“Say, Daddy, do you s’pose some of the Indians could have done it?” asked Sue in a whisper.

“I hardly think so,” answered Mr. Brown.  “Still, they are not all as honest as Eagle Feather.  We’ll have a look around their camp.”

“And maybe we’ll find my train at the same time,” said Bunny, hopefully.

“We’ll look for it,” replied Mr. Brown.

All of a sudden Bunny began to run around in a circle, bending down toward the ground.

“What are you doing?” asked Sue.  “Playing stoop-tag?”

“No, I’m looking for the marks of Indians’ feet,” answered Bunny.  “If Indians came around here to take your doll, they’d leave some mark.  I’m trying to find it.”

Sue shook her head.

“What’s the matter?” asked Bunny.

“Indians don’t leave any tracks,” returned the little girl. “’They are very cunning,’ it says in my school reader-book, ’and they can slip through a forest leaving no more trace than that of the wind.’  I don’t know what ‘trace’ is, but it must be true, for it’s in my book.”

“Oh, those were old-fashioned Indians,” said Bunny.  “That kind wouldn’t leave any marks.  But these Indians wear shoes, and they’d leave a mark in soft ground.  Wouldn’t they, Daddy?”

“I believe they would.  But I don’t want to think it was our good friends the Indians who have taken your things.  But we will search and see.  Come on, now, Bunny and Sue.  We’ll have a little hunt before breakfast.”

CHAPTER X

LOST IN THE WOODS

Holding the hands of Bunny and his sister Sue, one on either side, Mr. Brown started on a little search around the tents.  They were trying to find the footprints of some one who did not belong to the camp.  Some one other than Mr. and Mrs. Brown, Uncle Tad and the children themselves.  Of course Bunker Blue came to the camp once in a while, and so did various peddlers and some people from neighboring farms.  But most of these footprints were known to Mr. Brown, as he had seen them about the place ever since he and his family had been living at Camp Rest-a-While.

“What I want to see is a strange footprint,” said the children’s father.

“An Indian’s footprint is stranger than ours,” said Sue.

“Of course, if they wear moccasins,” agreed Bunny.

“No, if they wear shoes,” said Sue.  “Our teacher told us about it.”

“What is different in an Indian’s footprint and ours, Sue?” asked Mr. Brown.

“Why, an Indian, even if he wears shoes like ours, turns his toes in, instead of out, as we do,” went on the little girl.

“Ha!  Ha!  Ho!  Ho!” laughed Bunny.  “Whoever heard of such a thing?”

“But it’s true, isn’t it, Daddy?” asked Sue.

“Yes, it is true,” said Mr. Brown.  “A real Indian has a sort of pigeon-toe, as it is called.  That is, instead of pointing his toes out when he walks, he turns them in.  At least most Indians do, though there may be some who do not.  So if you are looking for Indians’ tracks, Bunny, look for the kind that turns in.”