garden their first task was the inspection
of the grass. The grass had been trampled down under the windows.
The clump of burdock against the wall under the window turned out
to have been trodden on too. Dyukovsky succeeded in finding on it
some broken shoots, and a little bit of wadding. On the topmost
burrs, some fine threads of dark blue wool were found.

"What was the colour of his last suit? Dyukovsky asked Psyekov.

"It was yellow, made of canvas."

"Capital! Then it was they who were in dark blue. . . ."

Some of the burrs were cut off and carefully wrapped up in paper.
At that moment Artsybashev-Svistakovsky, the police captain, and
Tyutyuev, the doctor, arrived. The police captain greeted the others,
and at once proceeded to satisfy his curiosity; the doctor, a tall
and extremely lean man with sunken eyes, a long nose, and a sharp
chin, greeting no one and asking no questions, sat down on a stump,
heaved a sigh and said:

"The Serbians are in a turmoil again! I can't make out what they
want! Ah, Austria, Austria! It's your doing!"

The inspection of the window from outside yielded absolutely no
result; the inspection of the grass and surrounding bushes furnished
many valuable clues. Dyukovsky succeeded, for instance, in detecting
a long, dark streak in the grass, consisting of stains, and stretching
from the window for a good many yards into the garden. The streak
ended under one of the lilac bushes in a big, brownish stain. Under
the same bush was found a boot, which turned out to be the fellow
to the one found in the bedroom.

"This is an old stain of blood," said Dyukovsky, examining the
stain.

At the word "blood," the doctor got up and lazily took a cursory
glance at the stain.

"Yes, it's blood," he muttered.

"Then he wasn't strangled since there's blood," said Tchubikov,
looking malignantly at Dyukovsky.

"He was strangled in the bedroom, and here, afraid he would come
to, they stabbed him with something sharp. The stain under the bush
shows that he lay there for a comparatively long time, while they
were trying to find some way of carrying him, or something to carry
him on out of the garden."

"Well, and the boot?"

"That boot bears out my contention that he was murdered while he
was taking off his boots before going to bed. He had taken off one
boot, the other, that is, this boot he had only managed to get half
off. While he was being dragged and shaken the boot that was only
half