a man welcome any supposition that is in accordance with his desires.
Trembling with anxiety, he went to examine some other footprints a short
distance from these; and an excited exclamation at once escaped his
lips.

"What is it?" eagerly inquired the other agent: "what do you see?"

"Come and look for yourself, see there!" cried Lecoq.

The old man bent down, and his surprise was so great that he almost
dropped the lantern. "Oh!" said he in a stifled voice, "a man's
footprint!"

"Exactly. And this fellow wore the finest of boots. See that imprint,
how clear, how neat it is!"

Worthy Father Absinthe was scratching his ear furiously, his usual
method of quickening his rather slow wits. "But it seems to me," he
ventured to say at last, "that this individual was not coming from this
ill-fated hovel."

"Of course not; the direction of the foot tells you that. No, he was
not going away, he was coming here. But he did not pass beyond the spot
where we are now standing. He was standing on tiptoe with outstretched
neck and listening ears, when, on reaching this spot, he heard some
noise, fear seized him, and he fled."

"Or rather, the women were going out as he was coming, and--"

"No, the women were outside the garden when he entered it."