It is hard to trace the marks, for another bare-footed man has walked over them since.

But see, in this place at the edge of the path, there's the mark of a palm, showing where the assassin's hand rested when he crouched on the ground.

He sprang upon the old man from the rear and they struggled together over the water--touch off a light, please--you see how the clay is all trampled over on both sides of the path, 'way out to the brink of the pool.

There is no second set of marks here to obliterate it; we are dealing with just two people--Colonel Gaylord and his assassin." Terry bent low and picked up from a crevice what looked like a piece of stone covered with clay.
"Here, you see, is the end of the Colonel's candle.

He probably dropped it when the man first sprang, and in the darkness he could not tell who or what had attacked him.