Bart threw himself, face downward, close to the edge of the hole. He looked carefully at the marks on the edges. Then he got up and began looking about in a circle. Finally, he walked back some distance down the hill.
“I have it!” he finally announced.
“All right, let’s have it and see if we agree with you,” spoke Ned.
“Fenn came up this hill all alone,” declared Bart. “If you had looked closely enough you could see that the footprints of the Chinese and the white man go around the base of the hill to the right. Probably they made a turn, when Fenn wasn’t looking. He thought they went up the hill. He hurried after them, and stepped right into this trap. Probably it was covered over with leaves or grass, and he couldn’t see it, until it was too late. That’s my theory.”
“And I believe you’re right,” declared Frank. “It sounds reasonable.”
“Then the next question is; what are we going to do about it?” inquired Ned. “No use standing here discussing what happened, or how it happened. What we want to do is to get busy and rescue Fenn.”
“That’s the way to talk,” declared Frank.
“Wait a minute,” suggested Bart. Once more he got down close to the hole, and peered into the depths.
“See anything?” asked Ned.
“There a way to get down,” replied Bart, after a moment.