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THE CASE OF THE WHITE FOOTPRINTS................................................................................................0

"WELL," said my friend Foxton, pursuing a familiar and apparently inexhaustible topic, "I'd sooner have

"I've no doubt you would," was my unsympathetic reply. "I never met a man who wouldn't. We all tend to

consider other men's jobs in terms of their advantages and our own in terms of their drawbacks. It is human

"Oh, it's all very well for you to be so beastly philosophical," retorted Foxton. "You wouldn't be if you were

in my place. Here, in Margate, it's measles, chickenpox and scarlatina all the summer, and bronchitis, colds

and rheumatism an the winter. A deadly monotony. Whereas you and Thorndyke sit there in your chambers

and let your clients feed you up with the raw material of romance. Why, your life is a sort of everlasting

"You exaggerate, Foxton," said I. "We, like you, have our routine work, only it is never heard of outside the

Law Courts; and you, like every other doctor, must run up against mystery and romance from time to time."

Foxton shook his head as he held out his hand for my cup. "I don't," said be. "My practice yields nothing but

And then, as if in commentary on this last statement, the housemaid burst into the room and, with hardly

"If you please, sir, the page from Beddingfield's Boardinghouse says that a lady has been found dead in her

"Very well, Jane," said Foxton, and as the maid retired, he deliberately helped himself to another fried egg

and, looking across the table at me, exclaimed: "Isn't that always the way? Come immediatelynowthis

very instant, although the patient may have been considering for a day or two whether he'll send for you or

not. But directly he decides you must spring out of bed, or jump up from your breakfast, and run."

"That's quite true," I agreed; "but this really does seem to be an urgent case."

"What's the urgency?" demanded Foxton. "The woman is already dead. Anyone would think she was in

imminent danger of coming to life again and that my instant arrival the only thing that could prevent such a

"You've only a thirdhand statement that she is dead," said I. "It is just possible that she isn't; and even if she

is, as you will have to give evidence at the inquest, you do want the police to get there first and turn out the

"Gad!" exclaimed Foxton. "I hadn't thought of that. Yes. You're right. I'll hop round at once."

He swallowed the remainder of the egg at a single gulp rose from the table. Then he paused and stood for a

"I wonder, Jervis," he said, "if you would mind coming round with me. You know all the medicolegal ropes,

I agreed instantly, having, in fact, been restrained only by delicacy from making the suggestion myself; and

when I had fetched from my room my pocket camera and telescopic tripod, we set forth together without

Beddingfield's Boardinghouse was but a few minutes walk from Foxton's residence being situated near the

middle of Ethelred Road, Cliftonville, a quiet, suburban street which abounded in similar establishments,

many of which, I noticed, were undergoing a springcleaning and renovation to prepare them for the

"That's the house," said Foxton, "where that woman is standing at the front door. Look at the boarders,

collected at the diningroom window. There's a rare commotion in that house, I'll warrant."

Here, arriving at the house, he ran up the steps and accosted in sympathetic tones the elderly woman who

"What a dreadful thing this is, Mrs. Beddingfield! Terrible! Most distressing for you!"

"Ah, you're right, Dr. Foxton," she replied. "It's an awful affair. Shocking. So bad for business, too. I do hope,

"I'm sure I hope not," said Foxton. "There shan't be I can help it. And as my friend Dr. Jervis, who is staying

with me for a few days, is a lawyer as well as a doctor, we shall have the best advice. When was the affair

"Just before I sent for you, Dr. Foxton. The maid, noticed that Mrs. Toussaintthat is the poor creature's

namehad not taken in her hot water, so she knocked at the door. As she couldn't get any answer, she tried

the door and found it bolted on the inside, and then she came and told me. I went up and knocked loudly, and

then, as I couldn't get any reply, I told our boy, James, to force the door open with a caseopener, which he

did quite easily as the bolt was only a small one. Then I went in, all of a tremble, for I had a presentiment that

there was something wrong; and there she was lying stone dead, with a most 'orrible stare on her face and an

"Yes. She'd made away with herself, poor thing; and all on account of some silly love affairand it was

"Ah," said Foxton. "The usual thing. You must tell us about that later. Now we'd better go up and see the

The landlady turned and preceded us up the stairs to the firstfloor back, where she paused, and softly

opening a door, peered nervously into the room. As we stepped past her and entered, she seemed inclined to

follow, but, at a significant glance from me, Foxton persuasively ejected her and closed the door. Then we

In the aspect of the room there was something strangely incongruous with the tragedy that had been enacted

within its walls ; a mingling of the commonplace and the terrible that almost amounted to anticlimax.

Through the wideopen window the bright spring sunshine streamed in on the garish wallpaper and cheap

furniture; from the street below, the periodic shouts of a man selling "sole and mackro!" broke into the brisk

staccato of a barrelorgan and both sounds mingled with a raucous voice close at hand, cheerfully trolling a

popular song, and accounted for by a linenclad elbow that bobbed in front of the window and evidently

It was all very commonplace and familiar and discordantly out of character with the stark figure that lay on

the bed like a waxen effigy symbolic of tragedy. Here was none of that gracious somnolence in which death

often presents itself with a suggestion of eternal repose. This woman was dead; horribly, aggressively dead.

The thin, sallow face was rigid as stone, the dark eyes stared into infinite space with a horrid fixity that was

quite disturbing to look on. And yet the posture of the corpse was not uneasy, being, in fact, rather curiously

symmetrical, with both arms outside the bedclothes and both hands closed, the right grasping, as Mrs.

"Well," said Foxton, as he stood looking down on the dead woman, "it seems a pretty clear case. She appears

to have laid herself out and kept hold of the bottle so that there should be no mistake. How long do you

"Not less than six hours," I replied. "Probably more. I should say that she died about two o'clock this

"And that is about all we can say," said Foxton, "until the postmortem has been made. Everything looks

quite straightforward. No signs of a struggle or marks of violence. That blood on the mouth is probably due

to her biting her lip when she drank from the bottle. Yes; here's a little cut on the inside of the lip,

corresponding to the upper incisors. By the way, I wonder if there is anything left in the bottle."

As he spoke, he drew the small, unlabelled, green glass phial from the closed handout of which it slipped

"Yes," he exclaimed, "there's more than a drachm left; quite enough for an analysis. But I don't recognize the

"No," I answered. "It appears to be a watery solution of some kind, but I can't give it a name. Where is the

We both stooped to look for the missing cork and presently found it in the shadow, under the little bedside

table. But, in the course of that brief search, I found something else, which had indeed been lying in full view

all the timea wax match. Now a wax match is a perfectly innocent and very commonplace object, but yet

the presence of this one gave me pause. In the first place, women do not, as a rule, use wax matches, though

there was not much in that. What was more to the point was that the candlestick by the bedside contained a

box of safety matches, and that, as the burnt remains of one lay in the tray, it appeared to have been used to

While I was turning over this problem Foxton had corked the bottle, wrapped it carefully in a piece of paper

"Well, Jervis," said he, "I think we've seen everything. The analysis and the postmortem will complete the

But that wax match, slight as was its significance, taken alone, had presented itself to me as the last of a

succession of phenomena each of which was susceptible of a sinister interpretation; and the cumulative effect

"One moment, Foxton," said I. "Don't let us take anything for granted. We are here to collect evidence, and

"Yes, of course," he replied, "but there is nothing to suggest it in this case; at least, I see nothing. Do you?"

"Nothing very positive," said I; "but there are some facts that seem to call for consideration. Let us go over

what we have seen. In the first place, there is a distinct discrepancy in the appearance of the body. The

general easy, symmetrical posture, like that of a figure on a tomb, suggests the effect of a slow, painless

poison. But look at the face. There is nothing reposeful about that. It is very strongly suggestive of pain or

"Yes," said Foxton, "that is so. But you can't draw any satisfactory conclusions from the facial expression of

dead bodies. Why, men who have been hanged, or even, stabbed, often look as peaceful as babes."

"Still," I red "it is a fact to be noted. Then there is that cut on the lip. It may have been produced in the way

Foxton made no comment on this beyond a slight shrug of the shoulders, and I continued:

"Then there is the state of the band. It was closed, but, it did not really grasp the object it contained. You

drew the bottle out without any resistance. It simply lay in the closed hand. But that is not a normal state of

affairs. As you know, when a person dies grasping any object, either the hand relaxes and lets it drop, or the

muscular action passes into cadaveric spasm and grasps the object firmly. And lastly, there is this wax match.

Where did it come from? The dead woman apparently lit her candle with a safety match from the box. It is a

Foxton raised his eyebrows protestingly. "You're like all specialists, Jervis," said he. "You see your speciality

in everything. And while you are straining these flimsy suggestions to turn a simple suicide into murder, you

ignore the really conclusive fact that the door was bolted and had to be broken open before anyone could get

"You are not forgetting, I suppose," said I, "that the window was wide open and that there were

"As to the ladder," said Foxton, "that is a pure assumption; but we can easily settle the question by asking that

Simultaneously we moved towards the window; but halfway we both stopped short. For the question of the

ladder had in a moment became negligible. Staring up at us from the dull red linoleum which covered the

floor were the impressions of a pair of bare feet, imprinted in white paint with the distinctness of a woodcut.

There was no need to ask if they had been made by the dead woman: they were unmistakably the feet of a

man, and large feet at that. Nor could there be any doubt as to whence those feet had come. Beginning with

startling distinctness under the window, the tracks shed rapidly in intensity until they reached the carpeted

portion of the room, where they vanished abruptly; and only by the closest scrutiny was it possible to detect

Foxton and I stood for some moments gazing in, silence at the sinister white shapes; then we looked at one

"You've saved me from a most horrible blunder, Jervis," said Foxton. "Ladder or no ladder, that fellow came

in at the window; and he came in last night, for I saw them painting these windowsills yesterday afternoon.

We moved to the window and looked out on the sill. A set of distinct, though smeared impressions on the

new paint gave unneeded confirmation and showed that the intruder had approached from the left side, close

"So," said Foxton, "the presence or absence of the ladder is of no significance. The man got into the window

"On the contrary," said I, "the point may be of considerable importance in identification. It isn't everyone who

could climb up a stackpipe, whereas most people could make shift to climb a ladder, even if it were guarded

by a plank. But the fact that the man took off his boots and socks suggests that he came up by the pipe. If he

had merely aimed at silencing his footfalls, he would probably have removed his boots only."

From the window we turned to examine more closely the footprints on the floor, and while I took a series of

"Doesn't it strike you as rather odd, Jervis," said he, "that neither of the little toes has made any mark?"

"It does indeed," I replied. "The appearances suggest that the little toes were absent, but I have never met

"Never. Of course one is acquainted with the supernumerary toe deformity, but I have never heard of

Once more we scrutinized the footprints, and even examined those on the windowsill, obscurely marked on

the fresh paint; but, exquisitely distinct as were those on the linoleum, showing every wrinkle and minute

skinmarking, not the faintest hint of a little toe was to be seen on either foot.

"It's very extraordinary," said Foxton. "He has certainly lost his little toes, if he ever had any. They couldn't

have failed to make some mark. But it's a queer affair. Quite a windfall for the police, by the way; I mean for

"Yes," I agreed, "and having regard to the importance of the footprints, I think it would be wise to get a

"Oh, the police will see to that," said Foxton. "Besides, we haven't got a camera, unless you thought of using

As Foxton was no photographer I did not trouble to explain that my camera, though small, had been specially

"Any photograph is better than none," I said, and with this I opened the tripod and set it over one of the most

distinct of the footprints, screwed the camera to the gooseneck, carefully framed the footprint in the finder

and adjusted the focus, finally making the exposure by means of an antinous release. This process I repeated

"Well," Foxton remarked, "with all those photographs the police ought to be able to pick up the scent."

"Yes, they've got something to go on; but they'll have to catch their hare before they can cook him. He won't

"No. It's a poor clue in that respect. And now we may as well be off as we've seen all there is to see. I think

we won't have much to say to Mrs. Beddingfield. This is a police case, and the less I'm mixed up in it the

I was faintly amused at Foxton's caution when considered by the light of his utterances at the breakfasttable.

Apparently his appetite for mystery and romance was easily satisfied. But that was no affair of mine. I waited

on the doorstep while he said a fewprobably evasivewords to the landlady and then, as we started off

together in the direction of the police station, I began to turn over in my mind the salient features of the case.

For some time we walked on in silence, and must have been pursuing a parallel train of thought for, when he

"You know, Jervis," said he, "there ought to be a clue in those footprints. I realize that you can't tell how

many toes a man has by looking at his booted feet. But those unusual footprints ought to give an expert a hint

I felt that Foxton was right; that if my brilliant colleague, Thorndyke, had been in my place he would have

extracted from those footprints some leading fact that would have given the police a start along some definite

line of inquiry; and that belief, coupled with Foxton's challenge, put me on my mettle.

"They offer no particular suggestions to me at this moment," said I, "but I think that, if we consider them

"Very well," said Foxton, "then let us consider them systematically. Fire away. I should like to hear how you

Foxton's frankly spectatorial attitude was a little disconcerting, especially as it seemed to commit me to a

result that I was by no means confident of attaining. I therefore began a little diffidently.

"We are assuming that both the feet that made those prints were from some cause devoid of little toes. That

assumptionwhich is almost certainly correctwe treat as a fact, and, taking it as our starting point, the

first step in the inquiry is to find some explanation of it. Now there are three possibilities, and only three:

deformity, injury, and disease. The toes may have been absent from birth, they may have been lost as a result

of mechanical injury, or they may have been lost by disease. Let us take those possibilities in order.

"Mechanical injury seems to be excluded by the fact that the two little toes are on opposite sides of the body

and could not conceivably be affected by any violence which left the intervening feet uninjured. This seems

to narrow the possibilities down to disease; and the question that arises is, What diseases are there which

I looked inquiringly at Foxton, but he merely nodded encouragingly. His r�le was that of listener.

"Well," I pursued, "the loss of both toes seems to exclude local disease, just as it excluded local injury; and as

to general diseases, I can think only of three which might produce this conditionRaynaud's disease,

"For our present purpose, I do. The effects are local, but the causelow external temperatureaffects the

whole body and is a general cause. Well, now, taking the diseases in order. I think we can exclude Raynaud's

disease. It does, it is true, occasionally cause the fingers or toes to die and drop off, and the little toes would

be especially liable to be affected as being most remote from the heart. But in such a severe case the other

toes would be affected. They would be shrivelled and tapered, whereas, if you remember, the toes of these

feet were quite plump and full, to judge by the large impressions they made. So I think we may safely reject

Raynaud's disease. There remain ergotism and frostbite; and the choice between them is just a question of

relative frequency. Frostbite is more common; therefore frostbite is more probable."

"As a matter of probability, yes. The poison of ergot acting from within, and intense cold acting from

without, contract the small bloodvessels and arrest, the circulation. The feet, being the most distant parts of

the body from the heart, are the first to feel the effects; and the little toes, which are the most distant parts of

"This is all very well, Jervis, but I don't see that you are much forrarder. This man has lost both his little toes

and on your showing, the probabilities are that the loss was due either to chronic ergot poisoning or to

frostbite, with a balance of probability in favour of frostbite. That's all. No proof, no verification, just the

law of probability applied to a particular case, which is always unsatisfactory. He may have lost his toes in

some totally different way. But even if the probabilities work out correctly, I don't see what use your

conclusions would be to the police. They wouldn't tell them what sort of man to look for."

There was a good deal of truth in Foxton's objection. A man who has suffered from ergotism or frostbite is

not externally different from any other man. Still, we had not exhausted the case, as I ventured to point out.

"Don't be premature, Foxton," said I. "Let us pursue our argument a little farther. We have established a

probability that this unknown man has suffered either from ergotism or frostbite. That, as you say, is of no

use by itself; but supposing we can show that these conditions tend to affect a particular class of persons, we

shall have established a fact that will indicate a line of investigation. And I think we can. Let us take the case

"Now how is chronic ergot poisoning caused? Not by the medicinal use of the drug, but, by the consumption

of the diseased rye in which ergot occurs. It is therefore peculiar to countries in which rye is used extensively

as food. Those countries, broadly speaking, are the countries of NorthEastern Europe, and especially Russia

"Then take the case of frostbite. Obviously, the most likely person to get frostbitten is the inhabitant of a

country with a cold climate. The most rigorous climates inhabited by white people are North America and

NorthEastern Europe, especially Russia and Poland. So you see, the areas associated with ergotism and

frostbite overlap to some extent. In fact they do more thin overlap; for a person even slightly affected by

ergot would be specially liable to frostbite, owing to the impaired circulation. The conclusion is that,

racially, in both ergotism and frostbite, the balance of probability is in favour of a Russian, a Pole, or a

"Then in the case of frostbite there is the occupation factor. What class of men tend most to become

frostbitten? Well, beyond all doubt, the greatest sufferers from frostbite are sailors, especially those on

sailing ships, and, naturally, on ships trading to Arctic and subArctic countries. But the bulk of such sailing

ships are those engaged in the Baltic and Archangel trade; and the crews of those ships are almost exclusively

Scandinavians, Finns, Russians and Poles. So that, again, the probabilities point to a native of NorthEastern

Europe, and, taken as a whole, by the overlapping of factors, to a Russian, a Pole, or a Scandinavian."

Foxton smiled sardonically. "Very ingenious, Jervis," said he. "Most ingenious. As an academic statement of

probabilities, quite excellent. But for practical purposes absolutely useless. However, here we are at the

policestation. I'll just run in and give them the facts and then go on to the coroner's office."

"Well, no," he replied. "You see, you have no official connection with the case, and they mightn't like it.

You'd better go and amuse yourself while I get the morning's visits done. We can talk things over at lunch."

With this he disappeared into the policestation, and I turned away with a smile of grim amusement.

Experience is apt to make us a trifle uncharitable, and experience had taught me that those who are the most

scornful of academic reasoning are often not above retailing it with some reticence as to its original

authorship. I had a shrewd suspicion that Foxton was at this very moment disgorging my despised "academic

My way towards the sea lay through Ethelred Road, and I had traversed about half its length and was

approaching the house of the tragedy when I observed Mrs. Beddingfield at the bay window. Evidently she

recognized me, for a few moments later she appeared in outdoor clothes on the doorstep and advanced to

"Ah!" she said, "it's a dreadful affair; most unfortunate, too, just at the beginning of the season. A scandal is

absolute ruin to a boardinghouse. What do you think of the case? Will it be possible to hush it up? Dr.

"Yes, I am a lawyer, but really I know nothing of the circumstances of this case. Did I understand that there

"Yesat leastwell, perhaps I oughtn't to have said that. But hadn't I better tell you the whole story?that

"Then," she said, "I will tell you all about it. Will you come indoors, or shall I walk a little way with you?"

As I suspected that the police were at that moment on their way to the house, I chose the latter alternative and

"No, she wasn't," replied Mrs. Beddingfield, "and that was the trouble. Her husband was abroadat least, he

had been, and he was just coming home. A pretty homecoming it will be for him, poor man. He is an officer

in the Civil Police at Sierra Leone, but he hasn't been there long. He went there for his health."

"What! To Sierra Leone!" I exclaimed, for the "White Man's Grave" seemed a queer health resort.

"Yes. You see, Mr. Toussaint is a French Canadian, and it seems that he has always been somewhat of a

rolling stone. For some time he was in the Klondyke, but he suffered so much from the cold that he had to

come away. It injured his health very severely; I don't quite know in what way, but I do know that he was

quite a cripple for a time. When he got better he looked out for a post in a warm climate and eventually

obtained the appointment of Inspector of Civil Police at Sierra Leone. That was about ten months ago, and

when he sailed for Africa his wife came to stay with me, and has been here ever since."

"Yes, but I oughtn't to have called it that. Let me explain what happened. About three months ago a Swedish

gentlemana Mr. Bergsoncame to stay here, and he seemed to be very much smitten with Mrs.

"Oh, she liked him well enough. He is a tall, goodlooking manthough for that matter he is no taller than

her husband, nor any betterlooking. Both men are over six feet. But there was no harm so far as she was

concerned, excepting that she didn't see the position quite soon enough. She wasn't very discreet, in fact I

thought it necessary to give her a little advice. However, Mr. Bergson left here and went to live at Ramsgate

to superintend the unloading of the iceships (he came from Sweden in one), and I thought the trouble was at

an end. But it wasn't, for he took to coming over to see Mrs. Toussaint, and of course I couldn't have that. So

at last I had to tell him that he mustn't come to the house again. It was very unfortunate, for on that occasion I

think he had been 'tasting', as they say in Scotland. He wasn't drunk, but he was excitable and noisy, and

when I told him he mustn't come again he made such a disturbance that two of the gentlemen boardersMr.

Wardale and Mr. Macauleyhad to interfere. And then he was most insulting to them, especially to Mr.

Macauley, who is a coloured gentleman; called him a 'buck nigger' and all sorts of offensive names."

"Not very well, I am sorry to say, considering that he is a gentlemana law student with chambers in the

Temple. In fact, his language was so objectionable that Mr. Wardale insisted on my giving him notice on the

spot. But I managed to get him taken in next door but one; you see, Mr. Wardale had been a Commissioner

at, Sierra Leoneit was through him that Mr. Toussaint got his appointmentso I suppose he was rather on

"He never came here again, but he wrote several times to Mrs. Toussaint, asking her to meet him. At last,

only a few days ago, she wrote to him and told him that the acquaintance must cease."

"Then, Mrs. Beddingfield," said I, "what makes you connect the affair withwith what has happened?"

"Well, you see," she explained, "there is the husband. He was coming home, and is probably in England

"Yes," she continued. "He went up into the bush to arrest some natives belonging to one of these gangs of

murderersLeopard Societies, I think they are calledand he got seriously wounded. He wrote to his wife

from hospital saying that he would be sent home as soon as he was fit to travel, and about ten days ago she

"I noticed that she seemed very nervous and upset when she got the letters from hospital, and still more so

when the last letter came. Of course, I don't know what he said to her in those letters. It may be that he had

heard something about Mr. Bergson, and threatened to take some action. Of course, I can't say. I only know

that she was very nervous and restless, and when we saw in the paper four days ago that the ship he would be

coming by had arrived in Liverpool she seemed dreadfully upset. And she got worse and worse untilwell,

"Nothing whatever," replied Mrs. Beddingfield, with a meaning look at me which I had no difficulty in

interpreting. "No letter, no telegram, not a word. And you see, if he hadn't come by that ship he would almost

certainly have sent a letter to her. He must have arrived in England, but why hasn't he turned up, or at least

sent a wire? What is he doing? Why is be staying away? Can he have heard something? And what does he

mean to do? That's what kept the poor thing on wires, and that, I feel certain, is what drove her to make away

It was not my business to contest Mrs. Beddingfield's erroneous deductions. I was seeking informationit

seemed that I had nearly exhausted the present source. But one point required amplifying.

"To return to Mr. Bergson, Mrs. Beddingfield," said I "Do I understand that he is a seafaring man?"

"He was," she replied. "At present he is settled at Ramsgate as manager of a company in the ice trade, but

formerly he was a sailor. I have heard him say that he was one, of the crew of an exploring ship that went in

search of the North Pole and that he was locked up in the ice for months and months. I should have thought

With this view I expressed warm agreement, and having now obtained all the information that appeared to be

"Well, Mrs. Beddingfield," I said, "it is a rather mysterious affair. Perhaps more light may be thrown on it at

the inquest. Meanwhile, I should think that it will be wise of you to keep your own counsel as far as outsiders

The remainder of the morning I spent pacing the smooth stretch of sand that lies to the east of the jetty, and

reflecting on the evidence that I had acquired in respect of this singular crime. Evidently there was no lack of

clues in this case. On the contrary, there were two quite obvious lines of inquiry, for both the Swede and the

missing husband presented the characters of the hypothetical murderer. Both had been exposed to the

conditions which tend to produce frostbite; one of them had probably been a consumer of rye meal, and

both might be said to have a motivethough, to be sure, it was a very insufficient onefor committing the

crime. Still in both cases the evidence was merely speculative; it suggested a line of investigation but it did

When I met Foxton at lunch I was sensible of a curious change in his manner. His Previous expansiveness

"I don't think, you know, Jervis," he said, when I opened the subject "that we had better discuss this affair.

You see, I am the principal witness, and while the case is sub judicewell, in fact the police don't want the

"That isn't the view of the police. They look on you as more or less of an amateur, and as you have no official

connection with the case, I don't think they propose to subp na you. Superintendent Platt, who is in charge of

the case, wasn't very pleased at my having taken you to the house. Said it was quite irregular. Oh, and by the

"But isn't Platt going to have the footprints photographed on his own account?" I objected.

"Of course he is. He is going to have a set of proper photographs taken by an expert photographerhe was

mightily amused when he heard about your little snapshot affair. Oh, you can trust Platt. He is a great man.

"I don't see how that is going to help him, as there aren't any fingerprints in this case."

This was a mere flycast on my part, but Foxton rose at once at the rather clumsy bait.

"Oh, aren't there?" he exclaimed. "You didn't happen to spot them, but they were there. Platt has got the

prints of a complete right hand. This is in strict confidence, you know," he added, with somewhat belated

Foxton's sudden reticence restrained me from uttering the obvious comment on the superintendent's

"But I hope you won'tand in fact you mustn't. I am officially connected with the case, and I've got to live

with these people. As the policesurgeon, I am responsible for the medical evidence, and Platt expects me to

get those photographs from you. Obviously you can't keep them. It would be most irregular."

It was useless to argue. Evidently the police did not want me to be introduced into the case, and after all the

superintendent was within his rights, if he chose to regard me, as a private individual and to demand the

Nevertheless I was loth to give up the photographs, at least until I had carefully studied them. The, case was

within my own speciality of practice, and was a strange and interesting one. Moreover, it appeared to be in

unskilful hands, judging from the fingerprint episode, and then experience had taught me to treasure up small

scraps of chance evidence, since one never knew when one might be drawn into a case in a professional

capacity. In effect, I decided not to give up the photographs, though that decision committed me to a ruse that

I was not very willing to adopt. I would rather have acted quite straightforwardly.

"Well if you insist, Foxton," I said, "I will hand over the film or, if you like, I will destroy it in your

"I think Platt would rather have the film uninjured," said Foxton. "Then he'll know, you know," he added,

In my heart, I thanked Foxton for that grin. It made my own guileful proceedings so much easier; for a

After lunch I went up to my room, locked the door and took the little camera from my pocket. Having fully

wound up the film, I extracted it, wrapped it up carefully and bestowed it in my inside breastpocket. Then I

inserted a fresh film, and going to the open window, took four successive snapshots of the sky. This done, I

closed the camera, slipped it into my pocket and went downstairs. Foxton was in the hall, brushing his hat, as

"About those photographs, Jervis," said he; "I shall be looking in at the policestation presently, so if you

Taking the camera from my pocket, I solemnly wound up the remainder of the film, extracted it, stuck down

"Better not expose it to the light," I said, going the whole hog of deception, "or you may fog the exposures."

Foxton took the spool from me as if it were hothe was not a photographerand thrust it into his handbag.

He was still thanking me the frontdoor rang quite profusely when the visitor who stood revealed when

Foxton opened door was a small, spare gentleman with a complexion of peculiar brownpapery quality that

suggests long residence the tropics. He stepped in briskly and introduced him and his business without

"My name is Wardaleboarder at Beddingfield's. I called with reference to the tragic event which"

Here Foxton interposed in his frostiest official tone. "I am afraid, Mr. Wardale, I can't give you any

"I saw you two gentlemen at the house this morning" Mr. Wardale continued, but Foxton again cut him

"You did. We were thereor at least, I wasas representative of the Law, and while the case is sub

"I am not asking you to," said Wardale a little impatiently "But I understand that one of you is Dr. Jervis."

"I must really warn you" Foxton began again; but Mr. Wardale interrupted testily:

"My dear sir, I am a lawyer and a magistrate and understand perfectly well what is and what is not

permissible. I have come simply to make a professional engagement with Dr. Jervis."

"I will tell you," said Mr. Wardale. "This poor lady, whose death has occurred in so mysterious a manner,

was the wife of a man who was, like myself a servant of the Government of Sierra Leone. I was the friend of

both of them, and in the absence of the husband I should like to have the inquiry into the circumstances of

this lady's death watched by a competent lawyer with the necessary special knowledge of medical evidence.

"Then," said Mr. Wardale, "I will instruct my solicitor to write to you and formally retain you in the case.

Here is my card. You will find my name in the Colonial Office List, and you know my address here."

He handed me his card, wished us both good afternoon, and then, with a stiff little bow, turned and took his

"I think I had better run up to town and confer with Thorndyke," said I. "How do the trains run?"

"Then I will go by it, but I shall come down again tomorrow or the next day, and probably Thorndyke will

"Very well," said Foxton. "Bring him in to lunch or dinner, but I can't put him up, I am afraid."

"It would be better not," said I. "Your friend Platt wouldn't like it. He won't want Thorndykeor me either

for that matter. And what about those photographs, Thorndyke will want them, you know."

"He can't have them," said Foxton. doggedly, "unless Platt is willing to hand them back; which I don't

I had private reasons for thinking otherwise, but I kept them to myself; and as Foxton went forth on his

afternoon round, I returned upstairs to pack my suitcase and write the telegram to Thorndyke informing him

It was only a quarter past five when I let myself into our chambers in King's Bench Walk. To my relief I

found my colleague at home and our laboratory assistant, Polton, in the act of laying tea, for two.

"I gather," said Thorndyke, as we shook hands, "that my learned brother brings grist to the mill?"

"Yes," I replied. "Nominally a watching brief, but I think you will agree with me that it is a case for

"Will there be anything in my line, sir?" inquired Polton, who was always agog at the word "investigation".

"There is a film to be developed. Four exposures of white footprints on a dark ground."

"Ah!" said Polton, "you'll want good strong negatives, and they ought to be enlarged if they are, from the

I wrote out the measurements from my notebook and handed him the paper together with the spool of film,

"And now, Jervis," said Thorndyke, "while Polton is operating on the film and we are discussing our tea, let

I gave him more than a sketch, for the events were recent and I had carefully sorted out the facts during my

journey to town, making rough notes, which I now consulted. To my rather lengthy recital he listened in his

usual attentive manner, without any comment, excepting in regard to my man uvre to retain possession of

"It's almost a pity you didn't refuse?" said he. "They could hardly have enforced their demand, and my feeling

is that it is more convenient as well as more dignified to avoid direct deception unless one is driven to it. But

As a matter of fact I had at the time, but I had since come to Thorndyke's opinion. My little man uvre was

"Well," said Thorndyke, when I had finished my recital, "I think we may take it that the police theory is, in

"I think so, excepting that I learned from Foxton that Superintendent Platt has obtained the complete

Thorndyke raised his eyebrows. "Fingerprints!" he exclaimed. "Why, the fellow must be a mere simpleton.

But there," he added, "everybodypolice, lawyers, judges, even Galton himselfseems to lose every

vestige of common sense as soon as the subject of fingerprints is raised. But it would be interesting to know

how he got them and what they are like. We must try to find that out. However, to return to your case, since

your theory and the police theory are probably the same, we may as well consider the value of your

"At present we are dealing with the case in the abstract. Our data are largely assumptions, and our inferences

are largely derived from an application of the mathematical laws of probability. Thus we assume that a

murder has been committed, whereas it may turn out to have been suicide. We assume the murder to have

been committed by the person, who made the footprints, and we assume that that person has no little toes,

whereas he may have retracted little toes which do not touch the ground and so leave no impression.

Assuming the little toes to be absent, we account for their absence by considering known causes in the order

of their probability. Excludingquite properly, I thinkRaynaud's disease, we arrive at frostbite and

"But two persons, both of whom are of a stature corresponding to the size of the footprints, may have had a

motive though a very inadequate onefor committing the crime, and both have been exposed to the

conditions which tend to produce frostbite, while one of them has probably, been exposed to the conditions

which tend to produce ergotism. The laws of probability point to both of these two men; and the chances in

favour of the Swede being the murderer rather than the Canadian would be represented by the common

factorfrostbitemultiplied by the additional factor, ergotism. But this is purely speculative at present.

There is no evidence that either man has ever been frostbitten or has ever eaten spurred rye. Nevertheless, it

is a perfectly sound method at this stage. It indicates a line of investigation. If it should transpire that either

man has suffered from frostbite or ergotism, a definite advance would have been made. But here is Polton

with a couple of finished prints. How on earth did you manage it in the time, Polton?"

"Why, you see, sir, I just dried the film with spirit," replied Polton. "It saved a lot of time. I will let you have

Handing us the two wet prints, each stuck on a glass plate, he retired to the laboratory, and Thorndyke and I

proceeded to scrutinize the photographs with the aid of our pocket lenses. The promised enlargements were

really hardly necessary excepting for the purpose of comparative measurements, for the image of the white

footprint, fully two inches long, was so microscopically sharp that, with the assistance of the lens, the

"There is certainly not a vestige of little toe," remarked Thorndyke, "and the plump appearance of the other

toes supports your rejection of Raynaud's disease. Does the character of the footprint convey any other

"It gives me the impression that the man had been accustomed to go barefooted in early life and had only

taken to boots comparatively recently. The position of the great toe suggests this, and the presence of a

number of small scars on the toes and ball of the foot seems to confirm it. A person walking barefoot would

Thorndyke looked dissatisfied. "I agree with you " he said, "as to the suggestion offered by the undeformed

state of the great toes; but those little pits do not convey to me the impression of scars produced as you

Here our conversation was interrupted by a knock on the outer oak. Thorndyke stepped out through the lobby

and I heard him open the door. A moment or two later he reentered, accompanied by a short, brownfaced

"I must have come up by the same train as you," he remarked, as we shook hands, "and to a certain extent, I

suspect, on the same errand. I thought I would like to put our arrangement on a business footing, as I am a

"I want you to watch the case, and, if necessary, to look into the facts independently."

Mr. Wardale reflected. "I don't think I can," he said at length. "I have no facts that you have not, and any

surmises of mine might be misleading. I had rather you kept an open mind. But perhaps we might go into the

This, of course, was somewhat difficult, but Thorndyke contrived to indicate the probable liabilities involved,

"There is one other little matter," said Wardale, as he rose to depart. "I have got a suitcase here which Mrs.

Beddingfield lent me to bring some things up to town. It is one that Mr. Macauley left behind when he went

away from the boardinghouse. Mrs. Beddingfield suggested that I might leave it at his chambers when I had

finished with it; but I don't know his address, excepting that it is somewhere in the Temple, and I don't want

"Excepting for a suit of pyjamas and a pair of shocking old slippers." He opened the suitcase as he spoke and

"Characteristic of a negro, isn't it? Pink silk pyjamas and slippers about three sizes too small."

"Very well," said Thorndyke. "I will get my man to find out the address and leave it there."

As Mr. Wardale went out, Polton entered with the enlarged photographs, which showed the footprints the

natural size. Thorndyke handed them to me, and as I sat down to examine them he followed his assistant to

the laboratory. He returned in a few minutes, and after a brief inspection of the photographs, remarked:

"They show us nothing more than we have seen, though they may be useful later. So your stock of facts is all

"Then, as I have to call at Scotland Yard, we may as well walk to Charing Cross together."

As we walked down the Strand we gossiped on general topics, but before we separated at Charing Cross,

"Let me know the date of the inquest," said he, "and try to find out what the poison wasif it was really a

"The liquid that was left in the bottle seemed to be a watery solution of some kind," said I, "as I think I

"Why not?" demanded Thorndyke. And with this and an inscrutable smile, he turned and walked down

Three days later I found myself at Margate sitting beside Thorndyke in a room adjoining the Town Hall, in

which the inquest on the death of Mrs. Toussaint was to be held. Already the coroner was in his chair, the

jury were in their seats and the witnesses assembled in a group of chairs apart. These included Foxton, a

stranger who sat by himpresumably the other medical witnessMrs. Beddingfield, Mr. Wardale, the

police superintendent and a welldressed coloured man, whom I correctly assumed to be Mr. Macauley.

As I sat by myrather sphinxlike colleague my mind recurred for the hundredth time to his extraordinary

powers of mental synthesis. That parting remark of his as to the possible nature of the poison had brought

home to me in a flash the fact that he already had a definite theory of this crime, and that his theory was not

mine nor that of the police. True, the poison might not be strophanthus, after all, but that would not alter the

position. He had a theory of the crime, but yet he was in possession of no facts excepting those with which I

had supplied him. Therefore those facts contained the material for a theory, whereas I had deduced from them

The first witness called was naturally Dr. Foxton, who described the circumstances already known to me. He

further stated that he bad been present at the autopsy, that he had found on the throat and limbs of the

deceased bruises that suggested a struggle and violent restraint. The immediate cause of death was heart

failure, but whether that failure was due to shock, terror, or the action of a poison he could not positively say.

The next witness was a Dr. Prescott, an expert pathologist and toxicologist. He had made the autopsy and

agreed with Dr. Foxton as to the cause of death. He had examined the liquid contained in the bottle taken

from the hand of the deceased and found it to be a watery infusion or decoction of strophanthus seeds. He had

analysed the fluid contained in the stomach and found it to consist largely of the same infusion.

"No," was the reply. "The tincture is the form in which strophanthus is administered unless it is given in the

"It is difficult to say," replied Dr. Prescott. "Strophanthus is a heart poison, and there was a very large

poisonous dose. But very little had been absorbed, and the appearances were not inconsistent with death from

"Could death have been selfproduced by the voluntary taking of the poison?" asked the coroner.

"I should say, decidedly not. Dr. Foxton's evidence shows that the bottle was almost certainly placed in the

hands of the deceased after death, and this is in complete agreement with the enormous dose and small

"I should say that they point to homicidal poisoning, but that death was probably due mainly to shock."

This concluded the expert's evidence. It was followed by that of Mrs. Beddingfield, which brought out

nothing new to me but the fact that a trunk had been broken open and a small attach�case belonging to the

"I have seen her put her husband's letters into it. She had quite a number of them. I don't know what else she

"I believe she had. Her husband used to send most of his pay home and she used to pay it in and leave it with

As Mrs. Beddingfield concluded Mr. Wardale was called, and he was followed by Mr. Macauley. The

evidence of both was quite brief and concerned entirely with the disturbance made by Bergson, whose

The last witness was the police superintendent, and he, as I had expected, was decidedly reticent. He did refer

to the footprints, but, like Foxtonwho presumably had his instructionshe abstained from describing their

peculiarities. Nor did he say anything about fingerprints. As to the identity of the criminal, that had to be

further inquired into. Suspicion had at first fastened upon Bergson, but it had since transpired that the Swede

sailed from Ramsgate on an iceship two days before the occurrence of the tragedy. Then suspicion had

pointed to the husband, who was known to have landed at Liverpool four days before the death of his wife

and who had mysteriously disappeared. But he (the superintendent) had only that morning received a

telegram from the Liverpool police informing him that the body of Toussaint had been found floating in the

Mersey, and that it bore a number of wounds of an apparently homicidal character. Apparently he had been

"This is very terrible," said the coroner. "Does this second murder throw any light on the case which we are

"I think it does," replied the officer, without any great conviction, however; "but it is not advisable to go into

"Quite so," agreed the coroner. "Most inexpedient. But are we to understand that you have a clue to the

The superintendent hesitated. "Well . . ." he began with some embarrassment, but the coroner interrupted

"Perhaps the question is indiscreet. We mustn't hamper the police, gentlemen, and the point is not really

material to our inquiry. You would rather we waived that question Superintendent?"

"Have any cheques from the deceased woman's cheque book been presented at the bank?"

This concluded the evidence, and after a brief but capable summingup by the coroner, the jury returned a

As the proceedings terminated, Thorndyke rose and turned round, and then to my surprise I perceived

Superintendent Miller, of the Criminal Investigation Department, who had come in unperceived by me and

"I have followed your instructions, sir," said he, addressing Thorndyke, "but before we take any definite

He led the way to an adjoining room and, as we entered we were followed by Superintendent Platt and Dr.

"Now, Doctor," said Miller, carefully closing the door, "I have carried out your suggestions. Mr. Macauley is

being detained, but before we commit ourselves to an arrest we must have something to go upon. I shall want

"Very well," said Thorndyke, laying upon the table the small green suitcase that was his almost invariable

"I've seen that prima facie case before," Miller remarked with a grin, as Thorndyke unlocked it and drew out

As Thorndyke extracted from the envelope Polton's enlargements of my small photographs, Platt's eyes

"These," said Thorndyke "are the fullsized photographs of the footprints of the suspected murderer.

Rather reluctantly Platt produced from his pocket a pair of wholeplate photographs, which he laid beside the

"Yes," said Miller, after comparing them, "they are the same footprints. But You say, Doctor, that they are

Thorndyke again had recourse to the green case, from which he produced two copper plates mounted on

"I propose," said he, lifting the plates out of their protecting frame, "that we take prints of Macauley's feet and

"Yes," said Platt. "And then there are the fingerprints that we've got. We can test those, too."

"You don't want fingerprints if you've got a set of toeprints," objected Miller.

"With regard to those fingerprints, said Thorndyke. "May I ask if they were obtained from the bottle?"

As he spoke he laid on the table a photograph showing the prints of the thumb and fingers of a right hand.

"We can soon see," said Thorndyke, producing from the case a pad of white paper. "If Dr. Foxton will lay the

fingertips of his right hand first on this inked plate and then on the paper, we can compare the prints with'

Foxton placed his fingers on the blackened plate and then pressed them on the paper pad, leaving on the latter

four beautifully clear, black fingerprints. These Superintendent Platt scrutinized eagerly, and as his glance

"Well," said Miller, in a tone of disgust, "you must have been a mug not to have thought of that when you

"The fact, however, is important," said Thorndyke. "The absence of any fingerprints but Dr. Foxton's not only

suggests that the murderer took the precaution to wear gloves, but especially it proves that the bottle was not

handled by the deceased during life. A suicide's hands will usually be pretty moist and would leave

"Yes," agreed Miller, "that is quite true. But with regard to these footprints. We can't compel this man to let

us examine his feet without arresting him. Don't think, Dr. Thorndyke, that I suspect you of guessing. I've

known you too long for that. You've got your facts all right, I don't doubt, but you must let us have enough to

Thorndyke's answer was to plunge once more into the inexhaustible green case, from which he now produced

two objects wrapped in tissuepaper. The paper being removed, there was revealed what looked like a model

"These," said Thorndyke, exhibiting the "models" to Superintendent Millerwho viewed them with an

undisguised grin"are plaster casts of the interiors of a pair of slippersvery old and much too

tightbelonging to Mr. Macauley. His name was written inside them. The casts have been waxed and painted

with raw umber, which has been lightly rubbed off, thus accentuating the prominences and depressions. You

will notice that the impressions of the toes on the soles and of the 'knuckles' on the uppers appear as

prominences; in fact we have in these casts a sketchy reproduction of the actual feet.

"Now, first as to dimensions. Dr. Jervis's measurements of the footprints give us ten inches and

threequarters as, the extreme length and four inches and fiveeighths as the extreme width at the heads of

the metatarsus. On these casts, as you see, the extreme length is ten inches and fiveeighthsthe loss of

oneeighth being accounted for by the curve of the soleand the extreme width is four inches and a

quarterthreeeighths being accounted for by the lateral compression of a tight slipper. The agreement of

the dimensions is remarkable, considering the unusual size. And now as to the peculiarities of the feet.

"You notice that each toe has made a perfectly distinct impression on the sole, excepting the little toe; of

which there is no trace in either cast. And, turning to the uppers, you notice that the knuckles of the toes

appear quite distinct and prominentagain excepting the little toes, which have made no impression at all.

Thus it is not a case of retracted little toes, for they would appear as an extra prominence. Then, looking at

the feet as a whole, it is evident that the little toes are absent; there is a distinct hollow, where there should be

"M'yes," said Miller dubiously, "it's all very neat. But isn't it just a bit speculative?"

"Oh, come, Miller," protested Thorndyke; "just consider the facts. Here is a suspected murderer known to

have feet of an unusual size and presenting a very rare deformity; and they are the feet of a man who had

actually lived in the same house as the murdered woman and who, at the date of the crime, was living only

"That hardly belongs to a prima facie case," said Thorndyke, "But even if it did, is there not ample matter for

suspicion? Remember who the murdered woman was, what her husband was, and who this Sierra Leone

"Yes, yes; that's true," said Miller somewhat hastily, either perceiving the drift of Thorndyke's argument

(which I did not), or being unwilling to admit that he was still in the dark. "Yes, we'll have the fellow in and

He went to the door and, putting his head out, made some sign, which was almost immediately followed by a

trampling of feet, and Macauley entered the room, followed by two large plainclothes policemen. The negro

was evidently alarmed, for he looked about him with the wild expression of a hunted animal. But his manner

"Why am I being interfered with in this impertinent manner?" he demanded in the deep buzzing voice

"We want to have a look at your feet, Mr. Macauley," said Miller. "Will you kindly take off your shoes and

The rest of the sentence was drowned in a sudden uproar. The tall, powerful negro, bellowing like an angry

bull, had whipped out a large, strangelyshaped knife and charged furiously at the Superintendent. But the

two plainclothes men had been watching him from behind and now sprang upon him, each seizing an arm.

Two sharp, metallic clicks in quick succession, a thunderous crash and an earsplitting yell, and the

formidable barbarian lay prostrate on the floor with one massive constable sitting astride his chest and the

As Thorndyke reinked his plates, Miller and the local superintendent expertly removed the smart patent

shoes and the green silk socks from the feet of the writhing, bellowing negro. Then Thorndyke rapidly and

skilfully applied the inked plates to the soles of the feetwhich I steadied for the purposeand followed up

with a dexterous pressure of the paper pad, first to one foot and thenhaving torn off the printed sheetto

the other. In spite of the difficulties occasioned by Macauley's struggles, each sheet presented a perfectly

clear and sharp print of the sole of the foot, even the ridgepatterns of the toes and ball of the foot being quite

distinct. Thorndyke laid each of the new prints on the table beside the corresponding large photograph, and

"Yes," said Millerand Superintendent Platt nodded his acquiescence"there can't be a shadow of a doubt.

The inkprints and the photographs are identical, to every line and skinmarking. You've made out your

"So you see," said Thorndyke, as we smoked our evening pipes on the old stone pier, "your method was a

perfectly sound one, only you didn't apply it properly. Like too many mathematicians, you started on your

calculations before you had secured your data. If you had applied the simple laws of probability to the real

"Yes; that was what you overlooked, you compared the probabilities of three diseases either of which only

very rarely causes the loss of even one little toe and infinitely rarely causes the loss of both, and none of

which conditions is confined to any definite class of persons; and you ignored ainhum, a disease which

attacks almost exclusively the little toe, causing it to drop off, and quite commonly destroys both little

toesa disease, moreover, which is confined to the blackskinned races. In European practice ainhum is

"If you were to assemble all the men in the world who have lost both little toes more than ninetenths of

them would be suffering from ainhum; so that, by the laws of probability, your footprints were, by nine

chances to one, those of a man who had suffered from ainhum, and therefore a blackskinned man. But as

soon as you had established a black man as the probable criminal, you opened up a new field of corroborative

evidence. There was a black man on the spot. That man was a native of Sierra Leone and almost certainly a

man of importance there. But the victim's husband had deadly enemies in the native secret societies of Sierra

Leone. The letters of the husband to the wife probably contained matter incriminating certain natives of

Sierra Leone. The evidence became cumulative, you see. Taken as a whole, it pointed plainly to Macauley,

apart from the new fact of the murder of Toussaint in Liverpool, a city with a considerable floating

"And I gather from your reference to the African poison, strophanthus, that you fixed on Macauley at once

"Yes; especially when I saw your photographs of the footprints with the absent little toes and those

characteristic chiggerscars on the toes that remained. But it was sheer luck that enabled me to fit the

keystone into its place and turn mere probability into virtual certainty. I could have embraced the magician

Wardale when he brought us the magic slippers. Still, it isn't an absolute certainty, even now, though I expect

And Thorndyke was right. That very evening the police entered Macauley's chambers in Tanfield Court,

where they discovered the dead woman's attach�case. It still contained Toussaint's letters to his wife, and

one of those letters mentioned by name, as members of a dangerous secret society, several prominent Sierra

> I HAVE occasionally wondered how often Mystery and Romance present themselves to us ordinary men

of affairs only to be passed by without recognition. More often, I suspect than most of us imagine. The

uncanny tendency of my talented friend John Thorndyke to become involved in strange, mysterious and

abnormal circumstances has almost become a joke against him. But yet, on reflection, I am disposed to think

that his experiences have not differed essentially from those of other men, but that his extraordinary powers

of observation and rapid inference have enabled him to detect abnormal elements in what, to ordinary men,

appeared to be quite commonplace occurrences. Certainly this was so in the singular Roscoff case, in which,

if I had been alone, I should assuredly have seen nothing to merit more than a passing attention.

It happened that on a certain summer morning it was the fourteenth of August, to be exact we were

discussing this very subject as we walked across the golflinks from Sandwich towards the sea. I was

spending a holiday in the old town with my wife, in order that she might paint the ancient streets, and we had

induced Thorndyke to come down and stay with us for a few days. This was his last morning, and we had

It was a solitary place in those days. When we came off the sandhills on to the smooth, sandy beach, there

was not a soul in sight, and our own footprints were the first to mark the firm strip of sand between

We had walked a hundred yards or so when Thorndyke stopped and looked down at the dry sand above

'Would that be a shrimper?' he cogitated, referring to some impressions of bare feet in the sand. 'If so, he

couldn't have come from Pegwell, for the River Stour bars the way. But he came out of the sea and seems to

'He came out of the sea at this place,' Thorndyke replied, glancing at his watch, 'at about halfpast eleven last

'But it is obvious, Anstey,' he replied. 'It is now halfpast nine, and it will be highwater at eleven, as we

ascertained before we came out. Now, if you look at those footprints on the sand, you see that they stop short

or rather begin about twothirds of the distance from highwater mark to the edge of the surf. Since

they are visible and distinct, they must have been made after last highwater. But since they do not extend to

the water's edge, they must have been made when the tide was going out; and the place where they begin is

the place where the edge of the surf was when the footprints were made. But the place is, as we see, about an

hour below the highwater mark, Therefore, when the man came out of the sea, the tide had been going down

for an hour, roughly. As it is highwater at eleven this morning, it was highwater at about tenforty last

night; and as the man came out of the sea about an hour after highwater, he must have come out at, or about,

'Perfectly,' I replied, laughing. 'It is as simple as sucking eggs when you think it out. But how the deuce do

you manage always to spot these obvious things at a glance? Most men would have just glanced at those

'That', he replied, 'is a mere matter of habit; the habit of trying to extract the significance of simple

During our discussion we had been walking forward slowly, straying on to the edge of the sandhills.

Suddenly, in a hollow between the hills, my eye lighted upon a heap of clothes, apparently, to judge by their

orderly disposal, those of a bather. Thorndyke also had observed them and we approached together and

'Here is another problem for you,' said I. 'Find the bather. I don't see him anywhere.'

'You won't find him here,' said Thorndyke. 'These clothes have been out all night. Do you see the little

spider's web on the boots with a few dewdrops still clinging to it? There has been no dew forming for a good

We strode out through the loose sand and stiff, reedy grass to the smooth beach, and here we could plainly

see a line of prints of naked feet leading straight down to the sea, but ending abruptly about twothirds of the

'This looks like our nocturnal shrimper,' said I. 'He seems to have gone into the sea here and come out at the

other place. But if they are the same footprints, he must have forgotten to dress before he went home. It is a

'It is a most remarkable affair,' Thorndyke agreed; 'and if the footprints are not the same it will be still more

He produced from his pocket a small spring tapemeasure with which he carefully took the lengths of two of

the most distinct footprints and the length of the stride. Then we walked back along the beach to the other set

'Apparently they are the same,' he said, putting away his tape; 'indeed, they could hardly be otherwise. But

the mystery is, what has become of the man? He couldn't have gone away without his clothes, unless he is a

lunatic, which his proceedings rather suggest. There is just the possibility that he went into the sea again and

was drowned. Shall we walk along towards Shellness and see if we can find any further traces?'

We walked nearly half a mile along the beach, but the smooth surface of the sand was everywhere unbroken.

At length we turned to retrace our steps; and at this moment I observed two men advancing across the

sandhills. By the time we had reached the mysterious heap of garments they were quite near, and, attracted

no doubt by the intentness with which we were regarding the clothes, they altered their course to see what we

were looking at. As they approached, I recognized one of them as a barrister named Hallet, a neighbour of

mine in the Temple, whom I had already met in the town, and we exchanged greetings.

'What is the excitement?' he asked, looking at the heap of clothes and then glancing along the deserted beach;

'Gad!' exclaimed Hallett, 'if he has gone home without his clothes, he'll create a sensation in the town! What?'

Here the other man, who carried a set of golf clubs, stooped over the clothes with a look of keen interest.

'I believe I recognize these things, Hallett; in fact, I am sure I do. That waistcoat, for instance. You must have

noticed that waistcoat. I saw you playing with the chap a couple of days ago. Tall, cleanshaven, dark fellow.

'Roscoff,' said Hallett. 'Yes, by Jove, I believe you are right. And now I come to think of it, he mentioned to

me that he sometimes came up here for a swim. He said he particularly liked a paddle by moonlight, and I

told him he was a fool to run the risk of bathing in a lonely place like this, especially at night.'

'Well, that is what he seems to have done,' said Thorndyke, 'for these clothes have certainly been here all

'Then he has come to grief, poor beggar!' said Hallett; 'probably got carried away by the current. There is a

He started to walk towards the beach, and the other man, dropping his clubs, followed.

'Yes,' said Hallett, 'that is what has happened. You can see his footprints plainly enough going down to the

'There are some tracks of bare feet coming out of the sea farther up the beach,' said I, 'which seem to be his.'

Hallett shook his head. 'They can't be his,' he said, 'for it is obvious that he never did come back. Probably

they are the tracks of some shrimper. The question is, what are we to do! Better take his things to the

We went back and began to gather up the clothes, each of us taking one or two articles.

'You were right, Morris,' said Hallett, as he picked up the shirt. 'Here's his name, "P. Roscoff", and I see it is

on the vest and the shorts, too. And I recognize the stick now not that that matters, as the clothes are marked.'

On our way across the links to the dormyhouse mutual introductions took place. Morris was a London

'The coroner will have an expert witness,' Hallett remarked as we entered the house. 'Rather a waste in a

He opened the door of a small room furnished with a goodsized table and a set of lockers, into one of which

'Before we lock them up,' said Thorndyke, 'I suggest that we make and sign a list of them and of the contents

'Very well,' agreed Hallett. 'You know the ropes in these cases. I'll write down the descriptions, if you will

Thorndyke looked over the collection and first enumerated the articles: a tweed jacket and trousers, light,

knitted wool waistcoat, black and yellow stripes, blue cotton shirt, net vest and shorts, marked in ink 'P.

Roscoff', brown merino socks, brown shoes, tweed cap, and a walkingstick a mottled Malacca cane with

a horn crooked handle. When Hallett had written down this list, Thorndyke laid the clothes on the table and

began to empty the pockets, one at a time, dictating the descriptions of the articles to Hallett while Morris

took them from him and laid them on a sheet of newspaper. In the jacket pockets were a handkerchief,

marked 'P.R.'; a lettercase containing a few stamps, one or two hotel bills and local tradesmen's receipts, and

some visiting cards inscribed 'Mr. Peter Roscoff, Bell Hotel, Sandwich'; a leather cigarettecase, a 3B pencil

fitted with a pointprotector, and a fragment of what Thorndyke decided to be vine charcoal.

'That lot is not very illuminating,' remarked Morris, peering into the pockets of the lettercase. 'No letter or

anything indicating his permanent address. However, that isn't our concern.' He laid aside the lettercase, and

picking up a pocketknife that Thorndyke had just taken from the trousers pocket, examined it curiously.

'Queer knife, that,' he remarked. 'Steel blade mighty sharp, too nail file and an ivory blade. Silly

arrangement, it seems. A paperknife is more convenient carried loose, and you don't want a handle to it.'

'Perhaps it was meant for a fruitknife,' suggested Hallett, adding it to the list and glancing at a little heap of

silver coins that Thorndyke had just laid down. 'I wonder', he added, 'what has made that money turn so

black. Looks! as if he had been taking some medicine containing sulphur. What do you think, doctor?'

'It is quite a probable explanation,' replied Thorndyke, 'though we haven't the means of testing it. But you

notice that this vestabox from the other pocket is quite bright, which is rather against your theory.'

He held out a little silver box bearing the engraved monogram 'P.R.', the burnished surface of which

contrasted strongly with the dull brownishblack of the coins. Hallett looked at it with an affirmative grunt,

and having entered it in his list and added a bunch of keys and a watch from the waistcoat pocket, laid down

'That's the lot, is it?' said he, rising and beginning to gather up the clothes. 'My word! Look at the sand on the

table! Isn't it astonishing how saturated with sand one's clothes become after a day on the links here? When I

undress at night, the bathroom floor is like the bottom of a birdcage. Shall I put the things in the locker

'I think', said Thorndyke, 'that, as I may have to give evidence, I should like to look them over before you put

Hallett grinned. 'There's going to be some expert evidence after all,' he said. 'Well, fire away, and let me

With this, he and Morris sauntered out, and I thought it best to go with them, though I was a little curious as

to my colleague's object in examining these derelicts. However, my curiosity was not entirely baulked, for

my friends went no farther than the little garden that surrounded the house, and from the place where we

stood I was able to look in through the window and observe Thorndyke's proceedings.

Very methodical they were. First he laid on the table a sheet of newspaper and on this deposited the jacket,

which he examined carefully all over, picking some small object off the inside near the front, and giving

special attention to a thick smear of paint which I had noticed on the left cuff. Then, with his spring tape he

measured the sleeves and other principal dimensions. Finally, holding the jacket upside down, he beat it

gently with his stick, causing a shower of sand to fall on the paper. He then laid the jacket aside, and, taking

from his pocket one or two seed envelopes (which I believe he always carried), very carefully shot the sand

from the paper into one of them and wrote a few words on it presumably the source of the sand and

This rather odd procedure was repeated with the other garments a fresh sheet of newspaper being used for

each and with the socks, shoes, and cap. The latter he examined minutely, especially as to the inside, from

which he picked out two or three small objects, which I could not see, but assumed to be hairs. Even the

walkingstick was inspected and measured, and the articles from the pockets scrutinized afresh, particularly

the curious pocketknife, the ivory blade of which he examined on both sides through his lens.

Hallett and Morris glanced in at him from time to time with indulgent smiles, and the former remarked:

'I like the hopeful enthusiasm of the real pukka expert, and the way he refuses to admit the existence of the

ordinary and commonplace. I wonder what he has found out from those things. But here he is. Well, doctor,

Thorndyke shook his head. 'The inquiry is adjourned pending the production of fresh evidence,' he replied,

adding: 'I have folded the clothes up and put all the effects together in a paper parcel, excepting the stick.'

When Hallett had deposited the derelicts in the locker, he came out and looked across the links with an air of

'I suppose,' said he, 'we ought to notify the police. I'll do that. When do you think the body is likely to wash

'It is impossible to say,' replied Thorndyke. 'The set of the current is towards the Thames, but the body might

wash up anywhere along the coast. A case is recorded of a bather drowned off Brighton whose body came up

six weeks later at WaltonontheNaze. But that was quite exceptional. I shall send the coroner and the

Chief Constable a note with my address, and I should think you had better do the same. And that is all that we

To this we all agreed; and as the morning was now spent we walked back together across the links to the

town, where we encountered my wife returning homeward with her sketching kit. This Thorndyke and I took

possession of and having parted from Hallett and Morris opposite the Barbican, we made our way to our

lodgings in quest of lunch. Naturally, the events of the morning were related to my wife and discussed by us

all, but I noted that Thorndyke made no reference to his inspection of the clothes, and accordingly I said

nothing about the matter before my wife; and no opportunity of opening the subject occurred until the

evening, when I accompanied him to the station. Then, as we paced the platform while waiting for his train, I

'By the way, did you extract any information from those garments? I saw you going through them very

'I got a suggestion from them,' he replied, 'but it is such an odd one that I hardly like to mention it. Taking the

appearances at their face value, the suggestion was that the clothes were not all those of the same man. There

seemed to be traces of two men, one of whom appeared to belong to this district, while the other would seem

to have been associated with the eastern coast of Thanet between Ramsgate and Margate, and by preference,

'Principally,' he replied, 'by the peculiarities of the sand which fell from the garments and which was not the

same in all of them. You see, Anstey,' he continued, 'sand is analogous to dust. Both consist of minute

fragments detached from larger masses; and just as, by examining microscopically the dust of a room, you

can ascertain the colour and material of the carpets, curtains, furniture coverings, and other textiles, detached

particles of which form the dust of that room, so, by examining sand, you can judge of the character of the

cliffs, rocks, and other large masses that occur in the locality, fragments of which become ground off by the

surf and incorporated in the sand of the beach. Some of the sand from these clothes is very characteristic and

'But', I objected, 'isn't there a fallacy in that line of reasoning? Might not one man have worn the different

'That is certainly a possibility that has to be borne in mind,' he replied. 'But here comes my train. We shall

As a matter of fact, the discussion was never resumed, for, by the time that I came back to 'the mill', the affair

had faded from my mind, and the accumulations of grist monopolized my attention; and it is probable that it

would have passed into complete oblivion but for the circumstance of its being revived in a very singular

One afternoon about the middle of October my old friend, Mr. Brodribb, a wellknown solicitor, called to

'I've got a client waiting outside, whom I am taking up to introduce to Thorndyke. You'd better come along

'Hanged if I know,' chuckled Brodribb. 'He won't say. That's why I am taking him to our friend. I've never

seen Thorndyke stumped yet, but I think this case will put the lid on him. Are you coming?"

'He's not going to be asked,' said Brodribb. 'He'll think you are part of the show. Here he is.'

In my outer office we found a gentlemanly, middleaged man to whom Brodribb introduced me, and whom

he hustled down the stairs and up King's Bench Walk to Thorndyke's chambers. There we found my

colleague earnestly studying a will with the aid of a watchmaker's eyeglass, and Brodribb opened the

'I've brought a client of mine, Mr. Capes, to see you) Thorndyke. He has a little problem that he wants you to

'Ah!' said Brodribb, with a mischievous twinkle, 'that's what you've got to find out. Mr. Capes is a somewhat

Thorndyke cast a quick look at the client and from him to the solicitor. It was not the first time that old

Brodribb's high spirits had overflowed in the form of a 'legpull', though Thorndyke had no more

Mr. Capes smiled a deprecating smile. 'It isn't quite so bad as that,' he said. 'But I really can't give you much

information. It isn't mine to give. I am afraid of telling someone else's secrets, if I say very much.'

'Of course you mustn't do that,' said Thorndyke. 'But, I suppose you can indicate in general terms the nature

'I think I can,' Mr. Capes replied. 'At any rate, I will try. My difficulty is that a certain person with whom I

wish to communicate has disappeared in what appears to me to be a rather remarkable manner. When I last

heard from him, he was staying at a certain seaside resort and he stated in his letter that he was returning on

the following day to his rooms in London. A few days later, I called at his rooms and found that he had not

yet returned. But his luggage, which he had sent on independently, had arrived on the day which he had

mentioned. So it is evident that he must have left his seaside lodgings. But from that day to this I have had no

communication from him, and he has never returned to his rooms nor written to his landlady.'

'I think I had better not,' answered Mr. Capes. 'There are circumstances they don't concern me, but they do

concern him very much which seem to make it necessary for me to say as little as possible.'

'I am afraid not, excepting that, if I could get into communication with him, I could tell him of something

very much to his advantage and which might prevent him from doing something which it would be much

Thorndyke cogitated profoundly while Brodribb watched him with undisguised enjoyment. Presently my

'Did you ever play the game of "Clump", Mr. Capes? It is a somewhat legal form of game in which one

player asks questions of the others, who are required to answer "yes" or "no" in the proper witnessbox style.'

'Shall we try a round or two?' asked Thorndyke, with an unmoved countenance. 'You don't wish to make any

statements, but if I ask you certain specific questions, will you answer "yes or no"?'

'I am afraid I can't commit myself to a promise. Still, if you like to ask a question or two, I will answer them

'Very well,' said Thorndyke, 'then, as a start, supposing I suggest that the date of the letter that you received

'How on earth did you guess that?' he exclaimed in an astonished tone. 'It's most extraordinary! But you are

'Then,' said Thorndyke, 'as we have fixed the time we will have a try at the place. What do you say if I

Mr. Capes was positively thunderstruck. As he sat gazing at Thorndyke he looked like amazement

'But,' he exclaimed, 'you can't be guessing! You know! You know that he was at Broadstairs. And yet, how

'I have a certain man in my mind,' said Thorndyke, 'who may have disappeared from Broadstairs. Shall I

'If I suggest, for instance, that he was an artist a painter in oil' Capes nodded again 'that he was

'Yes,' said Capes. 'Unnecessarily so in my opinion, and I am an artist myself. What else?'

'That he worked with his palette in his right hand and held his brush with his left?'

'As to his physical characteristics, I suggest that he was a shortish man about five feet seven rather

stout, fair hair, slightly bald and wearing a rather large and ragged moustache.'

Mr. Capes was astounded and so was I, for that matter and for some moments there was a silence,

broken only by old Brodribb, who sat chuckling softly and rubbing his hands. At length Mr. Capes said:

'You have described him exactly, but I needn't tell you that. What I do not understand at all is how you knew

that I was referring to this particular man, seeing that I mentioned no name. By the way, sir, may I ask when

'I have no reason to suppose,' replied Thorndyke, 'that I have ever seen him at all'; an answer that reduced Mr.

Capes to a state of stupefaction and brought our old friend Brodribb to the verge of apoplexy. 'This man,'

Thorndyke continued, 'is a purely hypothetical individual whom I have described from certain traces left by

him. I have reason to believe that he left Broadstairs on the fourteenth of August and I have certain opinions

as to what became of him thereafter. But a few more details would be useful, and I shall continue my

interrogation. Now this man sent his luggage on separately. That suggests a possible intention of breaking his

'I suggest that he broke his journey for the purpose of holding an interview with some other person.'

'I cannot say,' answered Capes, 'but if he did break his journey it would probably be for that purpose.'

'And supposing that interview to have taken place, would it be likely to be an amicable interview?'

'I am afraid not. I suspect that my er acquaintance might have made certain proposals which would

have been unacceptable, but which he might have been able to enforce. However, that is only surmise,' Capes

added hastily. 'I really know nothing more than I have told you, except the missing man's name, and that I

'It is not material,' said Thorndyke, 'at least, not at present. If it should become essential, I will let you know.'

'Myes,' said Mr. Capes. 'But you were saying that you had certain opinions as to what has become of this

'Yes,' Thorndyke replied; 'speculative opinions. But they will have to be verified. If they turn out to be correct

or incorrect either I will let you know in the course of a few days. Has Mr. Brodribb your address?'

He produced his card, and, after an ineffectual effort to extract a statement from Thorndyke, took his

The third act of this singular drama opened in the same setting as the first, for the following Sunday morning

found my colleague and me following the path from Sandwich to the sea. But we were not alone this time. At

our side marched Major Robertson, the eminent dog trainer, and behind him trotted one of his superlatively

We came out on the shore at the same point as on the former occasion, and turning towards Shellness, walked

along the smooth sand with a careful eye on the not very distinctive landmarks. At length Thorndyke halted.

'This is the place,' said he. 'I fixed it in my mind by that distant tree, which coincides with the chimney of that

cottage on the marshes. The clothes lay in that hollow between the two big sandhills.'

We advanced to the spot, but, as a hollow is useless as a landmark, Thorndyke ascended the nearest sandhill

'That,' he said, 'will serve as a centre which we can keep in sight, and if we describe a series of gradually

widening concentric circles round it, we shall cover the whole ground completely.'

We must be guided by the appearance of the ground,' replied Thorndyke. 'But the circumstances suggest that

if there is anything buried, it can't be very far from where the clothes were laid. And it is pretty certain to be

The major nodded; and when he had attached a long leash to the dog's collar, we started, at first skirting the

base of the sandhill, and then, guided by our own footmarks in the loose sand, gradually increasing the

distance from the high mound, above which Thorndyke's handkerchief fluttered in the light breeze. Thus we

continued, walking slowly, keeping close to the previously made circle of footprints and watching the dog;

who certainly did a vast amount of sniffing, but appeared to let his mind run unduly on the subject of rabbits.

In this way half an hour was consumed, and I was beginning to wonder whether we were going after all to

draw a blank, when the dog's demeanour underwent a sudden change. At the moment we were crossing a

range of high sandhills, covered with stiff, reedy grass and stunted gorse, and before us lay a deep hollow,

naked of vegetation and presenting a bare, smooth surface of the characteristic greyishyellow sand. On the

side of the hill the dog checked, and, with upraised muzzle, began to sniff the air with a curiously suspicious

expression, clearly unconnected with the rabbit question. On this, the major unfastened the leash, and the dog,

left to his own devices, put his nose to the ground and began rapidly to cast to and fro, zigzagging down the

side of the hill and growing every moment more excited. In the same sinuous manner he proceeded across the

hollow until he reached a spot near the middle; and here he came to a sudden stop and began to scratch up the

'It's a find, sure enough!' exclaimed the major, nearly as excited as his pupil; and, as he spoke, he ran down

the hillside, followed by me and Thorndyke, who, as he reached the bottom, drew from his 'poacher's pocket'

a large ferntrowel in a leather sheath. It was not a very efficient digging implement, but it threw up the loose

It was easy ground to excavate. Working at the spot that the dog had located, Thorndyke had soon hollowed

out a small cavity some eighteen inches deep. Into the bottom of this he thrust the pointed blade of the big

trowel. Then he paused and looked round at the major and me, who were craning eagerly over the little pit.

I grasped the wooden handle, and, working it gently up and down, was aware of a definite but somewhat soft

resistance. The major verified my observation, and then Thorndyke resumed his digging, widening the pit and

working with increased caution. Ten minutes' more careful excavation brought into view a recognizable

shape a shoulder and upper arm; and following the lines of this, further diggings disclosed the form of a

head and shoulders plainly discernable though still shrouded in sand. Finally, with the point of the trowel and

a borrowed handkerchief mine the adhering sand was cleared away; and then, from the bottom of the

deep, funnelshaped hole, there looked up at us, with a most weird and horrible effect, the discoloured face

In that face, the passing weeks had wrought inevitable changes, on which I need not dwell. But the features

were easily recognizable, and I could see at once that the man corresponded completely with Thorndyke's

description. The cheeks were full; the hair on the temples was of a pale, yellowish brown; a straggling, fair

moustache covered the mouth; and, when the sand had been sufficiently cleared away, I could see a small,

tonsurelike bald patch near the back of the crown. But I could see something more than this. On the left

temple, just behind the eyebrow, was a ragged, shapeless wound such as might have been made by a hammer.

'That turns into certainty what we have already surmised,' said Thorndyke, gently pressing the scalp around

the wound. 'It must have killed him instantly. The skull is smashed in like an eggshell. And this is

undoubtedly the weapon,' he added, drawing out of the sand beside the body a big, hexagonheaded

screwbolt, 'very prudently buried with the body. And that is all that really concerns us. We can leave the

police to finish the disinterment; but you notice, Anstey, that the corpse is nude with the exception of the vest

and probably the pants. The shirt has disappeared. Which is exactly what we should have expected.'

Slowly, but with the feeling of something accomplished, we took our way back to the town, having collected

Thorndyke's stick on the way. Presently, the major left us, to look up a friend at the club house on the links.

'I see the general trend of your investigations,' said I 'but I can't imagine how they yielded so much detail; as

'The evidence in this case,' he replied, 'was analogous to circumstantial evidence. It depended on the

cumulative effect of a number of facts, each separately inconclusive, but all pointing to the same conclusion.

Shall I run over the data in their order and in accordance with their connections?'

'We begin, naturally, with the first fact, which is, of course, the most interesting and important; the fact which

arrests attention, which shows that something has to be explained and possibly suggests a line of inquiry. You

remember that I measured the footprints in the sand for comparison with the other footprints. Then I had the

dimensions of the feet of the presumed bather. But as soon as I looked at the shoes which purported to be

those of that bather, I felt a conviction that his feet would never go into them.

'Now, that was a very striking fact if it really was a fact and it came on top of another fact hardly less

striking, The bather had gone into the sea; and at a considerable distance he had unquestionably come out

again. Then, could be no possible doubt. In footmeasurement an, length of stride the two sets of tracks were

indentical; and there were no other tracks. That man had come ashore and he had remained ashore. But yet he

had not put on his clothes. He couldn't have gone away naked; but obviously he was not there. As a criminal

lawyer, you must admit that there was prima fade evidence of something very abnormal and probably

On our way to the dormyhouse, I carried the stick in the same hand as my own and noted that it was very

little shorter. Therefore it was a tall man's stick. Apparently, then, the stick did not belong to the shoes, but to

the man who had made the footprints. Then, when we came to the dormyhouse, another striking fact

presented itself. You remember that Hallett commented on the quantity of sand that fell from the clothes on to

the table. I am astonished that he did not notice the very peculiar character of that sand. It was perfectly

unlike the sand which would fall from his own clothes. The sand on the sandhills is dune sand

windborne sand, or, as the legal term has it, �olian sand; and it is perfectly characteristic. As it has been

carried by the wind, it is necessarily fine. The grains are small; and as the action of the wind sorts them out,

they are extremely uniform in size. Moreover, by being continually blown about and rubbed together, they

become rounded by mutual attrition. And then dune sand is nearly pure sand, composed of grains of silica

'Beach sand is quite different. Much of it is halfformed, freshly broken down silica and is often very coarse;

and, as I pointed out at the time, it is mixed with all sorts of foreign substances derived from masses in the

neighbourhood. This particular sand was loaded with black and white particles, of which the white were

mostly chalk, and the black particles of coal. Now there is very little chalk in the Shellness sand, as there are

no cliffs quite near, and chalk rapidly disappears from sand by reason of its softness; and there is no coal.'

'Principally from the Goodwins,' he replied. 'It is derived from the cargoes of colliers whose wrecks are

embedded in those sands, and from the bunkers of wrecked steamers. This coal sinks down through the

seventy odd feet of sand and at last works out at the bottom, where it drifts slowly across the floor of the sea

in a north westerly direction until some easterly gale throws it up on the Thanet shore between Ramsgate

and Foreness Point. Most of it comes up at Dumpton and Broadstairs, there you may see the poor people, in

'This sand, then, almost certainly came from the Thanet coast; but the missing man, Roscoff, had been

staying in Sandwich, playing golf on the sandhills. This was another striking discrepancy, and it made me

decide to examine the clothes exhaustively, garment by garment. I did so; and this is what I found.

'The jacket, trousers, socks and shoes were those of a shortish, rather stout man, as shown by measurements,

and the cap was his, since it was made of the same cloth as the jacket and trousers.

'The garments, socks and shoes of the short man were charged with Thanet beach sand, and contained no

'The waistcoat was saturated with dune sand and contained no beach sand, and a little dune sand was obtained

from the shirt and undergarments. That is to say, that the short man's clothes contained beach sand only,

'The short man's clothes were all unmarked; the tall man's clothes were either marked or conspicuously

'The garments of the short man which had been left were those that could not have been worn by a tall man

without attracting instant attention and the shoes could not have been put on at all; whereas the garments of

the short man which had disappeared the waistcoat, shirt and underclothes were those that could have

been worn by a tall man without attracting attention. The obvious suggestion was that the tall man had gone

'And now as to the personal characteristics of the short man. From the cap I obtained five hairs. They were all

blond, and two of them were of the peculiar, atrophic, "point of exclamation" type that grow at the margin of

a bald area. Therefore he was a fair man and partially bald. On the inside of the jacket, clinging to the rough

tweed, I found a single long, thin, fair moustache hair, which suggested a long, soft moustache. The edge of

the left cuff was thickly marked with oilpaintnot a single smear, but an accumulation such as a painter

picks up when he reaches with his brush hand across a loaded palette. The suggestion not very conclusive

was that he was an oilpainter and lefthanded. But there was strong confirmation. There was an artist's

pencil 3B and a stump of vine charcoal such as an oilpainter might carry. The silver coins in his

pocket were blackened with sulphide as they would be if a piece of artist's soft, vulcanized rubber has been in

the pocket with them. And there was the pocketknife. It contained a sharp steel pencilblade, a charcoal file

and an ivory paletteblade; and that paletteblade had been used by a lefthanded man.'

'By the bevels worn at the edges,' he replied. 'An old paletteknife used by a righthanded man shows a bevel

of wear on the under side of the lefthand edge and the upper side of the righthand edge; in the case of a left

handed man the wear shows on the under side of the right hand edge and the upper side of the lefthand edge.

This being an ivory blade, showed the wear very distinctly and proved conclusively that the user was

lefthanded; and as an ivory paletteknife is used only by fastidiously careful painters for such pigments as

the cadmiums, which might be discoloured by a steel blade, one was justified in assuing that he was

As I listened to Thorndyke's exposition I was profoundly impressed. His conclusions, which had sounded like

mere speculative guesses, were, I now realized, based upon an analysis of the evidence as careful and as

impartial as the summing up of a judge. And these conclusions he had drawn instantaneously from the

appearances of things that had been before my eyes all the time and from which I had learned nothing.

'What do you suppose is the meaning of the affair?' I asked presently. 'What was the motive of the murder?'

'We can only guess,' he replied. 'But, interpreting Capes' hints, I should suspect that our artist friend was a

blackmailer; that he had come over here to squeeze Roscoff perhaps not for the first time and that his

victim lured him out on the sandhills for a private talk and then took the only effective means of ridding

himself of his persecutor. That is my view of the case; but, of course, it is only surmise.'

Surmise as it was, however, it turned out to be literally correct. At the inquest Capes had to tell all that he

knew, which was uncommonly little, though no one was able to add to it. The murdered man, Joseph

Bertrand, had fastened on Roscoff and made a regular income by blackmailing him. That much Capes knew;

and he knew that the victim had been in prison and that that was the secret. But who Roscoff was and what

was his real name for Roscoff was apparently a nom de guerre he had no idea. So he could not help the

police. The murderer had got clear away and there was no hint as to where to look for him; and so far as I