im in like a shot."

"Pooh! He's all talk. Tomlinson is right. The neurotic Hilton has more
nerve in his little finger than that dolt in the whole of his body."

"What did you think of his boots?"

"I shall be surprised if they don't fit those footprints exactly."

"They will. The left heel is evenly worn, but the right bears on the
outer edge. Let's cool our fevered brows under the greenwood tree till
this hearse is out of the way."

The butler, who had asked the undertaker's assistants to suspend
operations when Robert Fenley arrived, now appeared at the door and
signaled the men that they were free to proceed with their work. The
detectives strolled into the wood, and soon were bending over some
curious blotchy marks which somehow suggested the passage of a
pad-footed animal rather than a human being. Bates, of course, would
have noted them had he not been on the alert for footprints alone, but
they had stared at Winter and Furneaux from the instant their
regularity became apparent. They represented a stride considerably
shorter than the average length of a man's pace, and were strongly
marked when the surface was spongy enough to receive an impression.
Except, however, in the slight hollow already described, the ground
was so dry that traces of every sort were lost. In the vicinity of the
rock, too, the only marks left were the scratches in the moss adhering
to the steep sides of the bowlder itself.

"What do you make of 'em, Charles?" inquired Winter, when both had
puzzled for some minutes over the uncommon signs.

"Some one has thought out the footprint as a clue pretty thoroughly,"
said Furneaux. "He not only took care to leave a working model of one
set, but was extremely anxious not to provide any data as to his own
tootsies, so he fastened a bundle of rags under each boot, and walked
like a cat on walnut shells."

Winter nodded.

"When we find the gun, too--it's somewhere in this wood--you'll see
that the fingerprints won't help," he replied thoughtfully. "The man
who remembered to safeguard his feet would not forget his hands. We're
up against a tough proposition, young fellow-me-lad."

"Your way of thinking reminds me of Herbert Spencer's reason for not
learning Latin grammar as a youth," grinned Furneaux.

"It would be a pity to spoil one of your high-class jokes; so what was
the reason?"

"He refused to accept any statement unaccompanied by proof. The
agreement of an adjective with its noun