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

appear to have carried out what might have seemed mere idle threats in a diabolically savage way. Of course they may have strangled him first and hanged him after, by way of carrying out their threat and venting their spite on the mutilated body. But that they did it is plain enough for me. I’ve spent an hour or two over it, and feel I am certainly more than justified in ordering their apprehension. Indeed, they were with him at the time, as I have found by their tracks on the footpath through the wood.”
    The Colonel turned to Sherlock Holmes. “Mr. Hardwick, you must know,” he said, “is by way of being an amateur in your particular line - and a very good amateur, too, I should say, judging by a case or two I have known in this county.”
    Holmes bowed, and laughingly expressed a fear lest Mr. Hardwick should come to London and supplant him altogether. “This seems a curious case,” he added. “If you don’t mind, I think I should like to take a glance at the tracks and whatever other traces there may be, just by way of keeping my hand in.”
    â€œCertainly,” Mr. Hardwick replied, brightening. “I should of all things like to have Mr. Holmes’s opinions on the observations I have made - just for my own gratification. As to his opinion - there can be no room for doubt; the thing is plain.”
    With many promises not to be late for dinner, we left my uncle and walked with Mr. Hardwick in the direction of Ratherby Wood. It was an unfrequented part, he told us, and by particular care he had managed, he hoped, to prevent the rumor spreading to the village yet, so that we might hope to find the trails not yet overlaid. It was a man of his own, he said, who, making a short cut through the wood, had come upon the body hanging, and had run immediately to inform him. With this man he had gone back, cut down the body, and made his observations. He had followed the trail backward to Ranworth, and there had found the new coachman, who had once been in his own service. From him he had learned the doings of the brothers Foster as they left the place, and from him he had ascertained that they had not then returned. Then, leaving his man by the body, he had come straight to my uncle’s.
    Presently we came on the footpath leading from Ranworth across the field to Ratherby Wood. It was a mere trail of bare earth worn by successive feet amid the grass. It was damp, and we all stooped and examined the footmarks that were to be seen on it. They all pointed one way - towards the wood in the distance.
    â€œFortunately it’s not a greatly frequented path,” Mr. Hardwick said. “You see, there are the marks of three pairs of feet only, and as first Sneathy and then both of the brothers came this way, these footmarks must be theirs. Which are Sneathy’s is plain - they are these large flat ones. If you notice, they are all distinctly visible in the centre of the track, showing plainly that they belong to the man who walked alone, which was Sneathy. Of the others, the marks of the outside feet - the left on the left side and the right on the right - are often not visible. Clearly they belong to two men walking side by side, and more often than not treading, with their outer feet, on the grass at the side. And where these happen to drop on the same spot as the marks in the middle they cover them. Plainly they are the footmarks of Henry and Robert Foster, made as they followed Sneathy. Don’t you agree with me Mr. Holmes?”
    â€œOh yes, that’s very plain. You have a better pair of eyes than most people, Mr. Hardwick, and a good idea of using them, too. We will go into the wood now. As a matter of fact I can pretty clearly distinguish most of the other footmarks - those on the grass; but that’s a matter of much training.”
    We followed the footpath, keeping on the grass at its side, in case it should be desirable to refer again to the foot-tracks.