The Murder at Jex Farm | Page 8

the spot where it had lain I found all the footprints on
which I am reporting.
"I have compared the boots worn by the labourers wit the impressions
near the gate. They correspond in every particular.
"I therefore conclude that all three men came upon the spot only to
carry away the body of the girl, and had no hand in her death.
"I argue the same from the footprints made by Mr. Jex. He also had
borne more heavily with the left than with the right foot. He also,
therefore, must have come on the spot only to bear off the body and
could have taken no part in the girl's murder.
"There are almost an exactly equal number of impressions plain or faint,
of the footprints of the four persons.

"There remain the footprints of a fifth person. They are the impressions
of a man's foot, but the hobnailed boots that made them, though
full-sized, are of a lighter make than the others, and the nail marks are
smaller, the boots are newer, for the sides of the impressions have a
cleaner cut, and what is important, the impressions of the left foot are
in no case deeper than those of the right.
"This person, therefore, clearly did not assist in the carrying of the
body.
"The person who made these footprints is, in my opinion, the man who,
on the night of the 17th of October last, murdered Miss Mary Judson."
The conclusion, so clearly and logically arrived at by Inspector
Edwardes, at once narrows the field of investigation. My own inquiries
bring out a still more startling discovery. The footprints of the
murderer--the almost self-convicted murderer-- correspond in length
and breath, and in the number of nail marks, twelve in the print of the
left foot, ten (there being two gaps, which also correspond) in that of
the right, with a pair of boots in the possession of Mr. Charles Jex.
This very damning fact must not be driven home in proof of Mr. Jex's
guilt too hastily. It is absolutely necessary, in inquiries of this very
grave character, to proceed with caution and deliberation. Another man
might have worn the boots with the intent to deception on the night of
the murder. A murderer, with the devilish cunning of one who seeks to
compass the death of a fellow- being without risk of detection,
frequently uses wily precautions such as this.
Let us take the women inmates of the house first. There was Miss
Lewsome--but it could not have been her, for first there was the direct
evidence of old Mrs. Jex, that the young lady had not left her side in the
sitting-room since sundown. There is the almost stronger indirect,
undesigned and internal evidence of Miss Lewsome's diary, with the
entry of this very date calmly and fully set out at the very time the
murder must have been effected.
Then, again, there are the two maids, well-behaved, innocent rustic

girls. It could be neither of them, for their presence in the kitchen the
whole evening was vouched for by the evidence of the other servants.
The same applied to the three farm labourers. Not one of the servants,
male or female, had left the kitchen or scullery that night. From
sundown to supper-time is the hour of rest and recreation at a farm, and
the day, which has been spent in work and silence, generally ends, for
rustic folk, in talk and laughter. The whole five of them had been
enjoying themselves noisily round the kitchen fire. Their loud talk and
the blustering wind, that roared about the farm chimneys on this
tempestuous evening, had, doubtless, prevented any one of them from
hearing the three revolver shots on the night of the murder.
There remains Mr. Jex. Let us impartially examine the facts that throw
suspicion upon him. Here is a man who clearly no longer loves,
probably never did love, the girl whom he is about to marry for her
money; who certainly does care for another woman; who has entangled
himself in an intrigue until this second woman, which he may
reasonably expect to come to light at any moment and endanger his
prospects of a rich marriage; who, by the impartial evidence of that
woman's diary, has indulged in vague threats against the murdered girl.
Lastly, he is the only person who will benefit by her death, and who
will, in fact, enjoy a welcome and immediate relief, by this event, from
impending bankruptcy. On the other hand, Mr. Jex at the moment when
the crime was probably committed, was at Bexton, or on the road
homeward; but we have no knowledge of the hour at which Mary
Judson met with her death. It might be, for all we know, a