Then he turned to examine the kitchen more closely. A very careful
survey produced no results and he could find nothing that the
carpenters were not able to account for. There was no evidence of
any struggle. A sheep might as easily have been killed in the
chamber as a man; but he judged the blood to be human and Halfyard
had made one discovery of possible importance. The timbers of the
kitchen door were already set up and they had received a preliminary
coat of white paint. This was smeared at the height of a man's
shoulder with blood.
Brendon then examined the ground immediately outside the kitchen
door. It was rough and trampled with many feet of the workmen but
gave no special imprints or other indications of the least value.
For twenty yards he scrutinized every inch of the ground and
presently found indications of a motor bicycle. It had stood
here--ten yards from the bungalow--and the marks of the wheels and
the rest lowered to support it were clear enough in the peat. He
traced the impressions as the machine was wheeled away and observed
that at one soft place they had pressed very deeply into the earth.
The pattern of the tyre was familiar to him, a Dunlop. Half an hour
later one of the constables approached, saluted Mark, and made a
statement.
"They've pulled down the wall, sir, and found nothing there; but
Fulford, the mason, says that a sack is missing. It was a big sack,
in the corner of the shed out there, and the cement that it
contained is all poured out; but the sack has gone."
The detective visited the spot and turned over the pile of cement,
which revealed nothing. Then, having himself searched the workmen's
shed without discovering any clue, he strolled in the immediate
neighbourhood of the bungalow and examined the adjacent entrance to
the quarries. Not the least spark of light rewarded the search. He
came back presently out of the rain which had now begun to fall
steadily--but not before he had strolled as far as the fishing pools
and seen clear marks of naked, adult feet on the sandy brink.
Inspector Halfyard, who had remained in the bungalow, joined him
while he examined the other five chambers with close attention. In
the apartment destined for a sitting-room, which faced out upon the
great view to the southwest, Brendon found a cigar half smoked. It
had evidently been flung down alight and had smouldered for some
time, scorching the wooden floor before it went out. He found also
the end of a broken, brown boot lace with a brass tag. The lace had
evidently frayed away and probably had broken when being tied. But
he attached not the least importance to either fragment. Nothing
that he regarded as of value resulted from inspection of the
remaining rooms and Brendon presently decided that he would return
to Princetown. He showed Halfyard the footprints by the water and
had them protected with a tarpaulin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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