designated to handle the matter. His chums believed him capable of
discovering almost anything going, if only a few faint tracks had been
left behind.

Nothing loth, Max started in to look; but he knew in the beginning that
the task would be a difficult one, and the results not at all equal to
the exertion put forth.

Still he did find several places where a footprint, not at all like any
made by their own shoes, seemed to tell where the intruder had stepped,
in making his rapid rounds of the camp.

"There was only one thief, boys," he announced, after he had looked
carefully.

"Man or boy, do you think, Max?" asked Owen.

"A man; and I should say a pretty hefty one, too," replied the other,
with conviction in his voice.

"Why, how c'n you tell that, Max, without ever once gettin' sight of the
feller?" demanded the astonished Bandy-legs.

"Oh, shucks, how dense some people are!" put in Steve, scornfully. "Why,
stands to reason, don't it, that a big man'd wear shoes ever so much
longer than a little man, or a kid? Well, look at that print Max is
pointing to right now! Don't think any Shafter, Toots or Beggs made
that, do you?"

"Gosh!" exclaimed Bandy-legs, staring; "he must 'a' been a giant, sure.