etter.

"Here is the right foot, plain enough," he said, carefully fitting the
shoe he had brought in the mark. "He alighted on that as he came over
the gate. Half over it is another footmark--Bowmore's, I expect, for I
can see signs of others, in both directions--going and coming. But we
shall know better presently."

He rose, and we followed the irregular track across the meadow. Like
most such field-tracks, its direction was plainly indicated by the thin
and beaten grass, with a bare spot here and there. Hewitt troubled to
take no more than a glance at each of these spots as we passed, but that
was all he needed. The meadow was bounded by a hedge, with a stile; and
at the farther side of this stile my friend knelt again, with every
sign of attention.

"A little piece of luck," he reported. "The left shoe has picked up a
tiny piece of broken thorn-twig just here. See the mark? The shoe was a
little soddened in the sole by this time, and the thorn stuck. I hope it
stuck altogether. If it did it may help us wonderfully when we get to
the barn, for the trouble there will be the trampling all round of the
people at the fire."

So we went on till we reached the edge of the little wood. The
field-path skirted this, and here Hewitt dropped on his knees and set to
work with great minuteness.

"Keep away from the track, Brett," he warned me, "or you may make it
worse. The police have been here, I see, and quite recently, coming from
the direction of Redfield. Here are two pairs of unmistakable police
boots and another heavy pair with them; no doubt they brought the
gamekeeper along with them, to have things fully explained."

From the corner of the wood to a point forty yards along the path; back
to the corner again, and then into the wood Hewitt went, carefully
examining every inch of the ground as he did so. Then at last he
rejoined me.

"I think the gamekeeper has told the truth," he said. "It's pretty
plain, thanks to the soft ground hereabout, notwithstanding the
policemen's boots. Here they came together--the thorn-twig sticks to the
shoe still, you see--and here they stopped. The marks face about, and
Bowmore's steps are retraced to the corner of the wood. Peytral's turn
again and go on, and Bowmore's turn into the edge of the wood and come
along among the trees. You don't see them in the grassy parts quite as
well as I do, I expect, but there they are. We'll keep after Peytral's
prints. Bowmore's come back in