there was no one there."

"If I didn't know you were a good man, Walters, I should put a
black mark against you for this. If it were the devil himself a
constable on duty should never thank God that he could not lay
his hands upon him. I suppose the whole thing is not a vision
and a touch of nerves?"

"That, at least, is very easily settled," said Holmes, lighting
his little pocket lantern. "Yes," he reported, after a short
examination of the grass bed, "a number twelve shoe, I should
say. If he was all on the same scale as his foot he must
certainly have been a giant."

"What became of him?"

"He seems to have broken through the shrubbery and made for the
road."

"Well," said the inspector with a grave and thoughtful face,
"whoever he may have been, and whatever he may have wanted, he's
gone for the present, and we have more immediate things to attend
to. Now, Mr. Holmes, with your permission, I will show you round
the house."

The various bedrooms and sitting-rooms had yielded nothing to a
careful search. Apparently the tenants had brought little or
nothing with them, and all the furniture down to the smallest
details had been taken over with the house. A good deal of
clothing with the stamp of Marx and Co., High Holborn, had been