There, was the
track of a man, clearly outlined in the soft sand, leading from
the board fence to the shed and returning, and no other track
anywhere about.
"`Now, Governor,' he began, when he had taken a look at the
tracks, `the man that made them tracks carried something into
this shed, and he left it here, and it was something heavy.'
"I was fairly certain that the hobo had salted the place for me,
made the tracks himself; but I played out a line to him.
"`How do you know that?' I said.
"`Well, Governor,' he answered, `take a look at them two lines of
tracks. In the one comin' to the shed the man was walkin' with
his feet apart and in the one goin' back he was walkin' with his
feet in front of one another; that's because he was carryin'
somethin' heavy when he come an' nothin' when he left.'
"It was an observation on footprints," he went on, "that had
never occurred to me. The hobo saw my awakened interest, and he
added:
"`Did you never notice a man carryin' a heavy load? He kind of
totters, walkin' with his feet apart to keep his balance. That
makes his foot tracks side by side like, instead of one before
the other as he makes them when he's goin' light.
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