"He told me some other things, too," said Tom, ignoring Archer's flippancy. "He used to talk to me while he was eating his lunch. The way he got started telling me about the different way they do things in Europe was when he put the shutters on the big shack. He put the hinges at the top 'cause that's always the way they do in France. He said in Italy they put 'em on the left side. In America they put them on the right side—except when they have two.
"So when I saw the shutters on that old house I happened to notice that the hinges were at the top and that made me think it was probably a Frenchman's home."
"Maybe it isn't now even if it was when the shutterrs werre made," said Archer skeptically.
"Then I happened to remember something else that man told me. Maybe you think the fleur-de-lis is only a fancy kind of an emblem, but it ain't. He told me the old monks that used to carve things—no matter what they carved you could always find a cross, or something like a cross in it. 'Cause they think that way, see? The same as sailors always tattoo fishes and ships and things on their arms. He said some places in the Black Forest the toymakers are French peasants and you can always tell if a fancy thing is carved by them on account of the shape of the fleur-de-lis. It ain't that they do it on purpose," he added; "it's because it's in their heads, like. They don't always make regular fleur-de-lis, but they make that kind of curves. He told me a lot about Napoleon, too," he added irrelevantly.
"So when I happened to think about that, I looked around to see if I could find anything to prove it, kind of. It don't make any difference if the German flag is on that pole; they've got to do that. When I saw the topknot was carved kind of like a fleur-de-lis I knew French people must have made it. And it was only carved lately, too," he added simply, "'cause the wood is fresh."
"Gee whillicums, but you're a peach, Slady!" said Archer ecstatically. "Shall we take a chance?"
"Of course I don't know for sure," Tom added, "but we've got to go by signs—just like Indian signs along a trail. If you pick up an old flint arrowhead you know you're on an Indian trail."
"Christopherr Columbus! But I'd like to find one of those arrowheads now!" said Archer.