"But, sir '
Just a moment, if you please!" said the Inspector, moving along the bank. "Didn't happen to notice that below the pool the stream's a sight narrower, did you?"
"Well, I'm bound to say I don't get what you're after, sir!" protested the Sergeant. "Are you telling me the murderer got away through the Palings' grounds?"
"I'm not telling you anything as yet," replied the Inspector. "I'm not leaving a possibility out of my calculations, either."
The Sergeant looked at the stream running below him, and then glanced across at the opposite bank. "I suppose it would be easy enough to jump," he said. "I'd expect to find a footmark or so, though. Ground's bound to be soft, not to say boggy, down by the water."
"Take a look," said the Inspector briefly, and went off to explore the other way of escape.
The Sergeant rejoined him later by the police-car in the drive. There was mud on his boots, and he was looking rather sulky. "I didn't find any trace of footmarks," he said.
"Ah well!" replied the Inspector. "Maybe I'm wrong. Nothing more to be done here: we'll get back to the station."
As the police-car reached the gate, it had to wait to allow another car, on the road, to go past. The Sergeant remarked that it was Dr Chester's Rover. "Dashing off to Palings, I wouldn't wonder. By all accounts, Mrs. Carter sends for him to hold her hand every time her little finger aches. I don't envy him his job today."
"No," agreed the Inspector. "Nor me."