“You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when he felt

that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not explain the true state

of affairs without betraying one who certainly deserved little enough

consideration at his hands. He took the more chivalrous view, however, and

preserved her secret.”


“And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the

coronet,” cried Mr. Holder. “Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have

been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! The dear fellow

wanted to see if the missing piece were at the scene of the struggle. How

cruelly I have misjudged him!”


“When I arrived at the house,” continued Holmes, “I at once

went very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in the snow

which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since the evening before, and

also that there had been a strong frost to preserve impressions. I passed along

the tradesmen’s path, but found it all trampled down and

indistinguishable. Just beyond it, however, at the far side of the kitchen

door, a woman had stood and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one

side showed that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been

disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was shown by the

deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had waited a little, and then

had gone away. I thought at the time that this might be the maid and her

sweetheart, of whom you had already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so.

I passed round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks,

which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable lane a very long

and complex story was written in the snow in front of me.


“There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second double

line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked feet. I was at once