Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/201

Rh "I didn't see him," came from another. "Where is he? I'd like to know what a real dangerous turtle looks like."

These words had scarcely been uttered when there came a scream from a lady at the center table.

"Oh, look at that horrid thing coming this way!"

"Hello, it's a turtle!" cried a gentleman.

"The snapping turtle is loose!" yelled Buster Beggs. "Oh, my, what a whopper he is!"

"He'll chew somebody up!"

At that moment the turtle brushed against the foot of one of the young men.

"Oh, dear, he is trying to eat my foot!" shrieked the young man, who was a good deal of a dude. "Oh, really, this is truly awful, don't you know! Help!"

"I—I don't wish to be bitten!" came from an elderly maiden, and she leaped up on a chair, and a dozen others in the dining hall followed suit.

From one part of the floor the snapping turtle turned to another, and as he came for the boys they too took to their chair-seats, while one leaped on the end of the table.

"The turtle is monarch of all he surveys," came from Roger. "Scat!" And he made a kick at the creature. The snapping turtle gave a hiss and a snap that made Roger draw back in alarm.