It was perfectly obvious to him that there had been foul play somewhere, but he found himself quite unable to form a workable hypothesis.

Was the person who had been seen running away concerned in the matter ?--if it was a person.

If so, was he the author of the footprints?
Of course the ex-lawyer's clerk had something to do with it, but what?
In vain did Geoffrey cudgel his brains; every idea that occurred to him broke down somewhere or other.
"We shall lose this," he said aloud in despair; "suspicious circumstances are not enough to upset a will," and then, addressing Beatrice, who was sitting at the table, working: "Here, Miss Granger, you have a smattering of law, see if you can make anything of this," and he pushed the heavy brief towards her.
Beatrice took it with a laugh, and for the next three-quarters of an hour her fair brow was puckered up in a way quaint to see.

At last she finished and shut the brief up.

"Let me look at the photographs," she said.
Geoffrey handed them to her.