“Maybe you could if we helped you,” suggested Joe.
“What’s that?” exclaimed the old man, looking up through his thick, bushy eyebrows at the chums. “Let you lads go all over my place looking for a paper with a name on? No, sir-ee! You’d mix everything all up. I wouldn’t be able to find a waxed end in a month. It can’t be done! Give me, say a week, and I’ll find that paper.”
“That might be too late,” said Teddy.
“Look here!” exclaimed the shoemaker, getting up from his bench. “Why are you so anxious to have that man’s name? What’s all this about my star heel plates?”
Teddy Benson took a sudden resolve. It might be a good idea to have Mr. Crispen in their confidence. If they told him part of the mystery he might help them solve it. Anyhow they were getting nowhere by waiting a week to get on the trail of the man with the star heel plates.
“What’s it all about?” asked Mr. Crispen again. He seemed suspicious, as though he feared some trick might be played on him.
“I’m going to tell him,” Teddy whispered to his chums. Then he added: “We think those star heel plates may be a clue.”
“A clue to what?” asked the cobbler.
“To a mysterious deer,” Teddy said.
“Say, what are you, fellows? Boy detectives?” asked Mr. Crispen with a laugh.