The Case of the White Footprints
()
About this ebook
A lady has been found dead in her room in a boarding house. At first glance it looks like a clear case of suicide, but then the two doctors attending the death spot a set of white footprints in paint on the red linoleum of the floor. As the house is currently being repainted, and the window-sills were still covered in wet paint, it is clear that the woman has been murdered by someone who entered and left through the window.
Moreover, the footprints have some strange peculiarities. They are bare footprints...and on both feet it appears that the little toe is missing. When Dr. Thorndyke is called onto the case these extraordinary footprints lead him immediately to the track of the murderer.
R. Austin Freeman
R. Austin Freeman (1862–1943) was a British author of detective stories. A pioneer of the inverted detective story, in which the reader knows from the start who committed the crime, Freeman is best known as the creator of the “medical jurispractitioner” Dr. John Thorndyke. First introduced in The Red Thumb Mark (1907), the brilliant forensic investigator went on to star in dozens of novels and short stories over the next decades.
Read more from R. Austin Freeman
65+ Masterpieces of Detective Fiction Classic Collection. Illustrated: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Moonstone, Hunted Down, The Blue Cross, Crime and Punishment and others Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stoneware Monkey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings101 Great Mystery Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFelo de Se? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs a Thief in the Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shadow of the Wolf Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Victorian Villains MEGAPACK ™: 31 Villainous Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMr. Pottermack's Oversight (A Dr Thorndyke Mystery) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eye of Osiris Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Jacob Street Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom A Surgeon's Diary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Thumb Mark: A Dr. Thorndyke Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mystery Of 31 New Inn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Eternal Masterpieces of Detective Stories Vol: 2 (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMr. Polton Explains Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Unwilling Adventurer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Vanishing Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Dr. Thorndyke - Volume 1: The Red Thumb Mark, the Eye of Osiris and the Mystery of 31 New Inn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective MEGAPACK ®: 25 Classic Tales of Detection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Savant's Vendetta Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Certain Dr. Thorndyke Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Red Thumb Mark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Certain Dr. Thorndyke Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Cat's Eye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stoneware Monkey (A Dr Thorndyke Mystery) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5As a Thief in the Night (A Dr Thorndyke Mystery) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Case of the White Footprints
Related ebooks
Mystery Of The Angelina Frood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost Man's Lane Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death at St. Asprey's School: A Carolus Deene Mystery Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Helen Vardon's Confession Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Big Bow Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret Passage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crime de Luxe: A Benvenuto Brown Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man in the Net Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lady from Nowhere Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCromwell Road Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDie All, Die Merrily: A Carolus Deene Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death in Albert Park: A Carolus Deene Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death on Allhallowe'en: A Carolus Deene Mystery Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Murder at Old St. Thomas's: The Tommy Jones Mysteries, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vanishing Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neck and Neck: A Sergeant Beef Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Martin Hewitt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Evil Hour Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Death in the Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hardcastle's Runaway Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Magic Casket Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dead Opposite the Church: A Golden Age Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mysterious Affair at Styles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Stoneware Monkey (A Dr Thorndyke Mystery) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Bishop's Secret Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dove in the Eagle's Nest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hand That Feeds You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret of Chimneys Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bat Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Classics For You
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The New Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lathe Of Heaven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Case of the White Footprints
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Case of the White Footprints - R. Austin Freeman
The Case of the White Footprints
By R. Austin Freeman
Start Publishing LLC
Copyright © 2012 by Start Publishing LLC
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
First Start Publishing eBook edition October 2012
Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-63355-216-6
WELL,
said my friend Foxton, pursuing a familiar and apparently inexhaustible topic, I'd sooner have your job than my own.
I've no doubt you would,
was my unsympathetic reply. I never met a man who wouldn't. We all tend to consider other men's jobs in terms of their advantages and our own in terms of their drawbacks. It is human nature.
Oh, it's all very well for you to be so beastly philosophical,
retorted Foxton. You wouldn't be if you were in my place. Here, in Margate, it's measles, chicken-pox and scarlatina all the summer, and bronchitis, colds and rheumatism an the winter. A deadly monotony. Whereas you and Thorndyke sit there in your chambers and let your clients feed you up with the raw material of romance. Why, your life is a sort of everlasting Adelphi drama.
You exaggerate, Foxton,
said I. We, like you, have our routine work, only it is never heard of outside the Law Courts; and you, like every other doctor, must run up against mystery and romance from time to time.
Foxton shook his head as he held out his hand for my cup. I don't,
said be. My practice yields nothing but an endless round of dull routine.
And then, as if in commentary on this last statement, the housemaid burst into the room and, with hardly dissembled agitation, exclaimed:
If you please, sir, the page from Beddingfield's Boarding-house says that a lady has been found dead in her bed and would you go round there immediately.
Very well, Jane,
said Foxton, and as the maid retired, he deliberately helped himself to another fried egg and, looking across the table at me, exclaimed: Isn't that always the way? Come immediately--now--this very instant, although the patient may have been considering for a day or two whether he'll send for you or not. But directly he decides you must spring out of bed, or jump up from your breakfast, and run.
That's quite true,
I agreed; but this really does seem to be an urgent case.
What's the urgency?
demanded Foxton. The woman is already dead. Anyone would think she was in imminent danger of coming to life again and that my instant arrival the only thing that could prevent such a catastrophe.
You've only a third-hand statement that she is dead,
said I. It is just possible that she isn't; and even if she is, as you will have to give evidence at the inquest, you do want the police to get there first and turn out the room before you've made your inspection.
Gad!
exclaimed Foxton. I hadn't thought of that. Yes. You're right. I'll hop round at once.
He swallowed the remainder of the egg at a single gulp rose from the table. Then he paused and stood for a few moments looking down at me irresolutely.
I wonder, Jervis,
he said, if you would mind coming round with me. You know all the medico-legal ropes, and I don't. What do you say?
I agreed instantly, having, in fact, been restrained only by delicacy from making the suggestion myself; and when I had fetched from my