“Of course it could,” said Mrs. Watson. “For elephants have been known to escape from circuses. But I hardly think it was, Nellie. It might have been a cow or a dog.” “Do dogs have horns?” asked Nellie, who was about seven years old. “Not that I ever heard of,” laughed Mrs. Watson. “Then it was a cow,” said Nellie. “’Cause I saw horns.” “More likely it was a cow,” agreed Mrs. Watson. “But a cow wouldn’t hurt you.” “It didn’t hurt me but it scared me,” stated the little girl. She was quite dry by this time, for Mrs. Watson had made her take off her outer garments which had dried in the sun and wind. When Nellie spoke of a “cow,” Margie and Lucy looked quickly at each other. They felt sure the animal with horns, which had so frightened Nellie as to cause her to fall into the brook, was not a cow but the mysterious deer. When the picnic was over, Margie and Lucy hurried to their homes, which were close together. “We want to tell the boys about the deer being near Buttermilk Falls,” said Margie. “Then they can go look for it,” said Lucy. But neither Teddy, Dick nor Joe was at home when the girls reached town. “They started off early this morning, before you went to the picnic,” said Mrs. Benson. “They haven’t come back yet.” “Didn’t they come home to lunch?” asked Lucy. “No,” said her mother. “But that is nothing to worry about. Teddy said he might not be back. And he has money so he can buy a glass of milk and a sandwich if he needs it. Why are you so anxious about the boys?” “We want to tell them about the mysterious deer,” said Lucy, as she and Margie related the story of the afternoon’s adventures. Meanwhile Teddy and his chums were starting to have some adventures of their own. They had come back to town after the strange lassoing of Teddy near the spring. They went to the cobbler shop of Mr. Crispen. “Heel plates, eh?” questioned the old shoe-maker as he looked up from his bench at the boys. “Yes, I have some.” “Have you any with a star on?” asked Teddy. “I had just one pair like that,” Mr. Crispen answered. “But I sold ’em, day afore yistiday. Sort of funny, it was, too. I had ’em in stock a long time. But nobody seemed to want that pattern. “Then, day afore yistiday, all of a sudden, a young fellow came in here and bought ’em. Said he sort of fancied ’em. So I sold ’em to him.” “Do you know who he was?” asked Joe, eagerly. “Well, I don’t know him, exactly. But I got his name down somewhere. He said he wanted another pair of star heel plates and I said I’d send and get some. So I took his name to send a postal to him when they come. I got it somewhere--I mean his name.” “What sort of a man was he?” asked Teddy. “Oh, sort of tall and thin. Funny part of it was he had a long rope with him, sort of a lasso I took it to be. He might be one of them Wild Westerners for all I know. I got his name some place around here.”