“Oh, I understan’,” laughed Tony. “Justa laik de sun! Ha! Ha!”
Though Teddy and his chums made several trips to the woods, fields and the glen, they saw no further signs of the deer. Sometimes the girls went with them on hunts. Once in a while Fatty Nolan would go out with the boys. But he was so excited no one could depend on him. Once he caused great excitement by shouting:
“There he is! The mystery deer! I see his horns!”
But it was only the whitened, gnarled roots of an old stump in a field.
Once Margie and Lucy came hurrying home from a berry-picking trip saying they had seen the deer in a field. Teddy and his chums hurried to the place only to see a cow, partly screened by the bushes.
Meanwhile Mr. Crispen made his trap over and set it in Mason’s meadow near the place where the deer had first been seen. But though he put fresh bait in the trap every night, no deer went in to spring the trap and be caught.
“I guess we’ve seen the last of the mystery deer,” said Teddy to his chums one day. They were returning from a trip to look for the animal.
“Seems so,” admitted Joe.
“We haven’t even seen that cowboy, or whoever he was, that lassoed you, Teddy,” remarked Dick.
“No, we haven’t. And I’d like to meet him. Maybe he didn’t mean to rope me. He might want his lasso back,” Teddy said.