"Yes, it was heavy, all right," admitted Paul. "I think, from the way the
rear men stepped into the prints of the one up head, that whatever they
were carrying could not have been very lengthy; in fact, it must have
been short, but rather broad."

"Well, that's a smart idea of yours, Paul, and I c'n see how you hit on
it," Bobolink was quick to say, with a look of sincere admiration.

"But whatever do you reckon would bring four men up here to this lonely
island, carrying some heavy object in a rowboat?" Tom Betts went on.

"That's where we have to do our guessing," Paul replied. "We don't know;
and as they haven't been obliging enough to write it out, and fasten the
card to a tree, why, we've just got to put on our thinking caps, as my
mother would say."

"Well, we've had some experience in the past with hoboes; think they
could be a batch of Weary Willies, Paul?" remarked Tom Betts.

"I'm not ready to say off-hand that they're not," replied the other,
slowly; "but it hardly seems likely. In the first place, every one of
them seemed to be wearing sound shoes. Did you ever know four tramps
to do that?"

"Well, I should say not," replied Bobolink, scornfully. "It'd be a wonder
if one out of four had shoes that'd hold on without a lot of rope. You
clinched that idea the first thing, Paul."

"Then what'd you say they were?" demanded Tom.