“Why, if you stop here, and honk your horn twice, we’ll come running to you.”
“You might run into the rascals,” mused Jennison.
“I hope we do,” muttered Tom.
“See here,” demanded the officer curiously, “aren’t you boys afraid to take a chance like this?” His glance fell on Joe Dawson.
“No,” returned Joe very quietly.
“Well, it may not be a bad idea to leave you here until I return,” said Jennison briskly. “You may pick up some sign. Anyway, I hope you don’t get into any trouble. Good-by for a few minutes.”
The car sped out of sight, but neither boy waited to watch it.
“It’s a pretty fair guess, Joe,” said Tom, “that Alvarez and French came up this way from the shore. Now, that way, the road leads to Wood’s Hole. And there’s the opposite direction. Alvarez has a little foot like a woman’s; French has a very large foot. Now if we can find two such foot marks together, it would look as though we could find the direction our men have taken. Have you any matches?”
“Plenty,” Dawson replied.
“So have I. Then suppose you go that way,” pointing toward Wood’s Hole. “And I’ll go the other way. We can light matches every two or three hundred feet and examine the ground. One of us may pick up the trail we want to find.”