Roy Blakeley, Pathfinder | Page 7

then I saw a very narrow path on the opposite side of the road that led into the woods. I decided it must be a short cut to the village. So I started along that path.
Pretty soon the woods grew very thick and it wasn't so easy to follow the trail, because it was all overgrown with bushes. But I managed to keep hold of it all right, and after about fifteen minutes I came to a little stone house with the windows all boarded up and the door standing a little open. There was a staple on the door with an old padlock hanging on it, but I guess the padlock wasn't any good. One thing sure, nobody lived there. I went and peeked inside and saw that it wasn't meant for people at all, because there wasn't any floor and it was all dark and damp and there were lots of spider webs around. Even there was one across the doorway, so by that I knew that nobody had been there lately.
Right in the middle, inside, were a couple of rocks and water was trickling up from under them. That's what made me think that the place was just a spring house. Anyway, I didn't wait because I was in a hurry. When I came out I pushed the door open a little and then I closed it all but about a foot or so. Inside of an hour I was mighty sorry that I hadn't left it wide open, and you'll see why.
I guess I had gone about a hundred yards further when I noticed something in the trail that started me guessing. It was the print of an animal; or anyway, if it wasn't, I didn't know what else it was. There were six prints, something like a cat's, only the paw that made them had five toes. The other mark was the paw mark. It was the biggest print that I ever saw.
The first animal I thought about was a wild cat. But of course, I knew there weren't any wild cats right there. Even if there were any in that part of the country, they wouldn't be roaming around near villages. Anyway, the five toe prints had me guessing, because a wild cat has only four. I could see that the animal must have been crossing the path, because the print was sideways and the bushes alongside of the path were kind of trampled down.
You can bet I took a good look in those bushes for hairs, but I couldn't find any and I kept wondering what kind of an animal had a paw as big as a man's hand and five toes.
After I had gone a little further, I came plunk on a whole line of them along the path. I wasn't exactly scared, but anyway, they made me feel sort of funny, because they were so big and printed so plain. The animal that made those tracks must have been a pretty big animal, I knew that.
Then, all of a sudden, I discovered something else. Some of the prints had five toe marks and some of them only four. "Maybe that means the animal was lame," I said to myself, and doesn't make a full print with one of its feet. But in a minute I had sense enough to see that wasn't the way it was, because there were always two of one kind pretty close together and then two of the other kind pretty close together. This is the way it was; there was a five toe print then another one about a foot in back of it, then about three or four feet in back of that a couple more about a foot apart with only four toe marks.
Good night! I They had me all flabbergasted.
Pretty soon they left the path altogether and I looked in the bushes for hairs, but I couldn't find a single one.
"Anyway," I said to myself, "one thing sure, that animal has five toes on his front feet and only four on his hind feet and I never saw any tracks like that before or even pictures of them."
I wasn't exactly scared, but just the same I was kind of glad when I got to the village.
CHAPTER VII
I MEET THE STRANGER
Anyway, that was the smallest village I ever saw to have such big tracks right near it. All I could see was two houses and the post office, and the post office was so small that you could almost put your arm down the chimney and open the front door. But, one thing sure, you could buy everything you wanted in that post office. You could buy a plough or a lollypop or anything. It smelled kind of like corn inside.
I got some lead