“Did you notice when you lit the lamp whether the lamp chimney was hot, warm, or quite cold?” asked Crewe.
“I cannot be certain. I think it was cold, or otherwise I should have noticed.”
“You lit the lamp before you heard the crash which startled you?”
“Yes. I lit it a few moments after I came into the room.”
“Any foot-marks outside the window?” said Inspector Payne, thrusting his head out of the open window. “Yes, there they are, quite plainly, in the ground. Made by heavy hobnailed boots. We must get plaster impressions of those, Gillett. They are an important clue.”
“I notice, inspector,” said Crewe, “that there are no marks of any kind on the wall-paper beneath the window. One would expect that a man getting in through this window would touch the wall-paper with one foot while he was getting through the window, and as it was a wet night there ought to be some mark on it.”
“Not necessarily,” replied the inspector. “He may have jumped to the floor without touching the wall-paper.”
“But there do not seem to be any impressions inside the house of these heavy nailed boots,” returned Crewe. “Those impressions beneath the window show that they were made when the ground was soft from the rain. Wet muddy boots with nails in the soles ought to leave some traces on the carpet of this room and on the staircase.”
“And what about those marks we saw on the staircase? They show that some one had been over the staircase with a wet rag.”
“To wipe out the traces of those boots?” asked Crewe.