THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES
steps, though you will never find Marsh treading in the steps of the
other."
"Do you suppose that the men walked backwards in their own
footprints ? " asked the inspector.
" No ; that is impossible. No two men could walk backwards
some two hundred yards in that way with such exactitude. You
will not find a single place where they have missed the print by even
an eighth of an inch. Quite impossible. Nor do I suppose that
two men, hunted as they were, could have provided themselves with
flying-machines, balloons, or even parachutes. They did not drop
over the cliff."
Melville then explained how the men had got away. His
account proved to be quite correct, for it will be remembered that
they were caught, hiding under some straw in a barn, within two
miles of the spot. How did they get away from the edge of the
cliff?
64.—
The Runaway Motor-Car.
The little affair of the " Runaway Motor-car " is a good illustra-
tion of how a knowledge of some branch of puzzledom may be put
to unexpected use. A member of the Club, whose name I have
at the moment of writing forgotten, came in one night and said that
a friend of his was bicycling in Surrey on the previous day, when a
motor-car came from behind, round a corner, at a terrific speed,
caught one of his wheels, and sent him flying in the road. He was
badly knocked about, and fractured his left arm, while his machine
was wrecked. The motor-car was not stopped, and he had been
unable to trace it.
There were two witnesses to the accident, which was beyond
question the fault of the driver of the car. An old woman, a Mrs.
Wadey, saw the whole thing, and tried to take the number of the
car. She was positive as to the letters, which need not be given,
and was certain also that the first figure was a 1. The other
figures she failed to read on account of the speed and dust.
The other witness was the village simpleton, who just escapes
being an arithmetical genius, but is excessively stupid in everything else.
74
