“That’s right!” Fatty agreed. “Let Teddy look alone. If we all walk around here there’ll be so many footprints he won’t be able to tell one from another.”
“I don’t know that I’ll be able to detect any marks as it is,” Teddy said. “This ground is sort of hard. But maybe there will be traces of some shoe prints.”
Teddy knelt down and began to use some of his Boy Scout knowledge in trailing. At first, he saw nothing unusual. As he had said, the ground was too hard. But, after scouting about a bit, Teddy uttered a cry of surprise.
“I think I’ve found it!” he exclaimed. “Come over here! Careful, fellows! Look!” and he pointed to a little patch of soft earth in which was imbedded several impressions of a small star.
“What does that mean?” asked Dick. “That an astronomer has been here?”
“No,” Teddy answered. “But it means somebody that wears metal heel plates in the shape of a star has been here. And I think they were on the shoes of the man who lassoed me.”
“What do you mean by heel plates?” asked Fatty.
“Why, some men, who wear down the heels of their shoes faster than the soles, put metal plates on the heels to stop the wear,” Teddy explained. “Mr. Crispen, the cobbler on Main street, has lots of heel plates. They come in different shapes. Maybe he has some like these stars and can tell us who bought them.”
“That’s a dandy clue,” said Joe.
“But it doesn’t help us find the mysterious deer,” Dick stated. “Unless the deer wore heel plates.”