Jimmy grinned. “The truth of the matter is that I forgot all about it. First we figured it was a tramp, and then when we realized that he must know his way around our property pretty well, we decided it must have been one of those dopey villagers who think there’s buried treasure on the place.”
Brook stopped to turn around and glare at Jimmy. “What do you mean ‘dopey’? If you don’t believe in that buried treasure, why did you lure us into helping you dig up every spot that didn’t have something growing on it?”
Jimmy’s dark eyes twinkled with laughter. “_I_ believe in the treasure all right, but I wouldn’t be dopey enough to trespass on other people’s property at night trying to find it. You can get a bullet through your head very neatly that way.”
“Oh, I see what you mean,” Brook said, completely mollified. He started off again at a fast trot. “Was your night prowler a dopey villager?”
“We still don’t know,” Jimmy admitted. “He’s never come back.”
“How do you know he hasn’t?” Alf demanded.
Jimmy groaned, clutching his dark hair in mock dismay. “Will you guys puh-leeze let me try to explain to you why I want to look at the footprints in the clearing? Of course we don’t know for sure,” he said sourly to Alf, “that our snoopy friend didn’t come back. We only watched out for him that first night. But with all the people who are at the Lodge now I feel certain one of us would have heard a night prowler.”
“I’m not at all sure of that,” Alf said stubbornly. “We all sleep like logs. After a day with a slave driver like you I can barely keep my eyes open long enough to get undressed and topple into bed.”
“Shut up, Alf,” Brook said over his shoulder. “Let the slavedriver tell us why we’re taking this long trek through the thickest part of the woods.”
“Footprints,” Jimmy said in exasperation. “After Phil and Pat fired a couple of shots in the air, the prowler scrammed. Then we went down to have a look at the shed. And sure enough, somebody had been there since we had left. Right near the spot where Penny fell through the rotten wall, some floor boards had been ripped up and there was a footprint in the dirt staring us in the face.”
“That guy _was_ dopey,” Alf muttered. “If he had to go around leaving footprints all over the place, why didn’t he at least put the floor boards back so you wouldn’t find them?”