"Now for outside!" cried the young inventor. "We'll see if we can figure out how they got him away."
There were plenty of marks in the soft ground and turf, which was still damp from the night's rain, though it was now afternoon. Unfortunately, however, in approaching the house after leaving the aeroplane, Ned and Tom had not thought to exercise caution, and, not suspecting anything wrong, they had stepped on a number of footprints left by the kidnappers.
But for all that, they saw enough to convince them that several men had been at the lonely house, for there were many marks of shoes. It was out of the question, however, to tell which were those of Mr. Petrofsky and which those of his captors.
"They might have carried him out to a carriage they had in waiting," suggested Ned. "Let's go out to the front gate and look in the road. They hardly would bring the carriage up to the door."
"Good idea," commented Tom, and they hurried to the main thoroughfare that passed the Russian's house.
"Here they are!" cried Ned, who was in the lead. "There's been a carriage here as sure as you're a foot high, and it's a rubber-tired one too."
