Plainly he had conceived a great fear regarding the mysterious object that had appeared in the camp, and vanished with their provisions.
Frank laughed.
“Make your mind easy, I’m not intending to follow him. We expect to go to the place where my pard vanished yesterday, and take up the trail there. I followed it a while, but night was coming on and I lost it. You may do better, Tom,” he said.
“But you mentioned that hairy monster, didn’t you?” queried the other, uneasily.
“I only want to examine the track he left, so as to settle in my mind whether it was really a crazy human being or a big ape. Come over here and let’s see.”
“Huh! none of our fellers ever thought of lookin’ around. A snake-whip couldn’t a-coaxed ’em over this way. Like as not they expected the varmint was lyin’ in the bushes, waitin’ to jump out again. But I don’t pull leather when I give my word.”
He threw himself prostrate on the ground. In less than three minutes an exclamation announced that he had found what he sought. Frank dropped beside him.
“There she is, and a jim-dandy of a track, too, plain as the hoof marks of a cayuse around a snubbing post!” he exclaimed, pointing.
“Just as I thought, a man’s shoe, and an unusually big one. That settles one thing in my mind. It is no escaped ape that runs wild on this island. It may be a lunatic that has got away from the asylum over at Merrick, or——”
Frank did not finish his sentence, but nodded his head as though the thought that had flashed into his mind pleased him.