“Well, if the deer did wear heel plates, he certainly didn’t lasso me,” declared Teddy. “Though the lasso man who ran away and the mysterious deer must be mixed up in some way.”
“Why do you think he lassoed you?” asked Fatty Nolan.
“Haven’t the least idea,” Teddy answered. “Unless maybe he wanted to scare us away from following him.”
“But if he wanted to do that, he wouldn’t run away and leave a good lasso, would he?” asked Joe.
“You can’t tell,” was Teddy’s answer. “Anyhow,” he went on, “it’s a good lasso. It’s just like some of those the cowboys had in the Wild West Show that was here last year. The man who left this lasso must be sorry to lose it.”
“Do you think he stood here and threw at you?” asked Joe.
“That’s what it looks like, from the star heel plates,” Teddy answered. “Look, you can see a lot of them now.”
There were several impressions of the star heel plates in the soft ground, near where the end of the lasso led. But when the boys tried to follow the trail they soon lost it. They could not trace the peculiar marks where the ground was hard.
Perhaps, a more experienced trailer might have been able to do so. But the boys were only amateurs and had no luck.
“Anyhow,” Teddy declared, “I got a good lasso out of it. And we know who to look for now—a man with star heel plates.”