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"I said that it would, and as the man turned away, Jezzard's face broke out into a cunning smile. "So you are Mr. Draper, of Sundersley, now, are you? said he. 'Well, I hope you won't be too proud to come and look in on your old friends. We shall be staying here for some time. "That same night Hearn made his appearance at my house.
He must have walked between the tide-marks all the way from Port Marston to beyond Sundersley. When these footprints entered St. Bridget's Bay they became mixed up with the footprints of another man, and the shore was trampled for a space of a dozen yards as if a furious struggle had taken place.
About midnight he came ashore, and proceeded to walk towards Sundersley along the beach. As he entered St. Bridget's Bay, a man, who appears to have been lying in wait, and who came down the Shepherd's Path, met him, and a deadly struggle seems to have taken place. The deceased received a wound of a kind calculated to cause almost instantaneous death, and apparently fell down dead.
There are, I suppose, few places even on the East Coast of England more lonely and remote than the village of Little Sundersley and the country that surrounds it. Far from any railway, and some miles distant from any considerable town, it remains an outpost of civilization, in which primitive manners and customs and old-world tradition linger on into an age that has elsewhere forgotten them.
"I have," replied the sergeant, "and I find that, on that night, the accused was alone in the house, his housekeeper having gone over to Eastwich. Two men saw him in the town about ten o'clock, apparently walking in the direction of Sundersley."
I think that his body was conveyed in a boat to Sundersley Gap. The boat probably contained three men, of whom one remained in charge of it, one walked up the Gap and along the cliff towards St. Bridget's Bay, and the third, having put on the shoes of the deceased, carried the body along the shore to the Bay.
Where he had walked below high-water mark the footprints had of course been washed away by the sea." "How far back did you trace the footprints of deceased?" "About two-thirds of the way to Sundersley Gap. Then they disappeared below high-water mark. Later in the evening I walked from the Gap into Port Marston, but could not find any further traces of deceased.
Having been sworn, and requested by Anstey to tell the Court what he knew about the case, he commenced without preamble: "About half-past four in the afternoon of the 28th of September I walked down Sundersley Gap with Dr. Jervis.
"I think," said he, "that if your Worship will compare these shoes with the last pair of moulds, you will have no doubt that these are the shoes which made the footprints from the sea to Sundersley Gap and back again." The magistrates together compared the shoes and the moulds amidst a breathless silence. At length the chairman laid them down on the desk. "It is impossible to doubt it," said he.
"The implied accusation took me aback so completely that I stood staring at him in speechless astonishment, and at that unlucky moment a tradesman, from whom I had ordered some house-linen, passed along the quay. Seeing me, he stopped and touched his hat. "'Beg pardon, Mr. Draper, said he, 'but I shall be sending my cart up to Sundersley to-morrow morning if that will do for you.
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