Sherlock Holmes In Montague Street Volume 2 by David Marcum Page B

well, Mr. Hardwick,” Holmes replied; “you’ll do what you consider your duty, of course, and quite properly, though I would recommend you to take another glance at those three trails in the path. I shall take a look in this direction.” And he turned up by the side of the streamlet, keeping on the gravel at its side.
    I followed. We climbed the rising ground, and presently, among the trees, came to the place where the little rill emerged from the broken ground in the highest part of the wood. Here the clean ground ceased, and there was a large patch of wet clayey earth. Several marks left by the feet of cattle were there, and one or two human footmarks. Two of these (a pair), the newest and the most distinct, Holmes studied carefully, and measured each direction.
    â€œNotice these marks,” he said. “They may be of importance or they may not - that we shall see. Fortunately they are very distinctive - the right boot is a badly worn one, and a small tag of leather, where the soul is damaged, is doubled over and trodden into the soft earth. Nothing could be luckier. Clearly they are the most recent footsteps in this direction - from the main road, which lies right ahead, through the rest of the wood.”
    â€œThen you think somebody else has been on the scene of the tragedy, beside the victim and the brothers?” I said.
    â€œYes, I do. But hark; there is a vehicle in the road. Can you see between the trees? Yes, it is the police cart. We shall be able to report its arrival to Mr. Hardwick as we go down.”
    We turned and walked rapidly down the incline to where we had come from. Mr. Hardwick and his man were still there, and another rustic had arrived to gape. We told Mr. Hardwick that he might expect the police presently, and proceeded along the gravel skirting the stream, toward the lower part of the wood.
    Here Holmes proceeded very cautiously, keeping a sharp look-out on either side for footprints on the neighboring soft ground. There were none, however, for the gravel margin of the stream made a sort of footpath of itself, and the trees and undergrowth were close and thick on each side. At the bottom we emerged from the wood on a small piece of open ground skirting a lane, and here, just by the side of the lane, where the stream fell into a trench, Holmes suddenly pounced on another footmark. He was unusually excited.
    â€œSee,” he said, “here it is - the right foot with its broken leather, and the corresponding left foot on the damp edge of the lane itself. He - the man with the broken shoe - has walked on the hard gravel all the way down from the source of the stream, and his is the only trail unaccounted for near the body. Come, Brett, we’ve an adventure on foot. Do you care to let your uncle’s dinner go by the board, and follow?”
    â€œCan’t we go back and tell him?”
    â€œNo - there’s no time to lose; we must follow up this man - or at least I must. You go or stay, of course, as you think best.”
    I hesitated a moment, picturing to myself the excellent Colonel as he would appear after waiting dinner an hour or two for us, but decided to go. “At any rate,” I said, “if the way lies along the roads we shall probably meet somebody going in the direction of Ratherby who will take a message. But what is your theory? I don’t understand at all. I must say everything Hardwick said seemed to me to be beyond question. There were the tracks to prove that the three had walked together to the spot, and that the brothers had gone on alone; and every other circumstance pointed the same way. Then, what possible motive could anybody else about here have for such a crime? Unless, indeed, it were one of the people defrauded by Sneathy’s late companies.”
    â€œThe motive,” said Holmes, “is, I fancy, a most extraordinary - indeed, a weird one. A thing as of centuries ago. Ask me no questions - I think you will be