THE DIAMOND BRACELET--CONCLUSION
Bart turned to make his way out of the crowd, for he was anxious about
Fenn. He had given up all hope of capturing the mysterious man, who had
started to hasten away before the accident to the lineman on the pole,
and who, doubtless, was far enough off by this time. But Bart's progress
was arrested by a voice.
"Hold on, young fellow!" exclaimed the workman whose life Bart had
saved. "I want to shake hands with you. That was a corking good shot. I
heard the bullet whistle past me, and then I knew I was safe. Shake!"
and he extended his hand that did not tremble as much as did Bart's,
such nerve did the electrician have. He had fully recovered from his
thrilling experience.
Bart received modestly the almost extravagant praise accorded him, and
once more began to make his way toward where Fenn had been carried.
"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.
"Why, _I'm_ that Fenn Masterson!" exclaimed the owner of the name.
"Are you?" demanded William Lang. "Will you sell me your turtles?"
"Of course," replied Fenn, who had rather lost interest in his
collection, of late. "You can have them. We hid and waited to see if you
would call for an answer to your letter."
"I guess that's some more of poor William's imagination," remarked the
lineman in a low voice. "Leaving a letter in a sycamore tree, and all
that sort of thing."
"No, that part's true enough," declared Bart. "We waited for some time
in a storm for him to show up, but he never did. Oh, it's true enough. I
am beginning to understand some things now. The reason why your cousin
ran away from us so often was because of the notion he had that we
wanted to arrest him. We would never have harmed him had we known."
"Of course not," agreed the lineman, he and Bart having talked in
whispers while the turtle collector was exhibiting some odd specimens to
Fenn. William Lang told of his visit to Oak Swamp, and how he had fled
at the sight of the boys, fearing they wanted to cause his arrest, and
he also mentioned his trips to the mud volcano, and how he had run away
at the sound of some one stirring in the campers' tent, likewise how he
had led the boys a chase about the town, just prior to the accident on
the pole.
"But about the bracelet, I don't know a thing," concluded William Lang.
"No, and I think he tells the truth," added the lineman, in a low voice.
"I'm sorry, but you boys will have to keep on with your search."
It needed but a glance at the simple face of the turtle collector to
show that he was not a thief, even if he was a decidedly peculiar
individual.
"Well," remarked Bart, after a pause, "I guess all Fenn and I can do is
to go back to the hotel, and wait for Ned and Frank to show up." The two
turned to leave the turtle collector's house. William Lang was busy
inspecting his queer pets, and seemed to pay no further attention to his
visitors.
"William was always a little queer," remarked the lineman, as he
accompanied the boys outside. "Harmless, but odd. Just daffy on the mud
turtle question. I don't wonder he gave you lots to think about, or that
you didn't quite know how to take him. He is all right except on
turtles. He'd walk fifty miles to get a new one. But he's well off, and
can afford to indulge in his fancy."
As Bart and Fenn turned into the street they saw, coming toward them,
Ned and Frank. Ned was frantically waving a paper in the air.
"How'd you find your way here?" called Bart.
"People in the crowd told us you'd come here," replied Frank. "But have
you heard the good news?"
"What good news?"
"The diamond bracelet wasn't stolen at all!" burst out Ned. "We just got
telegrams from home. They were at the hotel waiting for us. We went
there after missing you in the crowd, when something happened on the
top of the pole. We tried to follow that mysterious man, but we missed
him. There are also telegrams for you two fellows. I thought you had
them, or----"
"For gracious sake tell us the good news! What about the diamond
bracelet?" yelled Bart.
"It's been found!" exploded Ned. "It wasn't stolen at all. It had fallen
down a crack in the cabinet, in Professor Long's room, and a snake was
taking his winter sleep over the crack. Yesterday the snake died, Mr.
Long took it out--and found the bracelet."
"Well, I'll be jiggered!" exclaimed Bart.
"I should say it was good news," declared Fenn. "This takes suspicion
from the Darewell Chums."
Two days later the boys returned to their winter camp, and, after nearly
a month spent in the forest, they packed up, walked in to Cannistota,
sent a teamster back for their goods, and took a train for home.
The lads arrived at their home-town at dusk. Jed Sneed was at the
station to meet them.
A little later the four chums were in their respective houses, telling
of their adventures to their eager parents--there was considerable to
tell.
THE END
Transcriber's Notes:
--Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
--Printing, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently
corrected.
--Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
--Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
End of Project Gutenberg's Bart Keene's Hunting Days, by Allen Chapman