And while they all watched, and speculated, each according to his light, they saw Sebattis come to a pause. He called to Thad, whose back happened to be turned at the moment; and the patrol leader hastened to join him.
Sebattis was pointing down at his feet. The boys noticed that there was something rather dramatic about his attitude while doing this; and Giraffe voiced the feelings of his mates when he said:
“He found what he was looking for, believe me; and what d’ye suppose it c’n be?”
The scouts pushed forward. Just as Thad was doing, so Allan, Step Hen, Davy, Giraffe, yes, and even Bumpus, as curious as the rest, craned their necks forward, and stared at the object in plain view beyond the tip of the dark finger which Sebattis had extended.
There was a plain imprint of a shoe there, though not the one that bore the mark across the sole. And there was something more than this; for when Thad touched what seemed to be a little dark pebble, with the point of a stick he had picked up, they realized what it was.
A drop of blood, showing that Sebattis had made no mistake when he declared his random shot had at least slightly wounded one of the prowling hoboes!
CHAPTER XXIII.
A FLANK MOVEMENT.
“I should say Sebattis did hit something!” declared Giraffe, staring hard at the tell-tale spot in the footprint.
“But it wasn’t Charlie that got hurt,” remarked Davy, evidently alive to the fact that the track which showed the trace of blood did not have any cross line, showing where the sole had been patched.
“No, it was the other fellow,” observed Thad. “Where was he hit, Sebattis?”