“We may find others farther on,” said Nick. “It’s a hundred to one that this was caused by the boot of the missing girl. Notice the stylish length and pointed heel.”
“It seems to be a cinch.”
“She was going this way,” Nick added. “We’ll take the same direction.”
He glanced at his watch while they hurried on. It then was half past four. They were the only two persons out at that early hour, but a myriad of feathered songsters were thrilling the woodland, which the beams of the rising sun now had begun to penetrate.
Fifty yards brought them to the gravel road mentioned, of which both began to make a careful inspection. There were tracks to be seen, those of wagons, carriages, and automobile tires; so many of them, in fact, that nothing definite could be determined from them.
“Nothing denotes that a conveyance of any kind remained here for a time,” Chick observed, after a vain scrutiny. “It ordinarily would have been left on one side of the road.”
“We’ll seek in each direction,” said Nick. “I’ll go this way, you that. If you discover anything reliable, whistle to me.”
“Enough said,” replied Chick, as they parted.
Nick had covered about fifty yards in an easterly direction, vainly inspecting each side of the road, when he suddenly made another discovery.
Somewhat ahead of him, lying near the wheel tracks on one side, was what appeared to be a scrap of cloth.