of admiration for the lad who had made such a plucky shot. There was no sign of Ned or Frank.

"Well, I don't know how to begin to thank you," said the man, feelingly, when they were in a somewhat secluded place on the main street. The work of preparing for the ushering in of the New Year was almost completed.

"I never _can_ properly thank you," he went on. "My name's George Lang, and if ever you boys want a friend, or if you want anything done in the line business, you call for George," and he meant what he said.

"I'm glad I was able to fire, and sever the wire," said Bart, as he walked along with Mr. Lang, "but I wish it had happened a few minutes earlier--or later," he added.

"I'm sorry it happened at all," declared Mr. Lang. "I never had an accident like that, and I don't want another. But what difference did the time make?"

"Because we were on the trail of a thief," explained Bart, "and he skipped out just before you got caught on top of the pole. He was a chap who had stolen a diamond bracelet, and we boys are accused of the crime.

We wanted to capture him to prove our innocence. My two chums are after him, but I don't believe they'll catch him. He saw us and skipped out.

By the way," the lad added, as he recollected the incident, "he waved his hand to you, and you waved back to him from the top of the pole, just before the wire broke loose."

"Me?" exclaimed Mr. Lang in great astonishment. "I waved to a diamond-bracelet thief?"

"I don't say you knew him," declared Bart, fearing he had been misunderstood, "but you certainly greeted him. He had on a light cap, and he stood at the foot of the pole, and----"

"Him? Oh, you mean him--that--why----" the lineman seemed to be choking--"a thief--stole a diamond bracelet----" He had to stop to catch his breath, but whether it was from laughter, or because he choked, the lads could not decide. "Him a thief?" asked Mr. Lang.

"Or, if he didn't take the bracelet, he took the professor's mud turtle," put in Fenn, who had by this time recovered from his indisposition.

"Mud turtle! Oh, dear! Mud turtles, you say? Oh, I--excuse me," and again the lineman choked up. "I understand," he said at length. "I know who you mean. Would you like to meet him?"

"Would we?" gasped Bart and Fenn, together.

"That's enough. I'll guarantee to introduce you to him, if he's at home," went on Mr. Lang. "He lives next door to me. I know him well. A diamond thief! Oh, dear! Mud turtles!" and again the lineman seemed overcome. "Don't say another word, but come on."

Much mystified, Bart and Fenn followed their friend. He led them up a quiet street, and into a neat cottage.

"Mary," he said to his wife, when he had introduced the lads, "one of these boys saved my life this afternoon, but I'll tell you more about that later. Just now I've something else on hand. Do you know if William is home?" and he nodded at the house next door.

"Yes," said Mrs. Lang, wonderingly, "he just came in. I think he brought home another turtle."

The hearts of Fenn and Bart gave jumps! At last they were on the trail!

Without a word the lineman led the way to the adjoining house. He seemed to be laboring under some emotion, as if he was trying hard not to laugh. He knocked at the door, and a man answered the summons. Bart and Fenn started back. There stood the mysterious person who had eluded them so often--the man they believed had taken the diamond bracelet belonging to the professor's wife! On his part the mysterious individual seemed anxious to run away at the sight of Bart and Fenn.

"William," began the lineman, "one of these lads saved my life a while ago. Now don't get excited--take things calmly. No one is going to hurt you, or your turtles," and he spoke almost as he might to a child, or to a sick person. "I just want to introduce you to these boys. They are looking for a diamond bracelet, and they think maybe you could help them find it. Boys, this is my cousin, William Lang," and Bart thought the lineman winked significantly at him. Was there more to the mystery?

"Your cousin?" echoed Fenn.

"Yes," answered the man whose life Bart had saved. "He is one of the greatest collectors of turtles in the world," and again he winked.

"That's what I am!" exclaimed William Lang, proudly, and he seemed to lose some of his fear. Still Bart could not help thinking that his manner was very strange. "But I haven't any diamond bracelet," went on the odd individual. "I know you boys think I have it, and you've been chasing me for it, and trying to have me arrested, but I haven't got it.

I tried to keep out of your way, but I couldn't seem to. You were always after me, even when I was only collecting turtles. I know about the bracelet, though."

"What do you know about it?" asked Bart, eagerly.

"Why, I read in the papers that it was stolen," said William Lang, simply. "It was taken the same night I went to the school to look at Professor Long's turtles. He didn't want me to see 'em, but I did all right. I got in when he wasn't there, and fooled him. He was so mysterious about 'em, that I thought he had a rare kind. But he didn't have at all. Anyway I saw 'em, and he doesn't know it, even to this day.

I got in at the dead of night," and the man's voice sunk to a whisper, and his face took on a cunning look.

"Then _you_ were the man we saw enter the school that night!" exclaimed Bart.

"Did you see me? Did you see me?" gasped the lineman's cousin, in great alarm. "Oh, yes, I remember now, I ran!"

"Sure we saw you," answered Fenn. "We were----"

Bart gave his chum a warning look.

"I didn't mean any harm," cried William Lang. "I only went in to see the turtles. I'm a great collector of them," he added. "I heard about Professor Long's collection, and once I called on him at the school. I wanted to see his reptiles, but for some reason he wouldn't let me. But I made up my mind I _would_ see 'em. I knew he was trying to deceive me--Professor Long was--so one night I took a false key I had, and I got in the school. I had a dark lantern and I saw the turtles. I got ahead of Professor Long that time," and the man laughed excitedly. "But come in, and I'll show you my collection," he added.

He turned into the house, and the two boys, after a moment of hesitation, followed. They did not yet quite understand. The lineman whispered to them, when out of earshot of his cousin.

"You must humor poor William," he said. "He is all right except on the subject of mud turtles. He thinks he has the greatest collection of them in the world. I don't in the least doubt that he went in the school by stealth to look at some. In fact, I heard from Professor Long about a visit he paid to him one day, when he wanted to see the school collection. Professor Long had heard of my cousin, and knew him to be harmless, but William got so excited on the subject of turtles that the professor concluded it would not be best to exhibit the school collection, so he refused. This made William suspicious, and very likely he made up his mind to sneak in, and get a night-view of the reptiles. I have no doubt but that he did so."

"He certainly did," answered Bart. "We saw him come out. Then, when the diamond bracelet was missed, we naturally concluded that he was the person who had taken it."

The lineman shook his head.

"William would not do such a thing," he said. "There must be some other explanation. But humor him now by looking at his turtles. You may get a clew."

The boys did so. The eccentric man, who was somewhat insane on the subject of turtles, had quite a collection of the queer reptiles--larger even than Fenn's, or the one in the High School. He talked of them interestedly. By degrees Bart led to the subject of his visit to the school, and touched on the diamond bracelet, but the man's replies showed that he knew nothing of it.

"I remember you boys," William Lang went on. "I recollect now that I saw you as I hurried away from the school, and I thought you would chase me, but you didn't. Then I saw you in the shooting gallery, but I didn't know you at first. I'm a fine shot, you know, but I couldn't shoot well that night, after I recognized you," and he nodded at Bart. "By this time I had learned of the missing bracelet, and I was afraid you might have me arrested for taking it, so I hurried away. But I never saw it."

He paused to replace in the cage a turtle that was crawling out, and the lineman took occasion to say in a whisper:

"That's another of William's odd notions. He thinks he is a crack rifle shot."

"Well, he did shoot pretty well," said Bart. "But I am wondering where on earth the bracelet can be. We are all at sea again, over it."

"I would have more turtles if a certain Fenn Masterson had sold me his collection," went on the queer man. "I got his name from a naturalist's magazine, for he collects turtles, it seems. I wrote to Mr. Masterson, asking him if he'd sell me his turtles. But I had to proceed very cautiously, for he lived in the same town where the bracelet was stolen, and I didn't want to show myself there. So I told him to leave his answer in an old sycamore tree. Then, after I did that I became alarmed, and I didn't dare go back to see if he had replied. Oh, you can't be too careful in this business," concluded the man, with a cunning look.