Surprise, for a few seconds, kept the boys from saying a word. Teddy, himself, was not only astonished, but the breath was somewhat jolted out of him so he could not have said anything even if he had wished to.  
Joe, Dick and Fatty Nolan were the first to speak and they all shouted, together:
 
“Who did that?”
 
By this time Teddy had managed to scramble to his feet. He loosened the loop of the lasso and slipped it over his head, letting the coils fall to the ground. Then he, too, demanded:
 
“Who did that?”
 
There was no answer. Teddy picked up the rope and pulled on it. The far end came87 snaking over the ground out of the bushes.
 
“Why, there’s no one there!” exclaimed Dick. “No one has hold of the rope!”
 
“But somebody must have thrown this lasso!” declared Joe.
 
“And they gave it a good yank, too, after they lassoed me,” said Teddy. “I was pulled right off my feet! I’m going to find out who’s playing tricks!”
 
Teddy was about to pull all the rope toward him, in coils at his feet, when Fatty Nolan called:
 
“Don’t do that!”
 
“Why not?” Teddy asked.
 
“Because,” answered the fat boy, “if you pull in all the rope you won’t be able to see where it ends. Leave it lying there and we can trail it to the far end and see who lassoed you.”
 
“I don’t believe you can,” said Dick. “I think whoever threw that lasso ran away right after they tossed it at you, Teddy. We won’t find anyone at the other end of this88 rope. But Fatty’s idea is a good one. We’ll follow the rope and see.”
 
“I used to belong to the Boy Scouts where I lived before we came here,” Fatty said a bit proudly. “I’m going to join again if there’s a troop here.”
 
“Sure there is,” Teddy said. “We all belong.”
 
Just as Dick had predicted, there was no one at the end of the lasso when the boys had trailed it to the bushes. There it lay, stretched out like a hempen snake.
 
“Take it easy now, fellows,” cautioned Teddy as his chums crowded around the end of the rope.
 
“Why?” asked Joe. “Do you think the lasso man is hiding around here?”
 
“No, I think he’s far enough away by this time,” Teddy replied. “But I was going to see if I could find his footprints. Maybe we could trace him that way.”
 
“That’s right!” Fatty agreed. “Let Teddy look alone. If we all walk around here89 there’ll be so many footprints he won’t be able to tell one from another.”
 
“I don’t know that I’ll be able to detect any marks as it is,” Teddy said. “This ground is sort of hard. But maybe there will be traces of some shoe prints.”
 
Teddy knelt down and began to use some of his Boy Scout knowledge in trailing. At first, he saw nothing unusual. As he had said, the ground was too hard. But, after scouting about a bit, Teddy uttered a cry of surprise.
 
“I think I’ve found it!” he exclaimed. “Come over here! Careful, fellows! Look!” and he pointed to a little patch of soft earth in which was imbedded several impressions of a small star.
 
“What does that mean?” asked Dick. “That an astronomer has been here?”
 
“No,” Teddy answered. “But it means somebody that wears metal heel plates in the shape of a star has been here. And I think they were on the shoes of the man who lassoed me.”
 
90 “What do you mean by heel plates?” asked Fatty.
 
“Why, some men, who wear down the heels of their shoes faster than the soles, put metal plates on the heels to stop the wear,” Teddy explained. “Mr. Crispen, the cobbler on Main street, has lots of heel plates. They come in different shapes. Maybe he has some like these stars and can tell us who bought them.”
 
“That’s a dandy clue,” said Joe.
 
“But it doesn’t help us find the mysterious deer,” Dick stated. “Unless the deer wore heel plates.”
 
“Well, if the deer did wear heel plates, he certainly didn’t lasso me,” declared Teddy. “Though the lasso man who ran away and the mysterious deer must be mixed up in some way.”
 
“Why do you think he lassoed you?” asked Fatty Nolan.
 
“Haven’t the least idea,&r............