"He was asleep," said Bets. "Fast asleep. He didn't even wake when Buster sniffed at his feet."
"His feet!" said Pip. "What sort of shoes did he have on? Did they have rubber soles?"
Bets looked dismayed. "Oh! I never thought of looking. And I so easily could have seen, couldn't I, because he was fast asleep. But I was so excited at finding him that I just never thought of looking at his shoes."
"There's no time to be lost," said Pip, jumping up. "He may still be fast asleep. We'd better go and have a look at him and his shoes and his clothes. Fatty can tell us at once if he's the tramp he saw in Mr. Hick's garden or not."
Excited and rather solemn, the Five Find-Outers and Dog set off down the lane to the fields that ran beside the river. They went fast, in case the tramp had awakened and gone on his way. It was so marvellous that Bets should actually have found him - they couldn't possibly risk losing him!
They came to the rick. A gentle sound of snoring told them that the tramp was still there. Fatty picked up Buster and crept round the rick without making a sound.
On the other side5 curled up well, lay a tramp. He was an old fellow, with a stubbly grey beard, shaggy grey eyebrows, a red nose, and long, untidy hair that straggled from under a terrible old hat. Fatty took a look at him. He tiptoed back to the others.
"Yes - it's the tramp all right!" he whispered, thrilled. "But it's going to be difficult to pull aside his mackintosh to see if he's got a grey coat underneath. And he's got His feet sort of curled up underneath him. We shall have to get right down on the ground to see what sort of sole his shoes have got underneath."
"I'll go and try," said Larry. "You others keep Buster quiet here, and watch out in case any one comes."
Leaving the others on the far side of the rick, Larry crept round to the side where the tramp slept. He sat down near him. He put out his hand to pull aside the old mackintosh to see if the man wore grey underneath. The trousers appearing below the coat were so old and dirty that it was quite impossible to tell what colour they had once been.