e event down the bay crabbing. Anyway, I ran as fast
as I could to Marshtown landing to see if he had gone yet, but there
wasn't any sign of his boat there. Maybe you think I wasn't
disappointed. Anyway, I began looking around like a scout is supposed
to do, to see if there were any signs to show me whether he'd be back
soon, because maybe he only went up to the club landing for gasoline.
But there weren't any signs and he didn't show up.

Now, if I hadn't been a scout I would have gone home and played tennis
or followed the shore up to the club landing and waited for the troop
to come and go to work on the houseboat. But instead of that, I kept
looking around and pretty soon what do you think I saw? I saw a
footprint. Some Robinson Crusoe, hey?

It was a funny kind of a footprint. It wasn't Jake's, I knew that,
because he always wore fisherman's boots. It was in the soft earth near
the landing and I could see it plain. I guess maybe it was made by a
good shoe, because it was pointed, but it was all worn out, that was
one sure thing, because there was a place that was made by a stocking
or a bare foot, where there wasn't any sole at all.

Maybe you don't know much about deduction, but that's one thing scouts
learn about, and I tried to make out what it meant, but it had me
guessing. Because the shoe was pointed and had the remains of a rubber
heel--I could tell that by the big screw holes. And that meant good
shoes. And I thought it was funny anybody who could wear good shoes
would let them wear out like that.

Anyway, it was none of my business, only there was one mighty funny thing
about that footprint. There was an Indian's head stamped right in the
mud. It wasn't very plain, but I could see it was an Indian's head all
right. It was something like the Indian's head on a cent.

Oh, boy, I was all up in the air then, because I didn't understand how
that could be there, Maybe you'll say that it was stamped there to show
what make of shoes they were, but that's where you're wrong, because
most of the sole was all worn away and the mark would be worn away, so
somebody must have cut it there lately, that was one sure thing, and I
couldn't understand why any body would want to cut that on an old
worn-out shoe.

So I sat down on the edge of the float to think about it and then I saw
two or three more just like it, and even more, too, only not all of them
were so plain. Believe me, I didn't know what to think. Then all