I ventured an opinion: "While you are attempting to show that Susan is a werewolf, you are forgetting that something else was prowling around our fire, just out of sight." "_Ach_, just out of sight!" echoed Zoberg. "That means you aren't sure what it was." "Or even that there was anything," added Susan, so suddenly and strongly that I, at least, jumped. "There was something, all right," I insisted. "I heard it." "You thought you heard a sound behind the tree," Susan reminded me. "You looked, and there was nothing." Everyone gazed at me, rather like staid adults at a naughty child. I said, ungraciously, that my imagination was no better than theirs, and that I was no easier to frighten. Judge Pursuivant suggested that we make a search of the surrounding woods, for possible clues. "A good idea," approved Constable O'Bryant. "The ground's damp. We might find some sort of footprints." "Then you stay here with Miss Susan," the judge said to him. "We others will circle around." The gaunt constable shook his head. "Not much, mister. I'm in on whatever searching is done. I've got something to settle with whatever killed my kid brother." "But there are only three lanterns," pointed out Judge Pursuivant. "We have to carry them--light's our best weapon." Zoberg then spoke up, rather diffidently, to say that he would be glad to stay with Susan. This was agreed upon, and the other three of us prepared for the search. I took the lantern from Zoberg's hand, nodded to the others, and walked away among the trees. _14. "I Was--I Am--a Wolf."_ Deliberately I had turned my face toward the section beyond the fire, for, as I have said repeatedly, it was there that I had heard the movements and cries of the being that had so strongly moved and bewitched Susan. My heart whispered rather loudly that I must look for myself at its traces or lack of them, or for ever view myself with scorn. Almost at once I found tracks, the booted tracks of my three allies. Shaking my lantern to make it flare higher, I went deeper among the clumps, my eyes quartering the damp earth. After a few moments I found what I had come to look for. The marks were round and rather vague as to toe-positions, yet not so clear-cut as to be made by hoofs. Rather they suggested a malformed stump or a palm with no fingers, and they were deep enough to denote considerable weight; the tracks of my own shoes, next to them, were rather shallower. I bent for a close look, then straightened up, looked everywhere at once, and held my torch above my head to shed light all around; for I had suddenly felt eyes upon me. I caught just a glimpse as of two points of light, fading away into some leafage and in the direction of the clearing, and toward them I made my way; but there was nothing there, and the only tracks underfoot were of shod human beings, myself or one of the others. I returned to my outward search, following the round tracks.