Quickly he noted that there were footprints on the soft bit of shore, and bent to examine them. After some scrutiny he could make out distinctly at least three sets of prints. One set seemed to be made by moccasins, for the prints were blurred and indistinct, and another set was evidently left there by some man who wore a pair of shoes with heels.
What made Garry’s heart beat quickly, was the sight of the third set of prints that were of a certainty made by a girl.
The two sets of male footprints of course denoted two men, and since it was a foregone conclusion that the moccasined walker was LeBlanc, Garry wondered who his companion could be.
He searched about for more prints in an endeavor to find which way the tracks led, but they soon broke back onto the hard ground, covered with countless thousands of pine needles and spears from the spruce trees.
He was about to give up the search and debate with himself as to what course to pursue, when he saw, lying among the pine needles, a dress button.
Garry seized it eagerly. It looked like an ornamental button from a waist or dress. Since it lay some little distance from where he had found the footprints, it must mean that the girl and her captor had come this way.
It was new looking, and was undoubtedly dropped there not very long before the time he found it. Had it been there for some time it would show it had been exposed to the rain and ground.
Filling his collapsible bucket with water, he hurried back, and having made his coffee, hastily ate his meal. The wireless was then dismantled and along with the other contents of the knapsack repacked quickly.
Shouldering his knapsack, and stamping out the remains of the fire, also removing, as far as possible, any trace of having eaten at the spot, Garry made his way back to the place he had found the button.
The discovery had shaped his course for him. It was probable that the trail led up the brook. If LeBlanc had some hideout in the woods, what was more natural than having it near a brook, both for the fact that it was a supply of water and a place where a certain amount of food could be obtained, since Garry, with an angler’s instinct, had mentally decided that the brook abounded in fat trout.