第16章

It was quite late when we reached her house, and Maitland had evidently been at work several hours.He looked sharply at Gwen when she entered, and seemed much pleased at her condition."You have obeyed my instructions, I see, and slept," he said, as he gave her his hand."Yes," she replied, "I was very tired, and the doctor's cordial quite overcame me;" and she cast an inquiring glance at the network of white string which Maitland had stretched across the carpet, dividing it into squares like an immense checker-board.In reply to her questioning look, he said: "French detectives are the most thorough in the world, and I am about to make use of their method of instituting an exhaustive search.Each one of the squares formed by these intersecting strings is numbered, and represents one square foot of carpet, the numbers running from one to two hundred and eighty-eight.Every inch of every one of these squares I shall examine under a microscope, and anything found which can be of any possible interest will be carefully preserved, and its exact location accurately marked upon this chart I have prepared, which, as you will see, has the same number of squares as the room, the area of each square being reduced from one square foot to one square inch.You will note that I have already marked the location of all doors, windows, and furniture.The weapon, if there be one, may be very minute, but if it be on the floor we may be assured the microscope will find it.The walls of the room, especially any shelving projections, and the furniture, I shall examine with equal thoroughness, though I have now some additional reasons for believing the weapon is not here.""Have you discovered anything new?" Gwen exclaimed, unable to control the excitement caused by this last remark."You must pardon me," Maitland rejoined, "if I ask you and the Doctor a question before replying." She nodded assent, and he continued: "I wish to know if youagree with me that we shall be more likely to arrive at a solution of the problem before us if we keep our own counsel than if we take the officers of the law, or, for that matter, anyone else, into our confidence.You undoubtedly noticed how carefully M.Godin kept his own counsel.Official methods, and the hasty generalisations which form a part thereof - to say nothing of the petty rivalries and the passion for notoriety - can do much to hinder our own work, and, I believe, nothing to help it.What say you?" "That we keep our work to ourselves," Gwen quickly rejoined, and I signified that I was of the same opinion."Then," Maitland continued, "I may say this in answer to your question.I have ascertained something which may bear upon the case in hand.You will remember that part of the gravel for redressing the croquet ground was dumped under the east window there.The painters, I learn, finished painting that side of the house yesterday forenoon before the gravel was removed and placed upon the ground, so that any footprints they may have made in it while about their work were obliterated.As you see, there was loose gravel left under the window to the depth of about two inches.I carefully examined this gravel this morning -=20 there were no footprints."I glanced at Gwen; her face had a set expression, and she was deathly pale."There were, however," he continued, "places where the gravel had been tamped down as if by the pressure of a rectangular board.I examined these minutely and, by careful measurement and close scrutiny of some peculiar markings suggestive of the grain of wood, satisfied myself that the depressions in the gravel were made by two, and not, as I had at first thought, by one small piece of wood.I found further that these two boards had always borne certain relative relations to each other, and that when one had been turned around the other had undergone a similar rotation.This last is, in my mind, a most important point, for, when coupled with the fact that between any two impressions of the same board the distance was sensibly constant, and was that of a short stride, there could be no reasonable doubt but these boards had been worn upon some person's feet.They could not have been thrown down merely to be stepped upon, for, in that case, they would not have borne fixed relations to each other - probably would not have been turned end for end at all -and certainly, both would not always have happened to get turned at the same time.I procured a board of the combined area of the two supposed to have made the impressions in the gravel, and weighted it down until, as nearly as I could measure, it impacted the soil to the same extent the others had.The weight was one hundred and thirty-five pounds, which is about right for a man five feet five inches tall.The position of the depressions in the gravel indicated a stride just about right for a man of that height.