“By Jove, this opens a new field for conjecture,” said he, calling Patsy’s attention to them. “We have heard nothing about male spies in this locality. Only about the Crandall woman.” “Gee! that’s right, chief, but these are men’s tracks,” said Patsy, eagerly inspecting them. “Undoubtedly,” said Nick. “There evidently were two of them. Note the two different sizes, also that the depth of the soles is greater than the heels, and that parts of each overlap themselves, all showing plainly enough that the two men were crouching here and evidently watching something, or some one, through the picket fence.” “Sure thing. There are no prints in any other part of the flower bed.” “There certainly were two men, Patsy, one of medium build, the other quite a large man, judging from the size of their shoes,” Nick went on. “Through this shrubbery in the rectory yard they could see only the rear and one side of the house, including the end of the veranda and the conservatory.” “I get you, chief,” said Patsy. “Whomever they were watching must have been in that locality.” “There is nothing specially distinctive in these imprints, however, aside from suggesting the size of the men,” Nick added. “We’ll keep them in mind, nevertheless, while looking farther.” “Looking where, chief?” “In the rectory grounds,” said Nick. “If watching a person in the house, they would have selected a nearer point. It’s a safe wager, then, that they were watching some one--outside of the rectory.” “Gee! that’s right, too,” said Patsy, quick to see the point. “Let’s have a look.” “We’ll go out and enter through the gate. We may slip a cog if we try to scale these iron pickets.” “I believe you. They’re as sharp as a trooper’s lance.” Nick led the way to the street and to the gate entering the rectory grounds. The housekeeper had not put in an appearance, and they proceeded around the veranda to that side of the dwelling visible from the adjoining estate. Carefully inspecting the ground in the meantime, Nick soon discovered evidence confirming his suspicions. He found as before, in fact, more evidence that he was expecting. In some yielding earth between one side of the conservatory and the bend of the library window, a space of about eight feet, were numerous footprints obviously caused by the shoes of two women who had recently been there. The impressions were very unlike each other. One was that of a slender shoe with a small, long heel that had sunk deep into the soft soil. The other was larger and broader, with spreading soles and wide heels, generally known as common-sense heels. Crouching to carefully inspect all of these impressions, Nick made other discoveries, from which he drew several important deductions. “By Jove, this is still more curious,” he remarked, after a moment. “What’s that, chief?” questioned Patsy, bending nearer.