"I should like Muata to be here. It is a good point."
"What, sir—what?"
"A woman's skirt on the dew, lad. See, a man would pass through those two rocks there and leave no mark; but a woman, with the swing of her skirt, wipes a spread of dew off on either side. You can see the dark smudge in the glister of the dewdrops."
"I see," said Venning, starting forward towards two rocks with a passage between.
"Steady, lad. Follow me."
He went forward to the rocks, which were almost under the right wall, and inch by inch examined the stony ground.
"The direction should be there," he said, pointing ahead; "but there's nothing but a dead wall."
They ranged up and down in a fruitless attempt to pick up the lost spoor, and came back to the two rocks.
"Maybe she did not pass this way, sir."
"A sign is a sign, and a spoor a spoor. She passed between these rocks this morning."