They moved around as if looking for further signs, because scouts are always keen to find tell-tale marks that will add to the size of the edifice they are building up, founded partly on conjecture and also on "give-away" facts.
Lil Artha it was who emitted a low whistle, and the others glancing up, well knowing that he must have made some sort of important discovery, saw him waving one of his hands to them—he held the Marlin double-barrel with the other, of course.
"See that?" he told them when they reached his side amidst the bushes adjacent to the little opening where the long-cold fire ashes lay.
"Feathers, for a cookey!" exclaimed Toby, "and a heap of the same, too."
"Now we know what he cooked on the ends of those sticks!" observed Mark.
"Yeth, and now we know where one of Farmer Trotter's henth went to," added Ted.
"This is more than Johnny ever ran across," remarked Lil Artha, "because he only guessed the chicken thief was hiding in the swamp, for he'd seen tracks. Hold on, he did say there was ashes, too, at the place he picked up that filed half-circle of steel, but it must have been in a different place from this."
"Well, it's only a little incident after all," said Elmer, "and doesn't tell us much that we didn't know before."
"Only that we're on the track of those lost chickens, you know," chuckled the tall scout. "But see here, Elmer, if they made a fizzle of their raid last night, how d'ye suppose they're going to keep from starving to death in here?"
"Ask me something easy, please," retorted the other; "though if I was in their place I think I could manage to keep alive. There are lots of ways for doing that, if you only stop to think."