zzled stare which never quite left them even when
the entire group had passed on and turned the curve of the Round
House wall.

And beyond that curve Cleek came to a sudden halt. Here, a
curtainless window cut a square of light in the wall's dark face
and struck a glare on the trunk and the boughs of a lime tree
directly opposite, and under that window a trampled flower bed lay,
with curious marks deep sunk in the soft, moist surface of it.

Cleek took the lamp from Mrs. Armroyd's hand, and, bending, looked
at them closely. Mr. Nippers had not exaggerated when he said
that they were all of twelve inches in length. Nor was he far
out when he declared that they looked like the footprints of some
creature that was part animal and part bird; for there they were,
with three huge clawlike projections in front and a solitary one
behind, and so like to the mark which a gigantic bird could have
made that one might have said such a creature _had_ made them, only
that it was impossible for anything to fly that was possessed of
weight sufficient to drive those huge footprints so deeply into the
earth as they had been driven, by the mere walking of the Thing.
Claws and the marks of scales, Mr. Nippers had asserted; and claws
and the marks of scales the prints in the soft earth showed.

"La! la! the horror of them," exclaimed Mrs. Armroyd, putting up her
little hands and averting her face. "It could kill and kill and
kill--horses, oxen, anything--an abominable creature like that!
What do you figure it to have been, monsieur?--souls of the saints,
_what_?"

"Blest if I know," said Cleek. "Only, of course, it couldn't possibly
be anything human; so we may put the idea of the old chap having
been killed by anything of his kind out of our minds altogether. It
is perfectly clear that the creature, whatever it might be, got
in through the window there (you see it is open) and killed him
before he could call out for help or strike a blow in his own
defence."

"Eh, but window's six foot up, Mr. Headland, sir," put in Nippers
excitedly; "and howm a thing the weight o' that goin' to fly in?"

"Didn't fly in, my friend," replied Cleek with an air of lofty
superiority. "Use your wits, man. It _jumped_ in--from the tree
there. Look here--see!" going to it and tapping certain abrasions
upon the trunk. "Here's where it peeled off the bark in climbing
up. Lord, man! why, it's plain as the nose on your face. Ten to
one we shall find the same