"See," 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?" "Can't we go back and tell him?" "No--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." "The motive," said Hewitt, "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 a little surprised before very long. But come, we must move." And we mended our pace along the lane. The lane, by the bye, was hard and firm, with scarcely a spot where a track might be left, except in places at the sides; and at these places Hewitt never gave a glance. At the end the lane turned into a by-road, and at the turning Hewitt stopped and scrutinised the ground closely. There was nothing like a recognisable footmark to be seen; but almost immediately Hewitt turned off to the right, and we continued our brisk march without a glance at the road. "How did you judge which way to turn then?" I asked. "Didn't you see?" replied Hewitt; "I'll show you at the next turning." Half a mile farther on the road forked, and here Hewitt stooped and pointed silently to a couple of small twigs, placed crosswise, with the longer twig of the two pointing down the branch of the road to the left. We took the branch to the left, and went on. "Our man's making a mistake," Hewitt observed. "He leaves his friends' messages lying about for his enemies to read."