“Well, it’s a puzzle,” said Brent. “Here’s what we actually do know. We know somebody lately passed down through here and left a footprint. We don’t know that the same person scratched that word—now wait a minute, Tommy, don’t interrupt. I’m talking about what we know. Let’s stand on the ground⸺”
“Or sit down,” I playfully suggested.
“All right,” said Brent. “We know that a footprint just like this was left in a room in the lodge the other night. And we know that these two footprints match another one that was left in the hearth a long time ago. So we know that some one who was here a long time ago, has been around here lately. Now that’s what we actually do know, because footprints can mean only one thing. If we want to find out who’s hanging around here, the best thing to do is to hunt for him, or at least watch for him. When we find him, if we do, we’ll find out who he is and why he’s here.”
“There’s one thing more that we know,” I said.
“We don’t know for an absolute certainty that there were four people here,” Brent said. “We have what they call presumptive evidence, that’s all.”
“That isn’t what I mean,” I said. “But we do know⸺”
“Cut out the dream,” said Tom.
“We do know,” I continued, “that the person who entered the lodge the other night had a key.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Brent said thoughtfully.
I paused before expressing a thought—something less than a thought—that was lurking in the back of my mind. “Do you suppose that this Northrop, whoever he is or was, might have been mixed up in some way with the murder of Mr. McClintick? Whoever returned here the other night had a key. It was some one familiar with the place. He was interested in that article about McClintick’s death—took it away with him. This man Northrop has been missing from his home. McClintick was strangled, and there’s the word scratched up on the rock.”