For answer Mr. Parker proudly stepped to a row of wooden frames, carefully covered with matting. Stripping this away, with the air of a bishop unveiling a memorial, he disclosed a V-shaped line of footprints.

"These," said Parker, "belong to nobody—to nobody I've ever seen or heard of, I mean."

"Hurray!" said Peter.

"Then downwards from the steep hill's edge

They tracked the footmarks small

(only they're largish)."

"No such luck," said Parker. "It's more a case of:

They followed from the earthy bank

Those footsteps one by one,

Into the middle of the plank;