Worthington led him to a mass of bowlders at a distance, and, pointing at them, he declared in a whisper:
“There’s where they were hiding. Look and see. There is where they were, I tell you!”
More to pacify the poor fellow than anything else, Frank looked around amid the rocks. Suddenly he made a discovery that caused him to change countenance and kneel upon the ground. Bart, who had sauntered down, found him thus.
“What is it, Frank?” he asked.
“See here, Hodge,” said Merry. “There has been some one here amid these rocks. Here’s a track. Here’s a mark where the nails of a man’s boot heel scratched on the rocks.”
Hodge stood looking down, but shook his head.
“You have sharper eyes than I, Frank,” he confessed. “Perhaps Worthington has been here himself.”
“No! no!” denied the deranged man. “I was afraid to come! I tell you I saw them! I tell you I saw their wicked eyes. This is the first time I have been here!”
“If he tells the truth,” said Frank, “then it is certain some one else has been here.”
Behind Worthington’s back Bart shook his head and made signals expressive of his belief that whatever signs Frank had discovered there had been made by Worthington.