The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-06-15
PART THREE.

Thank Heaven! at last we are on
the dear boys track! 1t is his cap"
Where was it found"
in the van of the gypsies who
camped on the moor. They left on
Tuesday. Today the police traced
them down and examined their cara
van This was found"
How do they account for it?"
They shuffled and lied-said that
they found it on the moor on Tuesday
morning. They know where he is,
the rascals, Thank goodness, they
are all safe under lock and key. Either
the fear of the law or the Dukes purse
will certainly get out of them all that
they know"
so far, so good said Holmes,
when the doctor had at last left the
room. at at least bears out the
theory that is is on the side of the
Lower Gill Moor that we must hope
for results The police have really
done nothing locally, save the arrest
of these gypsies. Look here, Watson:
There is watercourse across the
moor. You see it is marked here in
the map. In some parts it widens into
a morass. This is particularly so in
the region between Holdernesse Hall
and the school 1t is vain to look
| elsewhere for tracks in this dry
weather, but at that point there is GER
! tainly chance of some record being
| left. | will call you early tomorrow
| morning, and you and | will try il
| we can throw some little light upon
| the mystery"
/ The day was just breaking when I
| woke to find the long thin form of
| Holmes by my bedside. He was fully
| dressed and apparently had already
| been out.
81 have done the lawn and the BIZ
cycle she'd" said he. 81 have also had
a ramble through the Ragged Shaw.
| Now, Watson, there is cocoa ready in
| the next room. | must beg you to
| hurry, for we have a great deal before
us"
His eyes shown and his cheek was
flushed with the exhileration of the
master workman who sees his work
lie ready before him. A very different
| Holmes, this active, alert man, from
| the retrospective and pallid dreamer
of Baker street. | felt, as l looked
uopn the supple figure, alive with ner
| vous energy, that it was indeed Z
strenuous day that awaited us.
And yet ii opened in the blackes'
disappointment. With high hopes WI
struck across the peaty, russell moor
intersected with a thousand sheei
paths, until We came to the broad
/ light-green belt which marked the mo
rass between us and Holdernesse. Ger
tainly if the lad had gone homewards
; he must have passed this, and h
{ could not pass it without leaving hi
| traces. But no sign of him or tn
German could be seen. With a dark
: ening face my friend strobe along tn
margin, eagerly obseryant of ever
! muddy stain upon the messy surface
, Sheep-marks were there in profusior
: and at one place, some miles dowr
COWS had left their tracks. Nothin
more
CHECK No. one" said Holmes. lool
ing gIoomily over the rolling expans
of the moor. There is another me-
rass down yonder, and a narrow nee
: between. Halloa, halloa, halloa
what have we here?" We had com
> on small black ribbon of pathwa,
In the middle of it, clearly marked o
I the sodden soil, was the track of
bicycle
:. "Hurrah." l cried we have it."
, But Holmes was shaking his heat
q and his face was puzzled and expet
# tant rather than joyous.
\ "A bicycle. certainly, but not the b
: cycle said he. Il am familiar wit
: torty-two different impressions left b
f tires. This. as you perceive. is
d Dunlop, with patch upon the quite
cover. Heidegger's tires were Pa
d mer's. leaving longitudinal stripe
- Aveling, the mathematical maste
Il was sure upon the point Therefor
3 il is not Heidegger's track"
d The boys, them"
/ Possibly, if we could prove /
If cycle to have been in his -possessio
., But this we have utterly failed to d
d This track, as you perceive. was mac
l, by a rider who was going from IL
e, direction of the school"
0, OR towards it?"'
ID No, no, my dear Watson. I'll
s, more deeply sunk impression is.
o. course the hind wheel, upon which Il
u weight rests. You perceive sever
ID places where it has passed across al
/, obhterated the more shallow mark
lie the front one. 1t was undoubted
y heading away from the school.
t may OF may not be connected with O
ST inquiry, but we will follow it bac
y ward before We go any farther"
N We did SO, and at the end of a fe
or hundred yards lost the tracks as '
IN emerged from the DOGGY portion
5 the moor. Following the path BAG
st. ward, we picked out another SD,
where a spring trickled across
In Here, once again, was the mark
Up the bicycle, though nearly obliterat
OF by the hoofs of cows. After tn;
10 there was no sign, but the path +
De right on into Ragged Shaw, the wo
y which backed on to the school. Fro
IL this wood the cycle must have emel
y ed. Holmes sat down on a bouId
AZ and rested his chin on his hands
No had smoked two cigarettes before
cd moved
" We'll, WELL said he, at last
Us is, of course. possible that a cunni
y. man might change the tire of his
:. cycle in oder to leave unfamili
~ tracks. A criminal who was canal
L of such thought is a man whom
~ should be proud to do business wi
80 We will leave this question undecid
= and bark back to our morass aga
'l1 for We have left a good deal IN
= plored.
bo We continued our systematic surv
N-E .