“What are you going to do now?” asked Joe as Teddy began coiling the rope.
“Let’s go back to town and ask Mr. Crispen if he can tell us who bought any star heel plates lately,” Teddy suggested.
The others agreed this was a good idea and it was at once acted on. They started back to the village.
“Though this isn’t finding the mysterious deer,” remarked Joe.
“We’ll have another try at that after we find out about the heel plates,” Teddy said.
On the way back across the meadows and fields the boys kept a lookout for a sight of the deer or the lasso man who had so mysteriously disappeared after making a cast at Teddy. But they saw neither. They took their time, stopping to get another drink at the spring before taking the homeward trail.
It was this same day that Margie, Lucy and several other girls went on a little picnic to Buttermilk Falls. This was a favorite picnic spot for the young people of Oakdale. The falls were not very high. But they were churned to whiteness by tumbling down a rocky glen and so had been named because of their resemblance to thick buttermilk.
Around the falls were patches of woodland and meadows and in these Margie, Lucy and several of their girl friends were soon having fun; playing games, running about and finding shady places in which to rest.
Noon came and there was a general gathering of the picnic party to where their lunches had been left under a rustic shelter. The woods and fields around Buttermilk Falls were maintained by the Oakdale authorities as a public park. Tables and benches were provided for picnic parties and there were several stone fire places where potatoes could be roasted and sausages broiled.
“But it’s too hot to cook anything today,” Margie had decided. Lucy had agreed with her so they had brought only a cold lunch with them. This lunch they now picked up at the rustic shelter and took it to a shady spot along the little stream that flowed away from the foot of the falls.