hinges at the side. Let us
open it. No water-pipe near. Roof quite out of reach. Yet a man has
mounted by the window. It rained a little last night. Here is the
print of a foot in mould upon the sill. And here is a circular muddy
mark, and here again upon the floor, and here again by the table. See
here, Watson! This is really a very pretty demonstration."

I looked at the round, well-defined muddy discs. "This is not a
footmark," said I.

"It is something much more valuable to us. It is the impression of a
wooden stump. You see here on the sill is the boot-mark, a heavy boot
with the broad metal heel, and beside it is the mark of the timber-toe."

"It is the wooden-legged man."

"Quite so. But there has been some one else,--a very able and
efficient ally. Could you scale that wall, doctor?"

I looked out of the open window. The moon still shone brightly on that
angle of the house. We were a good sixty feet from the round, and,
look where I would, I could see no foothold, nor as much as a crevice
in the brick-work.

"It is absolutely impossible," I answered.

"Without aid it is so. But suppose you had a friend up here who
lowered you this good stout rope which I see in the corner, securing
one end of it to this great hook in the wall. Then, I think, if you
were an active man, You might swarm up, wooden leg and all. You would
depart, of course, in the same fashion, and your ally would draw up the
rope, untie it from the hook, shut the window, snib it on the inside,
and get away in the way that he originally came. As a minor point it
may be noted," he continued, fingering the rope, "that our
wooden-legged friend, though a fair climber, was not a professional
sailor. His hands were far from horny. My lens discloses more than
one blood-mark, especially towards the end of the rope, from which I
gather that he slipped down with such velocity that he took the skin
off his hand."

"This is all very well," said I, "but the thing becomes more
unintelligible than ever. How about this mysterious ally? How came he
into the room?"

"Yes, the ally!" repeated Holmes, pensively. "There are features of
interest about this ally. He lifts the case from the regions of the
commonplace. I fancy that this ally breaks fresh ground in the annals
of crime in this country,--though parallel cases suggest themselves
from India, and, if my memory serves me, from Senegambia."

"How came he, then?" I reiterated.