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"There was one other most important discovery which I made after I had divided the i as they were produced by the right or left board--which was that when the right foot was thrown forward the stride was froer than when the left foot led Directly under thethere was a deep impression in the sand I took a plaster cast of it, and here it is," he said, producing an excellent facsimile of a closed hand "There can be little doubt," he continued, "from the position occupied by the depression, of which this is a reverse copy, that it was either accidentallybefore the eastto avoid obstructing its light, suddenly lost his balance and regained his equilibriu out his hand, or--and this seems far more likely to ravel in order to steady its possessor while he performed some peculiar operation"

At this point I ventured to ask why he regarded the latter view as so much more tenable than the former "There are several reasons," he replied, "which render the view I prefer to take all but certain First, the impression was made by the left hand Second, it is the iers under by thrusting out a closed hand? Certainly not There is a certain aht, invariably associated with losing one's balance This senti it and spreading the fingers This he would instinctively have done, if falling Then there is the position of the iht testiation of which I have been obliged to await ently, but that is all I have been able to acco hireat deal The thoroughness, the minuteness of it all, overwhelms me; but, tell me, have your discoveries led you to any conclusion?" "No," he replied, "nothing definite yet; Ias there is anything further to be learned If I were to hazard a few idle guesses, I should say your father was murdered in some mysterious way--by a person about five feet five inches tall, weighing, say, one hundred and thirty-five pounds, and having a la, or, perhaps, one li soth of the strides I should guess also that this person's feet had some marked peculiarity, since such pains had been taken to conceal the footprints Then the cast of the hand here encourages speculation Fingers long, slim, and delicate, save at the nails, where, with the exception of the little finger, are to be found un the nails,--see, here are the hang-nails, --but, strange to say, the nail of the little finger has been spared, and suffered to grow to an unusual length I ask myself why this particular nail has been so favoured, and can only answer, 'because it has some peculiar use' It is clear this is not the hand of a ers too delicate, the texture of the skin, which is clearly visible, much too fine--in short, wouldn't it pass anywhere for a woman's hand? Say a woman who bit her nails If it were really such there would be a pair of feminine feet also to be concealed, and boards would do it very nicely--but this is all guesswork, and must not be allowed to affect any subsequent conclusions If you will excuse me a few minutes I will use the microscope a little on the sill of the eastbefore we are interrupted by our friends the officers, ill be sure to be here soon"