The four plodded up the rocky slope, down the other side, and came to a shallow stream. As they forded it, Tom suddenly cried out: “Look over there 1”
CHAPTER VI
STOLEN CLUE
THE security men stopped short in midstream, and turned around to stare in the direction Tom was pointing. Wedged between two rocks, on the bank to their right, was a hunter’s boot!
“Nice going, Tom!” Ames shouted back.
He and his aides followed, splashing through the water, as Tom hurried toward the spot. The boot was jammed so tightly between the rocks that Tom was unable to pull it loose.
“The fellow who wore this must have got his foot stuck when he tried to scramble across in a hurry,” Radnor observed.
Tom struggled to extricate the rubber boot. “The guy was lucky to free himself, the way this is wedged in!”
Radnor and Pete finally managed to tug the two huge boulders apart enough for Tom to yank the boot free. He examined his prize closely, espe-48
STOLEN CLUE 49
cially the pattern of the heavy corrugated sole. Then he handed the boot to Ames with a quizzical glance.
The security chief, too, studied the sole markings and nodded triumphantly.
“They look like the same marks the police picked up,” he declared. He ran his hand inside the boot, but it contained nothing except accumulated lint, some of which Ames tucked into a pocket of his jacket. “We’ll take this boot to the police,”
he added. “The lint might have come from the trousers the man was wearing.”
Ames conjectured that the fugitive might have found wearing one boot uncomfortable and discarded it somewhere on land. “Let’s hunt around for it,” he suggested.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119