“Look here!” exclaimed the shoemaker, getting up from his bench. “Why are you so anxious to have that man’s name? What’s all this about my star heel plates?” Teddy Benson took a sudden resolve. It might be a good idea to have Mr. Crispen in their confidence. If they told him part of the mystery he might help them solve it. Anyhow they were getting nowhere by waiting a week to get on the trail of the man with the star heel plates. “What’s it all about?” asked Mr. Crispen again. He seemed suspicious, as though he feared some trick might be played on him. “I’m going to tell him,” Teddy whispered to his chums. Then he added: “We think those star heel plates may be a clue.” “A clue to what?” asked the cobbler. “To a mysterious deer,” Teddy said. “Say, what are you, fellows? Boy detectives?” asked Mr. Crispen with a laugh. “Not exactly,” Teddy replied. “But we are on the trail of a mysterious deer and we want to find the man who lassoed me with star heel plates.” “Lassoed you with star heel plates?” cried Mr. Crispen. “Land sakes, I never heard of such a thing!” “I mean,” went on Teddy with a laugh, “a man lassoed me with a rope. We think he did it by mistake. Then he ran away but we saw where he had been standing. And he had star heel plates. So we thought maybe you could give us the clue to the man.” “And you could,” put in Joe, “if you could find his name.” “Oh, I can find his name, once I put my mind to it,” said the old cobbler. “But what has this got to do with a mysterious deer?” “I’ll tell you about that,” Teddy said. He and his chums related the story, including the last episode of the lassoing of Teddy. “So what you really want to do,” said Mr. Crispen, “is to catch that deer, isn’t it? The deer that ate up Mrs. Traddle’s garden. You want the deer.” “Yes!” exclaimed Teddy and his chums. “Well,” said the cobbler as he again sat at his bench, “I can tell you a better way to catch the deer than by looking for a man with star heel plates.” “How?” asked the three boys together. “Get him in a trap,” said Mr. Crispen. He snapped the gnarled thumb and finger of his right hand sharply, as if the mysterious deer had already been caught. “A trap’s the thing for deer!” “A trap?” questioned Teddy. And his chums also murmured: “A trap?” “Certainly,” went on the cobbler. “Easiest thing in the world. You set the trap, catch the deer and that’s the end of the mystery. What do you want to bother about heel plates for?” “But the man with the star heel plates lassoed Teddy,” said Joe. “That’s all right,” said the cobbler. He stopped to peel a little rubber cement from his left thumb nail. “You can trail that cowboy later. I don’t believe he had anything to do with the deer. But if you want to catch the critter that ate up Mrs. Traddle’s garden, a trap’s the thing.” “But we don’t want to hurt the deer,” objected Teddy. “It might be a valuable animal and we could get a reward if we took it to the owner.”