Let us
go down."
"What is your theory, then, as to those footmarks?" I asked,
eagerly, when we had regained the lower room once more.
"My dear Watson, try a little analysis yourself," said he, with a
touch of impatience. "You know my methods. Apply them, and it
will be instructive to compare results."
"I cannot conceive anything which will cover the facts," I
answered.
"It will be clear enough to you soon," he said, in an off-hand
way. "I think that there is nothing else of importance here, but
I will look." He whipped out his lens and a tape measure, and
hurried about the room on his knees, measuring, comparing,
examining, with his long thin nose only a few inches from the
planks, and his beady eyes gleaming and deep-set like those of a
bird. So swift, silent, and furtive were his movements, like
those of a trained blood-hound picking out a scent, that I could
not but think what a terrible criminal he would have made had he
turned his energy and sagacity against the law, instead of
exerting them in its defense. As he hunted about, he kept
muttering to himself, and finally he broke out into a loud crow
of delight.
"We are certainly in luck," said he. "We ought to have very
little trouble now.
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