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Page 19
I glanced at Gwen; her face had a set expression, and she was deathly
pale. "There were, however," he continued, "places where the gravel
had been tamped down as if by the pressure of a rectangular board.
I examined these minutely and, by careful measurement and close
scrutiny of some peculiar markings suggestive of the grain of wood,
satisfied myself that the depressions in the gravel were made by two,
and not, as I had at first thought, by one small piece of wood. I
found further that these two boards had always borne certain relative
relations to each other, and that when one had been turned around
the other had undergone a similar rotation. This last is, in my mind,
a most important point, for, when coupled with the fact that between
any two impressions of the same board the distance was sensibly
constant, and was that of a short stride, there could be no reasonable
doubt but these boards had been worn upon some person's feet. They
could not have been thrown down merely to be stepped upon, for, in
that case, they would not have borne fixed relations to each other
--probably would not have been turned end for end at all--and
certainly, both would not always have happened to get turned at the
same time. I procured a board of the combined area of the two
supposed to have made the impressions in the gravel, and weighted it
down until, as nearly as I could measure, it impacted the soil to
the same extent the others had. The weight was one hundred and
thirty-five pounds, which is about right for a man five feet five
inches tall. The position of the depressions in the gravel indicated
a stride just about right for a man of that height.
"There was one other most important discovery which I made after I
had divided the impressions into two classes--according as they
were produced by the right or left board--which was that when the
right foot was thrown forward the stride was from three to four
inches longer than when the left foot led. Directly under the
window there was a deep impression in the sand. I took a plaster
cast of it, and here it is," he said, producing an excellent
facsimile of a closed hand. "There can be little doubt," he
continued, "from the position occupied by the depression, of which
this is a reverse copy, that it was either accidentally made by
someone who, stooping before the east window to avoid obstructing
its light, suddenly lost his balance and regained his equilibrium
by thus thrusting out his hand, or--and this seems far more likely
to me--that the hand was deliberately placed in the gravel in order
to steady its possessor while he performed some peculiar operation."
At this point I ventured to ask why he regarded the latter view as
so much more tenable than the former. "There are several reasons,"
he replied, "which render the view I prefer to take all but certain.
First, the impression was made by the left hand. Second, it is the
impression of a closed hand, with the upper joints of the fingers
undermost. Did you ever know one to save himself from falling by
thrusting out a closed hand? Certainly not. There is a certain
amount of fear, however slight, invariably associated with losing
one's balance. This sentiment, so far as the hand is concerned, is
expressed by opening it and spreading the fingers. This he would
instinctively have done, if falling. Then there is the position of
the impression relative to the window and some slight testimony upon
the sill and glass, for the thorough investigation of which I have
been obliged to await my microscope. I have worked diligently, but
that is all I have been able to accomplish."
"All!" exclaimed Gwen, regarding him with ill-concealed admiration.
"It seems to me a very great deal. The thoroughness, the minuteness
of it all, overwhelms me; but, tell me, have your discoveries led
you to any conclusion?" "No," he replied, "nothing definite yet; I
must not allow myself to become wedded to any theory, so long as
there is anything further to be learned. If I were to hazard a few
idle guesses, I should say your father was murdered in some
mysterious way--by a person about five feet five inches tall,
weighing, say, one hundred and thirty-five pounds, and having a lame
leg, or, perhaps, one limb shorter than the other,--at all events
having some deformity or ailment causing a variation in the length
of the strides. I should guess also that this person's feet had some
marked peculiarity, since such pains had been taken to conceal the
footprints. Then the cast of the hand here encourages speculation.
Fingers long, slim, and delicate, save at the nails, where, with the
exception of the little finger, are to be found unmistakable signs
of the habit of biting the nails,--see, here are the hang-nails,
--but, strange to say, the nail of the little finger has been
spared, and suffered to grow to an unusual length. I ask myself why
this particular nail has been so favoured, and can only answer,
'because it has some peculiar use.' It is clear this is not the hand
of a manual labourer; the joints are too small, the fingers too
delicate, the texture of the skin, which is clearly visible, much too
fine--in short, wouldn't it pass anywhere for a woman's hand? Say a
woman who bit her nails. If it were really such there would be a
pair of feminine feet also to be concealed, and boards would do it
very nicely--but this is all guesswork, and must not be allowed to
affect any subsequent conclusions. If you will excuse me a few
minutes I will use the microscope a little on the sill of the east
window before we are interrupted by our friends the officers, who
will be sure to be here soon."
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