Now look at the photographs of the footprints.
See in No. 1, found outside the window, the toes are pressed down deeply
into the mud. The owner of the feet was standing on tip-toe to get a
better view. But in No. 2, which was found near where the son thought
he saw a person running, the toes are spread out quite wide. That is the
footprint of some one who was in a great hurry. Now it is not probable
that a boy had anything to do with the testator's death. Why, then, was
the boy running so hard? I will tell you: because he was frightened at
something he had seen through the blind. So frightened was he, that he
will not come forward, or answer the advertisements and inquiries. Find
a boy in that town who has a joint missing on the third toe of the right
foot, and you will soon know all about it."
"By Jove," said Geoffrey, "what a criminal lawyer you would make! I
believe that you have got it. But how are we to find this boy with the
missing toe-joint? Every possible inquiry has already been made and
failed. Nobody has seen such a boy, whose deficiency would probably be
known by his parents, or schoolfellows.
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