Yoti said, and Essen was astonished by his candour:

“We don’t want the city fellers here, sir. We’ve had a stomach-full. Essen’s had experience with the fingerprint section in Sydney, and he’s a pretty good photographer. So we could manage without Sydney.”

“Then we manage, and I will tell you what else the linoleum has told me,” Bony said, making no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “I can reasonably assume that the dead woman polished her floors during the daypreceding the night of her death, and as we know who entered this house after Thring called in the police, by eliminating known persons we have the prints of persons unknown.

“I find that two unknown persons have been inside this house after Mrs Rockcliff polished her floors. One was a man. A large man who wears shoes size eight which are worn along the outside edge beneath each toecap. He was drunk or he could be a sailor recently ashore after a long voyage. He entered by the scullery window, visited the lounge and stood against the wall behind the bedroom door, from which position he struck down his victim. He left the house by the scullery window.

“The other person is a woman. She entered by the front door. She stood for some time in the hall, possibly to be assured she was alone in the house. From there she entered the bedroom, where she crawled under the bed. She emerged on the far side, and stood by the cot. Her shoe size is six, wedge type, and she walks slightly forward on her toes as though habitually she wears high-heeled shoes. She left by the front door.”

“With the baby,” Essen supplemented.

“The baby not having left footprints, I am unable to be definite,” Bony flashed. “The man could have taken the infant, forhe, too, stood by the cot. It would seem that these two persons acted independently of each other. The fact that the woman crawled under the bed certainly supports the assumption that they did; that the woman was under the bed when the man entered the bedroom, and when he killed Mrs Rockcliff. Whatd’youknow about the victim?”