Page:Dave Porter on Cave Island.djvu/50



" do you make of this, Dave?"

"I don't know what to make of it, Roger—excepting that somebody has taken our things."

"Do you think it's a joke, or just plain stealing?" demanded Ben.

"That remains to be found out," replied Ben. "One thing is certain, the things didn't walk off by themselves."

"Footprints of two persons!" exclaimed Gus, who had been scanning the snow-covered ground in the vicinity of the trees and bushes.

"Where do they lead to?" asked Dave, eagerly.

"Here they are—you can follow them as easily as I can," was the reply, and the heavy-set youth pointed out the tracks in the snow. They led all around the trees and bushes and then in the direction of the river. Here there were a jumble of tracks and further on the marks of skate runners.

"Stopped to put on their skates," remarked the senator's son.

"And they have skated off with all our things!"