In a little while they arrived at the cove where they had come across the two men a week earlier. Owing to the rocks and the rather poor beach, the cove was seldom visited by bathers. There was really little reason for fishermen to put into the cove, either. That was why it had puzzled him to find the two men at the cove the previous Saturday. However, they might simply have been exploring the cove.
Eddie and Teena continued across the rough beach. There was no one in sight at the cove. As they walked, they picked up bright shells which sprinkled the sand before them.
“Look at these tracks, Eddie,” Teena said, as she pointed down at deep grooves in the sand. They were long and wide—the kind a boat dragged up onto the beach would leave.
“They look fresh,” Eddie said. “Couldn’t have been here more than three or four hours, or the tide would have wiped out the marks. Wonder if it was the same two fellows?”
“Funny that they would rent a boat to go fishing,” Teena said, “and then come in here to the cove first. There aren’t any sand crabs to dig for bait.”
Eddie was thinking the same thing. Then he saw footprints which led from the place where the boat had been beached to the base of the bluff rising above the cove. “Now why would they go to the foot of the bluff?” Eddie said, puzzled. “There’s nothing to see over there.”
Curiosity gripped him. He started following the twin sets of footprints.
“Eddie,” Teena said, “we’d better go on if we’re going to visit Captain Daniels.”
“This won’t take long,” Eddie called back over his shoulder. Teena followed as he went on toward the foot of the bluff.
“Hey, look,” Eddie said. “There’s a kind of path that zigzags up the bluff. I’ve never noticed that before.”