The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-25
The Mystery of TheDoWns


they had made while walking forward, and then examined the backward ones.
 "Find any difference in them?" asked Crewe.
 Marsland stood up and strengthened his back with the self-conscious look of an Englishman who feels he has been made to do something ridiculous.
 q cannot say that do. They look very much alike to me-"
 ''You are not very observart,' said Crewe, with smile. "Let me explain the difference. In o.dinary walking man puts down the heel of his boot first, and then, as he brings his body forward, he completes the impression of his foot He lifts his heel first and springs off the ball of his foot for the next step. But in walk ing backward man puts down the ball of his foot first and makes but a very faint impression with his heel If he walks very carefully because he is not sure of the ground or because it is dark he may take four or five steps without bringing his heel to the ground. If you compare the impress sions your boots have made in the sand when we were walking forward with the others made by walking backward, you will find that few of the latter marks give the complete impression of your boot"
 "Yes, see now," said Marsland. ''The difference is quite distinct"
 "When l examined the window this aft ernoon, and came to the conclusion that it had been forced from the inside, l felt certain that a murderer who had adopted such a trick in order to mislead the po- lice would carry it out in every detail,' said Crewe. "After forcing the window he would get out of it in order to leave footprints underneath the window in the earth outside, and, of course, he would walk backward from the window, in order to convey the impression that he had walked up to the window through the garden, forced it and then got into the house. As l expected, l found the footsteps leading away from the window were deep in the toe, with hardly any heel marks. It was as plain as daylight that the man who had made them had walked backward from the window. But even if I had not been quite sure of this from the footprints them selves, there was additional confirmation. The backward footsteps led straight to 9 fruit tree about 20 feet from the window, and examining that tree l found small branch--a twig-had been broken and bent just where the footsteps were lost in the gravel walk. The man who got out of the window had bumped into the tree. Walking backward he could neither see nor feel where he was going"
 'I see, I see." Marsland stood silent for a moment evidently pondering deeply over Crewe's chain of deductions. It seems to me-" he said at length, "that this man, clever as he was, owed great deal to accident"
 'In what respect?"
 Because the window where you found the footprints is the only window on the side of the house which has a bare stretch of earth underneath All the others have grass growing right up to the windows. I noticed that when saw the footprints. If he had got out of any of them he would have left no footprints
 "On the contrary, he knew that and chose that window because he wanted to leave us some footprints. The fact that he se- lected in the dark the only window that would serve his purpose shows that he is man who knows the place well. He is clever and resourceful, but that is no req son why we should not succeed in unmask- ing him."
 Doesn't the fact that he wore hob nailed boots indicate that he is laboring man?"
 My dear, Marsland, may he ,ot have worn boots of that kind for the same req son that he walked backward-to mislead us all?"