allowed to ask any questions he pleased
before the end of the hearing.

"But I must insist upon taking measurements of your bare feet, Miss
McLaren."

The jury grinned and the girl flushed with anger, but at a word from the
ranger yielded and drew off her stocking.

Hanscom, while assisting the coroner in measurements, said, "I'm sorry,
miss, but it is necessary."

The examination proved that her bare foot was nearly two sizes wider and
at least one size longer than the footprints in the flour. Furthermore,
it needed but a glance for the jury, as well as the doctor, to prove
that she had been going barefoot, as she claimed, for many weeks. Her
foot was brown and her toes showed nothing of the close confinement of a
pointed shoe.

Carmody, returning to his seat, conferred with the jury, designating the
difference between the telltale marks on the porch and the feet of the
witness, and Hanscom argued that the woman who made the telltale tracks
must have been small.

"Miss McLaren could not possibly wear the shoe that left those marks in
the flour," he said.

"We are on the wrong trail, I guess," one of the jury frankly stated. "I
don't believe that girl was ever on the place. If she or the old man had
been guilty, they wouldn't have been hanging around home this morning.
They'd have dusted out last night."

And to this one other agreed. Four remained silent.

The ranger seized on these admissions. "There is nothing, absolutely
nothing, to connect the tracks in the flour with the person who did the
shooting. It may have been done by another visitor at another time."

"Well," decided the coroner, "it's getting dark and not much chance for
hotel accommodations up here, so I guess we'd better adjourn this
hearing." He turned to Helen. "That's all, Miss McLaren."

As Hanscom handed back her shoe he said: "I hope you won't worry another
minute about this business, miss. The jury is certain to report for
'persons unknown.'"

"I'm very grateful for your kindness," she answered, feelingly. "I felt
so utterly helpless when I came into the room."

"You've won even the jury's sympathy," he said.

Nevertheless, as she left the room, he followed closely, for the
Kitsongs, who had been denied admittance, were openly voicing their
dissatisfaction with the coroner's verdict. "She ought to be held, and
the old man ought to be held," they insisted.

"One or the other of them shot Watson," declared Abe to Carmody. "No
ma