Through Russian Snows (12 page)

"That is all quite possible," the doctor agreed; "but in that case
Julian's not coming home is all the more extraordinary. If he met
Faulkner between two and three o'clock, what can he have been doing
since?"

This was a question Frank could not answer.

"I can't tell, sir," he said after a long pause; "I really can't
imagine. Still, nothing in the world would make me believe that Julian
did what he is charged with."

Several times Frank went outside the door, but the constable was still
there. At last, after sitting and looking at the fire for some time he
put on his cap and went to the residence of the chief constable.

"Excuse me, Mr. Henderson, but I have been thinking it over ever since
you left. Whoever did this murder did not probably return to the road,
but struck off somewhere across the fields. There was snow enough in the
middle of the day to cover the ground; it stopped falling at two
o'clock, and has not snowed since. Might I suggest that in the morning a
search should be made round the edge of the wood. If there are
footprints found it might be of great importance."

"You are quite right, Mr. Wyatt, and I had already determined to go
myself, with a couple of constables, at daylight."

"May I go with you, sir?"

"If you please. But you must remember that the evidence of footprints
which we may find may be unfavourable to your brother."

"I have not the slightest fear of that," Frank said confidently.

"Very well, then, Mr. Wyatt. The two constables will be here at
half-past seven, and I shall be ready to start with them at once. Should
you by any chance be late, you will, no doubt, be able to overtake us
before we get there."

The next morning Frank was at the office half an hour before the
appointed time. Fortunately no snow had fallen in the night. The chief
constable looked grave and anxious when the search began; Frank was
excited rather than anxious. He had no fear whatever as to the result of
the investigation; it would disclose nothing, he felt certain, to
Julian's disadvantage. The continued absence of the latter was
unaccountable to him, but he felt absolutely certain that it would be
explained satisfactorily on his return.

The moment they got across the hedge into the fields skirting the wood
the chief constable exclaimed:

"Stay, men; here are footprints by the edge of the trees! Do not come
out until I have carefully examined them. Do you not think," he went on,
turning to Frank, "that it would be much better that you should not go
further with me, for you see I might have to call you as a witness?"

"Not at all, Mr. Henderson; whatever we find, I shall have no objection
to being a witness, for I am certain that we shall find nothing that
will tend to incriminate my brother. I see what you are thinking
of—that these footprints were Julian's. That is my own idea too. At any
rate, they are the marks of a well-made boot of large size, without
heavy nails."

The constable nodded. "There are two sets," he said, "one going each
way; and by the distance they are apart, and the fact that the heel is
not as deeply marked as the rest of the print, whoever made them was
running."

"Certainly," Frank agreed; "he ran up to the hedge and then turned. Why
should he have done that?"

"Probably because he saw some vehicle or some persons walking along the
road, and did not wish to be seen."

"Possibly so, Mr. Henderson; but in that case, why did he not keep among
the trees both coming and going, instead of exposing himself, as he must
have done running here; for the hedge is thin, and any one walking
along, much less driving, could have seen him."

Mr. Henderson looked at Frank with a closer scrutiny than he had before
given him.

"You are an acute observer, Mr. Wyatt. The point is an important one. A
man wishing to avoid observation would certainly have kept among the
trees. Now, let us follow these footprints along; we may learn something
further."

Presently they came to the point where Julian had come out from the
wood.

"You see he was in the wood, Mr. Wyatt," the constable said.

"I quite see that," Frank said. "If these are the marks of Julian's
boots—and I think they are—we have now found out that he came out of
the wood at this point, ran for some purpose or other, and without an
attempt at concealment, as far as the hedge; then turned and ran back
again, past the point where he had left the wood. Now let us see what he
did afterwards—it may give us a clue to the whole matter."

Fifty yards further they came on the spot where Julian had turned off on
the poacher's track.

"There it is, Mr. Henderson!" Frank exclaimed triumphantly. "Another man
came out of the wood here—a man with roughly-made boots with hob-nails.
That man came out first; that is quite evident. The tracks are all in a
line, and Julian's are in many places on the top of the other's. They
were both running fast. But if you look you will see that Julian's
strides are the longest, and, therefore, he was probably running the
fastest."

"It is as you say, Mr. Wyatt. The lighter footprints obliterate those of
the heavier boots in several places. What can be the meaning of this,
and what can the second man have been doing in the wood?"

"The whole thing is perfectly plain to me," Frank said excitedly.
"Julian was in the road, he heard the report of the gun close by in the
wood, and perhaps heard a cry; he jumped over the hedge and made for the
spot, and possibly, as Mr. Faulkner said, ran into the drive and stooped
over him; then he started in pursuit of the murderer, of whom he may
possibly have obtained a sight. There was not enough snow under the
trees for him to follow the footprints, he therefore ran to the edge of
the wood, and then to the road, in search of the man's track. Then he
turned and ran back again till he came upon them leaving the wood, and
then set off in pursuit."

"By Jove! Mr. Wyatt," the officer said, "I do think that your
explanation is the right one. Give me your hand, lad; I had no more
doubt five minutes ago that your brother had, in a fit of passion, shot
Mr. Faulkner than I have that I am standing here now. But I declare I
think now that he acted as you say. How you have struck upon it beats me
altogether."

"I have been thinking of nothing else all the night, Mr. Henderson. I
put myself in Julian's position, and it seemed to me that, hearing a gun
fired so close at hand, even if he did not hear a cry, Julian knowing
how often the man had been threatened, might at once have run to the
spot, and might have behaved just as Faulkner says he did. All that
seemed to me simple enough; Julian's absence was the only difficulty,
and the only way I could possibly account for it, was that he had
followed the murderer."

"It was very imprudent," Mr. Henderson said gravely.

"Very; but it was just the sort of thing Julian would have done."

"But, however far he went, he ought to be back before this."

"That is what I am anxious about, Mr. Henderson. Of course he ought to
be back. I am terribly afraid that something has happened to him. This
man, whoever he was, must have been a desperate character, and having
taken one life from revenge, he would not hesitate to take another to
secure his own safety. He had a great advantage over Julian, for, as we
know, his gun carried bullets, while Julian had nothing but small shot.
Which way shall we go next, Mr. Henderson—shall we follow the track or
go into the wood?"

"We will go into the wood; that will take us a comparatively short time,
and there is no saying how far the other may lead us. But, before we do
so, I will call up my two men, take them over the ground, and show them
the discoveries we have made. It is as well to have as many witnesses as
possible."

The two constables were called up and taken along the line of track, and
the chief constable pointed out to them that the man with well-made
boots was evidently running after the other. Then they entered the wood.
Carefully searching, they found here and there prints of both the boots.
They went out into the drive, and, starting from the spot where Mr.
Faulkner had been found, made for a large tree some thirty yards to the
left.

"Just as I thought," Mr. Henderson said. "Someone has been standing
here, and, I should think, for some little time. You can see that the
ground is kicked up a bit, and, though it was too hard to show the marks
of the boots plainly, there are many scratches and grooves, such as
would be made by hob-nails. Now, lads, search about closely; if we can
find the wad it will be a material point."

After five minutes' search one of the men picked up a piece of
half-burned paper. Frank uttered an exclamation of satisfaction as he
held it up.

"Julian always used wads. This never came from his gun. Now let us go
back to the tree, Mr. Henderson, and see which way the man went after
firing the shot."

After careful search they found the heavy footprints at several spots
where the snow lay, and near them also found traces of the lighter
boots. The trees then grew thicker, but following the line indicated by
the footprints, they came to the spot where he had left the wood.

"You see, Mr. Henderson," Frank said, "Julian lost the footprints just
where we did, and bore a little more to the left, striking the edge of
the wood between where the man had left it and the road. Now, sir, we
have only to find the spot where Julian first left the road, and try to
trace his footsteps from there to the spot where Mr. Faulkner was lying.
We know that the shot was fired from behind that tree—and if my
brother's footsteps miss this spot altogether, I think the case will be
absolutely proved."

They went back into the road, and found where Julian had crossed the
untrodden snow between it and the hedge, and had pushed his way through
the latter. It was only here and there that footprints could be found;
but, fortunately, some ten yards to the right of the tree there was an
open space, and across this he had evidently run.

"You have proved your case, Mr. Wyatt," the chief constable said,
shaking Frank cordially by the hand. "I am indeed glad. Whoever the man
was who shot Mr. Faulkner, it was certainly not your brother. Now let us
start at once on the tracks."

Frank's face became more serious than it had been during the previous
search, as soon as they took up the double track across the fields.
Before, he had felt absolutely confident that whatever they might find
it could only tend to clear Julian from this terrible accusation; now,
upon the contrary, he feared that any discovery they might make would
confirm his suspicions that evil had befallen him. Scarcely a word was
spoken as they passed along the fields.

"The man with the hob-nailed boots is taking to the hills," the chief
constable remarked.

"I am afraid so, Mr. Henderson; and as they are bare of snow there will
be no chance of our following him."

When they came to the point where the snow ended they stopped.

"There is an end of our search, Mr. Wyatt. We must return to the town.
The magistrates will meet at eleven o'clock, and I and the constables
must be there. But I will send off two men directly we get back, to go
along the cliffs and question all the men who were on duty yesterday
afternoon as to whether they saw two men with guns crossing the hills,
one being probably some distance behind the other. I think, perhaps, you
had better come to the court. I don't say that it will be absolutely
necessary, but I think it would be better that you should do so; and you
see it would be useless for you to be hunting over those hills alone. As
soon as the court is over I will take four men and will myself start to
search for him. There is no saying whether we may not find some sign or
other. I shall be glad if you will go with me; you have shown yourself a
born detective this morning, for had you been trained to it all your
life you could not have followed the scent up more unerringly."

"I will certainly go with you, Mr. Henderson, and I will be at the
court-house. I would start at once for the hills, but I have had nothing
to eat this morning, and, what is much more important, I want to ease
my aunt's mind. Of course, she was as certain as I was that Julian had
nothing whatever to do with this, but naturally it will be an immense
relief to her to know that the suspicion of so dreadful a crime no
longer rests on him."

When Frank returned home he found that Mrs. Troutbeck was so prostrated
with the shock that she was still in bed, where the doctor had ordered
her to remain. As soon, however, as she heard that Frank was back, she
sent down for him to come up. Her delight was extreme when he told her
of the discoveries he had made, and that the constables had no doubt the
warrant for Julian's arrest would be withdrawn. She became anxious again
when she found that Frank could give no satisfactory explanation of his
long absence.

"I would not trouble about it, Aunt," he said, soothingly; "no doubt we
shall hear of him before long. Let us be content that he has come well
out of this terrible accusation, just as he did from the former charge,
and let us hope that the explanation of his absence will be just as
satisfactory when we hear it. Even if I thought that Julian had got into
any trouble, it would be infinitely easier to bear than a knowledge that
he was suspected of murder, for it would have been murder, Aunt. I heard
just now that Faulkner died last night."

The meeting of magistrates was an informal one, as they agreed, directly
they heard that Julian was not in custody, that they could proceed no
further in the matter. Mr. Henderson, after answering their first
question, followed them into their private room.

"So you did not lay hands on him last night," Colonel Chambers said. "We
shall have to alter the warrant, for I find that Mr. Faulkner is dead."