The words Glen had for Matt were not to be bawled into the ears of strangers, so he left the foolish boy to follow his own tactics. It was not too late for the swim and Glen was glad to have at least a few minutes of his favorite sport.
He was dressing when some one tapped him on the shoulder and he looked up into the comical face of Chick-chick.
"Hey, Brick. Found something, I have," he announced.
"What is it?" asked Glen.
"Hssh! Not so loud! Don't want whole camp to know. It's secret. Footprints on sands of time."
"You're talking nonsense," said Glen.
"No nonsense about it. It's wheelprints 'stead o' footprints, that's all. Come an' see. I was chasin' butterfly down near Vinegar Creek an' I ran on it by accident, I did."
The two boys managed to slip away from the crowd and Chick-chick mysteriously led the way down the road in the direction of the heavy woods that marked the location of Vinegar Creek.
"While back I heard a car chuggin' along. Funny for car be down here, don't ye know. Then there's somethin' 'bout an engine's voice—every engine got voice of its own and you 'member it after you get 'quainted. Seemed to me I knew that voice. Looked at car an' didn't look like anything ever seen. Car all stripped off—nothing much left but chassis. Then I came down to road an' looked at tracks. Wait bit. Soon be there, we will."
He led on for another hundred yards until they reached a point where an old woods trail struck out into the highway. Here Chick-chick paused.