Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-04-13

was the only possible path which would
not tell the tale. Indeed, 1t seems quite
likely path through the wood for pas
senger to take. coming from the high
81 ound by the Shepperton road. Brett and
1 left you and traversed the water course
both up and down. We found a footprint
at the top left lately by man with
broken shoe.
Right down to the bottom of the water
course where it emerged from the wood
there was no sign on either side of this
man having left the gravel Where the
body was as you will remember, he would
simply have stepped off the gravel on to
the grass, which thought it useless to ex-
anime as l have explained) But at the
bottom, by the lane, the footprints appeared
again. This then was the direction in which
l was to search for a left-handed man
with broken-soled shoe, probably gypsy,
and most probably a foreign gipsy-be-
cause foreign gypsy would be most likely
. to hold still the belief in the Hand of Glory
l conjectured the man to be straggier
from a band Of gipsies-one who had got
behind the caravan and had made a short
cut across the wood after it, so at the end
of the lane 1 looked for a patrin. This Is
a sign that gipsies leave to guide stray
glerS following up. Sometimes it is heap
of dead leaves, sometimes a few stones
sometimes a mark on the ground but more
usually couple of twigs crossed, with the
longer twig pointing the road. Guided by
these patr-ns we came, in the end on the
gypsy camp just as 1t was settling down
for the night. We made ourselves agree
able (as Brett will probably describe to you
better than l cam. We left them. and after
they had got to sleep We came back and
watched for the gentleman who is now in
the lookup. He would, of course seize the
first opportunity of treating his CHASTITY
trophy in the prescribed way, and 1 guessed
he would choose midnight, for that Is the
time the superstition teaches that the
hands should be prepared. We made a few
small preparations, collared him, and now
you've got him. And 1 should think the
sooner you let the brothers Foster go the
better"
But why didn't you tell me all the con-
illusions you had arrived at, at the timer"
asked Mr.. Hardwick.
We'll. really" Hewitt replied, with
quiet smile. you were so positive, and
some of the traces l relied on were so small
that it would probably have meant a long
argument and loss of time But more
than that, confess-if l had told you blunt
ly that Sneathy's hand had been taken
away to make a medieval charm to enable
thief to pass through locked door and
steal plate calmly under the owners nose.
what would you have sa.d?"
We'll. we'll. perhaps l should have been
little skeptical. Appearances combined so
completely to point to the Fosters as MUIR
derers that any other explanation almost
would have seemed unlikely to me, and
that-well. no, / confess, l shouldn't have
believed ip 1t. But it is a startling thing
to find such superstitions alive nowadays"
Yes; perhaps it is. Yet We find survivals
chians. however, are horribly superstitious
still-the gipsies among them are of course
worse. Don't you remember the case re-
ported a few months ago in which a child
was drowned as sacrifice in Wallachia
in order to bring rain? And that was not
done by gipsies, either. Even in England,
as late as 1863 poor paralyZed French
man was killed by being 'swum' for witch
craft-that was in Essex. And less afro
cious cases of belief in wizardry occur
again and again even now"
Then Mr.. Hardwick and my uncle fell in
to a discussion as to how the gypsy in the
lookup could be legally punished Mr.
Hardwick thought 1t should be treated as a
theft of 2 portion of a dead body, but my
uncle fancied there was penalty for mu-
tilation of dead body per se though he
could not point to the statute. AS it hap
pened, however, they were saved the trou-
BILE of arriving at decision, for in the
morning he was discovered to have es-
capped. He had been left, of course, with
free hands. and had occupied the night in
wrenching out the bars at the top of the
back wall of the little prison shed Ut had
stood on the green for a hundred and fifty
years. and climbed out. He was not found
again, and a month or two later the Foster
family left the district entirely.