"
"Undoubtedly that would be better," the chairman agreed. "Pray proceed."
"There was another remarkable peculiarity about these footprints,"
Thorndyke continued, "and that was their distance apart--the length of
the stride, in fact. I measured the steps carefully from heel to heel,
and found them only nineteen and a half inches. But a man of Hearn's
height would have an ordinary stride of about thirty-six inches--more if
he was walking fast. Walking with a stride of nineteen and a half inches
he would look as if his legs were tied together.
"I next proceeded to the Bay, and took two moulds from the footprints
of the man with the nailed shoes, a right and a left. Here is a cast
from the mould, and it shows very clearly that the man was walking
backwards."
"How does it show that?" asked the magistrate.
"There are several distinctive points. For instance, the absence of the
usual 'kick off' at the toe, the slight drag behind the heel, showing
the direction in which the foot was lifted, and the undisturbed
impression of the sole."
"You have spoken of moulds and casts. What is the difference between
them?"
"A mould is a direct, and therefore reversed, impression.
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