"What prints?" I asked as we all pressed forward.
At the moment the calcium light with a final flare, died out, and we were left again in the flickering candle light which seemed darkness to us now.
"Quick, touch off another calcium!" said Terry, with suppressed impatience. He laid a hand on my shoulder and my arm ached from the tightness of his grip. "There," he said pointing with his finger as the light flared up again. "What do you make of those?"
I bent over and plainly traced the prints of bare feet, going and coming and over-lapping one another, just as an animal would make in pacing a cage. I shivered slightly. It was a terribly uncanny sight.
"Well?" said Terry sharply. The place was beginning to get on his nerves too.
"Terry," I said uneasily, "I never saw them before. I thought I examined everything thoroughly, but I was so excited I suppose—"
"What did you make of them?" he interrupted, whirling about on Mattison who was looking over our shoulders.
"I—I didn't see them," Mattison stammered.
"For heaven's sake, men," said Terry impatiently. "Do you mean they weren't there or you didn't notice them?"
The sheriff and I looked at each other blankly, and neither answered.