"Just see the black holes, would you?" Davy declared, again and again. "Why, lots of 'em'd make the finest kind of fox dens; and I reckon a wolf wouldn't want a better hiding-place than that big one over there. Say, Thad, I c'd crawl in easy, myself, and I'd like to do it for a cooky now, if you said the word."
"Not just yet, Davy," remarked the scout leader; who began to wonder himself if the men of the island might not be hiding right then in one of the cavities Davy pointed out. "We want to see what the place is like, you know. Come along, and in a jiffy we'll be at the end where our boat lies."
"But what are you keeping on looking so close at the ground, whenever we strike any soil at all, Thad?" the Jones boy continued. "S'pose now, you think you might run on that footprint Bob was speakin' about, say?"
"Just what was in my mind, Davy," replied the other, always willing to give information to those with him. "I wanted you to see what it looked like, so you and Smithy here could be keeping on the watch. If we found that it made a regular trail, and led to one of these same black holes, we'd know more than we do right now. There, I saw a track, but it wasn't a clear one. Hold on, and let's see what this patch of open ground will show up."
"This just suits me to a dot," remarked Davy. "Feels quivery-like, you know, just like something queer was agoin' to happen right soon. Wonder if there's any wildcats loose over here. I'd like to get a whack at one with this club; wouldn't I belt him a good crack between the eyes. Hello! found what you wanted, Thad?"
The scout-master had come to a sudden stop, and was down on his knees, examining something on the ground. He beckoned the others to drop beside him, and both boys did so eagerly.
As Davy Jones saw the imprint of the shoe that had a patch on it, he gave a low exclamation, and his eyes sought those of Thad.
"Well, what d'ye think of that, now, Thad?" he muttered; "the same patched shoe that feller with the bear man was tellin' me about. Say, listen, he said that he was lookin' for a man with a shoe just like that! Yes, siree, he described it to a hair, and asked me if ever I saw a footprint like that to send word to Malcolm Hotchkiss up at Faversham!"
Thad felt a thrill at these words, for he realized that they meant there must be some connection between the supposed hobo who accompanied the owner of the dancing bear, and the two men who were hiding on the island!