“See that?” he demanded.
“Yes, I see several footsteps,” said the professor, “but what have they——”
“Ter do with it? Everything. Them’s Jack Merrill’s footmarks or I lose my guess. And see here, this little wavy line,—a lariat’s dragged here. Oh, the varmints!”
“How do you construe all this?” asked the professor.
“Easy enuff. Them rascals, whoever they be, hev roped Jack, hog-tied him and dragged him off.”
“O-oh!”
The exclamation, half a groan, burst from all their throats. Examining the ground further, it seemed likely that Coyote’s construction of the case was a correct one. All of which goes to show how very far wrong a theory can go.
“Let’s hurry after them, whoever they are, and put up a fight,” cried Ralph.
“Yes, we must rescue Jack,” echoed Walt Phelps.