Summer Island - A Prince in Peril

10 - The Footprints

"Will you at least tell us where we're going?"Seymour hauled himself up the cliff.

"Just a little bit more," Zoë urged. "When we reach that clump of trees, we'll stop there."

"I still can't believe you actually talked with Sir Peter," panted Dinora, accepting Seymour's help.

"If it was anyone but you saying he wasn't so bad, I would never have believed it," said Mario.

Zoë stopped to let the rest catch up. "I know. I was so surprised he didn't turn me in to Tia," Zoë said. She continued to herself, "Although I did lie to him...."

"You did what?" Seymour shouted up at her.

"I'll tell you in a minute-besides it was only a little lie."

"There's no such thing," Mario admonished.

"Will you all just hurry? I'm dying to tell you but I want to check something first."

The rest joined her one by one. Daniel was still back at the house finishing a job with Edith. As a result, the children had a few hours to spare before going sailing for the afternoon. They would have returned to their cove but it was too far away-by the time they got there, they would have to come back. Zoë had courteously reminded the others, with her jaw clenched, of their promise earlier in the week to sail with her. This tipped the scales and they agreed to go-except of course Peter, who had again declined Zoë's invitation. She thought this was just as well since it would give her the chance to tell the others of his strange behavior the previous day. The children reached the rim of trees as Zoë disappeared among their branches. When they joined her she had found a clearing and was moving dead leaves around with her feet.

"What exactly are you looking for?" asked Mario.

Zoë was absorbed in her job and didn't answer.

"We might as well help," said Dinora. "Even if we don't know what she's hoping to find, we certainly have brains ourselves. Chances are, if we find anything strange, it could very well be the thing we want to find. After all, when you think about it-"

"Let's try looking quietly, eh?" suggested Seymour. "Might help us to concentrate."

Dinora shrugged her shoulders, apparently feeling as if her searching skills wouldn't be impeded in the least by conversation. Nevertheless, she was silent as they worked.

"This is strange," observed Mario, after they'd been exploring the clearing for fifteen minutes or so.

"What?" asked the rest in unison.

"Well, look here," he said, pointing to two footprints embedded in the ground.

"So someone's been up here-that's not exactly out of the ordinary. Tourists hike up these mountains, hunters too," Seymour said.

"Yes, but it's not hunting season is it? Not for months yet and if they belonged to a hiker, they'd be pointing in the opposite direction. A hiker would face the mountain."

"And they'd be spaced differently," noticed Greta.

"What do you mean?" asked Dinora.

"If you were hiking, it's pretty much the same as walking. You put one foot in front of the other. These are side by side."

"And wide apart too!" contributed an enthusiastic Seymour, moving behind the prints. "I'd say maybe a shoulder's width apart. And see how they're deeper in the back? I think he wasn't standing. He was squatting-and for some time too."

"He?"

"Most likely. Look, these shoes are larger than mine. Definitely a man. And if I'm almost 180 centimeters, this guy has to be at least that."