Fatty Nolan had to stop and take a breath after all this talk. He had a habit of running his words and sentences together in his conversation, but the boys understood.
“The deer hasn’t been caught yet, as far as we know,” Teddy said. “We came to see if you know that man with the lasso.”
“Never saw him before,” Fatty answered. “But let’s go look for him. Maybe he caught the deer last night.”
“No, he didn’t,” said Joe. “If he had, Mrs. Traddle’s garden wouldn’t have been spoiled.”
“Did the deer do that?” exclaimed Fatty. “Oh, gosh!” he said, when told this had happened. “Now we’ve got to get that deer. It might spoil dad’s garden. Come on—this way. I can take you right where I last saw that lasso man. Come on! Hurry!”
Fatty Nolan, in spite of his unusual size, could walk almost as fast as he could talk. He kept ahead of Teddy and his chums as they made their way to the meadow where they had first seen the man with the lasso.
Teddy, Dick and Joe hardly expected to see the strange man again but luck was with them. They had just reached the place where they had noticed him the day before when, suddenly, Fatty Nolan shouted:
“There he is! There he is! The lasso man!”