The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-11-09

ton of the room and the lawn might
possibly reveal some traces of this
mysterious individual. You know my
methods, Watson. There was not one
of them which | did not apply TO the
| inquiry. And it ended by my discov-
| ering traces, but very different ones
from those which | had expected.
| There had been a man in the room
and he had crossed the lawn coming
from the road. | was able to obtain
five very clear impressions of his
footmarks: one in the roadway itself,
at the point where he had climbed the
low wall, two on the lawn, and two
very faint ones upon the stained
boards near the window where he had
entered He had apparently rushed
across the lawn, for his toe-marks
were much deeper than his heels. But
it was not the man who surprised
me. 1t was his companion"
His companioni"
Holmes pulled a large sheet of It's
sue paper out of his pocket and care
fully unfolded it upon his knee.
What do you make of that?" he
asked
The paper was covered with the
tracings of the footmarks of some
small animal. 1t had five well-marked
pads, an indication of long nails, and
the whole print might be nearly as
large as a dessert spoon.
IT'S a dog" said l.
Did you ever hear of a dog run
ming up a curtain? | found distinct
| traces that this creature had done so.''
"A T1nnknV than ~
But it is not the print of a mon
key"
What can it be, them"
Neither dog nor cat nor monkey
nor any creature that we are familiar
with. | have tried to reconstruct it
from the measurements. Here are
! four prints where the beast has been
! standing motionless. You see that it
/ is no less than Is inches from fore
| foot to hind. Add to that the length
of neck and head and you get a crea-
! ture not much less than two feet long
. probably more if there is any tail.
But now observe this other measure
ment. The animal has been moving
and we have the length of its stride.
! In each case it is only about three
inches. You have an indication, you
see, of a long body with very short
! legs attached to it. 1t has not been
very considerable enough to leave any
| of its hairs behind it. But its gen
eral shape must be what l have in
dictated, and it can run up a curtain
| and it is carnivorous."
How do you deduce that?"
| Because 1t ran up the curtain A
, canary's cage was hanging in the win
dow, and its aim seems to have been
to get at the bird
Then, what was the beast?"
"Ah, if l could give it a name it
might go a long way toward solving
the case. On the whole, it was prob
| ably some creature of the weasel and
stoat tribe-and yet it is larger than
any of these that | have seen"
But what had it to do with the
crime?"
That also is still obscure. But we
have learned a good deal, you per-
celVe. We know that a man stood in
the road looking at the quarrel be-
tween the Barclays-the blinds were
up and the room lighted. We know
also that he ran across the lawn. en-
tered the room, accompanied bv a
strange animal, and that he either
struck the Colonel, or, as is equally
| possible. that the Colonel fell down
from sheer fright at the sight of him
and cut his head on the corner of
the fender. Finally, we have the curi-
Gus fact that the intruder carried
away the key with him when he left."