have been taken away in it."

"Yes," said Garnesk, "I agree to that. But I fancy the thief came by
that boat. It seems to me that our man jumps out of the boat, runs
ashore, and his friend pulls away and picks him up elsewhere--probably
nearer the house. It would look perfectly natural for a man who has
apparently been giving a companion a pull across from Skye, say, to
land him and then go back. The more I think of this the more it
interests me. You see, if the top windows of the house can be seen
from the bay, it means that the lower windows can be seen from the top
of the cliff. If we can find where our thief lay in wait on the cliff
and watched the house, probably with his eyes glued on the dining-room
windows to see when we commenced dinner, if we can also find where he
left his sea-boots while he went to the house, and then where he
rejoined his companion, we are getting on."

"What makes you say 'sea-boots'?" I asked. "You can't tell a top-boot
by the footmarks."

"Indirectly you can," Garnesk replied, puffing thoughtfully at his
pipe. "That boat was pulled in and pushed out by a man who exerted
hardly any pressure, although the beach only slopes gently. His
companion did not lend a hand by pushing her out with an oar; if he
had done so we should have seen the marks, and I couldn't find any.
The only other way to account for it is that our friend, who exerted
so little pressure, was wearing sea-boots and walked into the water
with the boat. Had he been alone, the jerk of his final jump into the
boat would have left a deeper impression on the beach. The tide was
just going out; it would have no time to wash this mark away. I looked
for the mark, and it wasn't there; so I came to the final conclusion
that two men arrived in the cove shortly after seven last night in a
small open boat. One of them--a tall, left-handed man in
sea-boots--pushed the boat out again and went ashore."

I am afraid I was rude enough to shout with laughter at this very
definite statement; but it was mainly with excited admiration that I
laughed--certainly not with ridicule. Garnesk turned to me
apologetically.

"I know it sounds far-fetched, my dear chap," he said; "but we shall
have to think a lot over this business, and I am simply thinking aloud
in order that you can give me your help in my own conclusions."

"My dear fellow," I cried, "don't, for heaven's sake, imagine that I
am laughing at you. It was the left-handed touch that