corpse. Money
and valuables were found, as far as is known, intact. Nor, clearly, was
it a case of a casual affray. We are, consequently, driven to the
conclusion that the motive was a personal one, a motive of interest or
revenge, and with this view the time, the place, and the evident
deliberateness of the murder are in full agreement.

"So much for the motive. The next question is, Who was the perpetrator
of this shocking crime? And the answer to that question is given in a
very singular and dramatic circumstance, a circumstance that illustrates
once more the amazing lack of precaution shown by persons who commit
such crimes. The murderer was wearing a very remarkable pair of shoes,
and those shoes left very remarkable footprints in the smooth sand, and
those footprints were seen and examined by a very acute and painstaking
police-officer, Sergeant Payne, whose evidence you will hear presently.
The sergeant not only examined the footprints, he made careful drawings
of them on the spot--on the spot, mind you, not from memory--and he made
very exact measurements of them, which he duly noted down. And from
those drawings and those measurements, those tell-tale shoes have been
identified, and are here for your inspection.

"And now, who is the owner of those very singular, those almost unique
shoes? I have said that the motive of this murder must have been a
personal one, and, behold! the owner of those shoes happens to be the
one person in the whole of this district who could have had a motive for
compassing the murdered man's death. Those shoes belong to, and were
taken from the foot of, the prisoner, Alfred Draper, and the prisoner,
Alfred Draper, is the only person living in this neighbourhood who was
acquainted with the deceased.

"It has been stated in evidence at the inquest that the relations of
these two men, the prisoner and the deceased, were entirely friendly;
but I shall prove to you that they were not so friendly as has been
supposed. I shall prove to you, by the evidence of the prisoner's
housekeeper, that the deceased was often an unwelcome visitor at the
house, that the prisoner often denied himself when he was really at home
and disengaged, and, in short, that he appeared constantly to shun and
avoid the deceased.

"One more question and I have finished. Where was the prisoner on the
night of the murder? The answer is that he was in a house little more
than half a mile from the scene of the crime. A