“Maybe,” Joe admitted. “This sure is queer. I say, fellows, look at this!” he cried as he pointed to a place where there was a bare spot in the meadow. Scarcely any grass grew there and in the brown earth Dick and Teddy saw some peculiar marks.
“What are they?” asked Dick.
“Hoof marks of that deer!” exclaimed Teddy as he got down on one knee to take a better look. “That deer has been here and not long ago. The marks are fresh.”
“And the girls have been here, too!” declared Joe.
“How can you tell?” Dick wanted to know.
Joe pointed to some footprints. There were two sets of them. He bent down to examine them more closely.
“They’re small footprints,” went on Joe, “about the size of the feet of Margie and Lucy. Of course, other girls could have made these marks,” he admitted. “But when we know we heard Margie and Lucy yelling for help and find footprints of girls’ shoes here why, it’s pretty certain Margie and Lucy were here.”
“I think so, too,” admitted Teddy. “The question is where are the girls now?”
“And where are our planes?” asked Joe.
“And where is the deer?” added Dick. “Gosh, we’ve got three mysteries here instead of one, I guess.”