s
faint, dull patches upon the polished floor. They were clearly a man's
footprints, although smaller than the average man's foot. Measurements
which he had made of footprints which I had made in the gravel paths
upon the morning of the tragedy proved conclusively that these foot
marks in the hall could readily have been made by me. He exhibited
drawings, photographs and measurements as he gave his testimony. I sat
in the dock, amazed, wondering if by any chance I had suddenly developed
somnambulistic tendencies and had performed these various acts while
walking in my sleep. I felt that both the Magistrate and the crowd in
the court-room were already coming to regard me as an extremely
dangerous character.

The Sergeant's testimony was extremely thorough and exact. He showed
conclusively that no one had descended from the porch roof to the ground
either by the vines, or by the lightning rod which I had foolishly
supposed he had not observed, the day we made our first investigation.
He spoke of the woman's footprints in the gravel path, from the corner
of the porch to the main entrance. He then took up our trip to London,
put in evidence the letter he had received, supposedly from me,
summoning him to meet me at the house in Kingsgate street, explaining
that the Chinamen had no doubt been uncertain whether I had the stone or
had turned it over to him, and to avoid taking chances had decoyed us
both. He referred to my offers of assistance in unraveling the case, and
my failure to mention to him my suspicions regarding the Oriental
perfume, or my taking of the cake of soap from the green room. He
described Li Min's attempt to steal my satchel, and my facetious remark
that possibly the Chinaman thought I had the emerald in my bag, which
was indeed the case. Finally he spoke of the finding of the emerald in
the cake of soap in my satchel and the weapon in the drawer of the
dresser in my room, by his assistants, and the latter was produced and
placed along with the other exhibits in the case. When McQuade had got
through it was perfectly clear to the court that someone within the
house had left the telltale marks on the roof and window sills and it
seemed pretty conclusively shown that that someone was myself. I arose
to be examined with a sinking heart. I knew that before now, in the
history of criminal trials, many an innocent man had gone protesting to
the gallows, and already I felt sure that, unless Miss Temple's
testim