"They couldn't. There's no road."
"Well, there's a sort of clearing over there," said Joe, motioning in the direction from which he had just returned. "It looks as if it had been a road at one time."
"That's probably the old creek road. It hasn't been used for years."
"Well, it was used just this week. I saw the marks of an automobile tire over there not ten minutes ago. And it was a mighty peculiar tread, too. Like this—," and Joe commenced to draw a replica of the design in the sand, using a thin stick of wood as a pencil.
Chet Morton stared.
"Why," he exclaimed, "there's only one car in the city has tires like that!"
"Whose car?"
"Mine!" exclaimed Chet, springing to his feet. "Where is this road you found?"
Joe Hardy quickly led the way and all the other boys came trooping along behind, the whole band thrown into a state of great excitement by this unexpected discovery. They all knew that Chet's car was of an unusual make and that the tires were distinctive. When they reached the clearing and Chet had examined the imprint in the mud he exclaimed:
"There's no mistake about it! My car has been here! No other car in the city has a tread like that!"