“They were narrow tires, such as are used on the smaller, lighter cars,” said Sergeant Johnson, a slight tinge of gravity touching the curtness of his unemotional young voice. “Two of the tires—the ones on the front right and rear left wheels had the tread so worn off that it would be risky to hazard a guess as to their manufacture. The ones on the front left and rear right were brand new, and the impressions in both cases were as clear cut as though you’d carved them. The impressions of B 2 were even deeper than B 1, showing that the car must have stood much longer at one time than at another. We experimented with that, too, but the results weren’t definite enough to report on positively.”
“What makes you so clear as to which were B 2?”
“At one spot B 2 was superimposed on B 1 very distinctly.”
“What were the makes of the rear right and left front tires, sergeant?”
“The rear right was a new Ajax tire; the front left was a practically new Silvertown cord.”
“Did they correspond with any of the cars mentioned so far in this case?”
“They corresponded exactly with the tires on Mr. Stephen Bellamy’s car when we inspected it on the afternoon of June twentieth.”
“No possibility of error?”
“Not a chance,” said Sergeant Johnson, succinctly and gravely.
“Exactly. Had the car been washed at the time you inspected it, Sergeant?”