"And you think one or the other, or both, are in this neighborhood
again?"

"It looks plausible, doesn't it?"

"Yes, but -- it would be very strange. I should think they would
give this locality a wide berth."

"Hardly. Josiah Crabtree isn't done with the Stanhopes, to my
mind, and Baxter will get square with us if he can."

While this talk was going on Sam and Tom were following some
footprints leading from the clearing where the signal board had
been found down a small path toward the lake. The footprints were
clearly defined.

"The prints are not very large," observed Tom, as he and his
brother measured them. "It looks to me as if Dan Baxter's feet
might have made them."

"Certainly they weren't made by old Crabtree," said Sam. "He had a
very long foot and always wore square-toed boots."

They followed the prints down to the lake shore, and then along the
rim of the lake for nearly half a mile.

Here there was a little cove, and under some bushes they discovered
some marks in the wet dirt of the bank, as if a rowboat had been
moored there. In this dirt the footprints came to an end.