To be so near my goal, and yet not be able to reach it, was provoking beyond endurance.

But my lucky star was still in the ascendant, and good fortune was to favour me after all.
As I have already observed, when the crime had become known, the permanent detective force had been most assiduous in the attentions they had given it.

The only piece of valuable evidence, however, that they had been able to accumulate, was a footprint on a flower-bed near the centre of the yard, and another in the hall of the house itself.

Now it was definitely settled, by a careful comparison of these imprints, that the murderer, whoever he might have been, wore his boots down considerably on the left heel, and on the inside.

Now, as every bootmaker will tell you, while the outer is often affected in this way, the inner side seldom is.