“Footprints, you mean?” Ross was inclined to scoff at the other boy’s observation. “You can’t tell anything by that. You had a Den meeting tonight. Probably those large footprints were made by one of the Den Dads.”
“That could be, Ross. But I’m noticing something else too.”
“Well, don’t keep it a secret, Wise Guy,” Ross said, a trifle irritably. “What have those bright little searchlights of yours picked up?”
Dan pointed to a series of tiny circular marks in the hard-packed sand. Approximately one-half inch deep and perhaps a foot and a half apart, the imprints led down-beach into a clump of bushes.
“What’s so strange about that?” Ross demanded.
Offering no reply, Dan walked over to the bush. As he had expected, no one now was hiding there.
However, in the soft sand appeared additional footprints from a large man’s shoe. And beside them were several mysterious circular marks which he thought might have been made by someone using a walking stick.
Dan turned to Ross who had followed him. “Will you do me a favor?” he asked.
“What kind?” the other boy asked with caution.
“Say nothing to any of the Cubs about what happened tonight—either those in your Den or mine.”