Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-15
G III r I S T A B e LIS
G r 7 S 7 A L
Continued from page s

must give up my theory of the tutor, of
course, and anyway hadn't had scrap
of evidence against him except his fitness
for the position. But, given the surety
of burglars from outside, | knew just
what to do: look for foot prints, to be sure
l glanced around for the light snow
that always falls in detective stories
just before the crime is committed, and
is testified, usually by the village folk,
to have stopped just at the crucial
moment. But there wasn't a sign of
snow or rain or even dew. The veranda
showed no footprints, nor could the
smooth lawn or tagged walks be expected
to. | leaned against the veranda railing
in despair, wondering what Sherlock
Holmes would do in a provoking absence
of footprints, when l saw in the flower
bed beneath several well-defned marks of
mans shoes.
There you are, Fred!" l cried, and
rushed excitedly down the steps.
They all followed, and, sure enough,
in the soft earth of the wide hower-bed
that surrounded the veranda were strong,
clear prints of large masculine footgear.
That clears us, girls" cried Janet
gleefully, as she measured her daintily
| shod foot against the depressions.
Don't touch them!" | cried. "Ca1l
Mr.. Prout the detective
Mr. Prout appeared, and politely hiding
his chagrin at not having discovered these
marks before did, proceeded to examine
| them closely.
You see" he said in a pompous and
dictatorial way, there are four prints
pointing toward the house, and four
pointing toward the street. Those point
ing to the street are superimposed upon
those leading to the house, hence we
deduce that they were made by burglar
who crossed the flower bed, climbed the
veranda, stepped over the rail and entered
at the window. He then returned the
same way, leaving these last footprints
above the Others
As all this was SO palpably evident
from the facts of the case, | was not i'm
pressed much by the subt1ety of his de-
auctions and asked him what he gathered
from the shape of the prints.
He looked at the wel1-defned prints
intently. They are of medium size,
he announced at last, land l should say
llieiG tliCy WCiO ny a iietli Vi ctsCldSC
height and weight, who had normal
sized foot"
Well, if that wasn't Disappointing
thought of course that he would tell the
mans occupation and social status, even
if he didn't say that he was 1eft-handed
or that he suffered, which is the kind of
thing detectives n fiction always discover
So lost all interest in that Prout man,
and began to do little deducing on my
own account. Although l felt sure, as
we all did, that the thief was burglar
from outside, yet couldn't measure the
shoes of an absent and unidentified
burglar, and somehow l felt an uncon-
trollable impulse to measure shoes.
Without consulting anybody, found
tape-measure and carefully measured the
footprints. Then | went through the
house and measured all the mems shoes
l could find, from the stable-boy's up
to Fred's.
It's an astonishing fact, but nearly ali of
them fitted the measurements of the prints
on the flower bed. Mems feet are so
nearly universal in size, or rather their
shoes are and foo what with