His parents, if he has any, would perhaps not speak of his disfigurement, and no one else might know of it, especially if he were a new-comer in the neighbourhood.

It is quite possible that he took off his boots in order to creep up to the window.

And now I will tell you how I should set to work to find him.

I should have every bathing-place in the river running through the town--there is a river--carefully watched by detectives.

In this weather" (the autumn was an unusually warm one) "boys of that class often paddle and sometimes bathe.