"There is no use in our going that way." And he turned to look again at the ground in their immediate vicinity.

As he did so, his eye lighted on the triangular spot where the ell met the side of the house under the kitchen windows.

Here there was no flagging, the walk taking a diagonal course from the corner of the ell to the kitchen door.
"What are those ?" he asked, pointing to two oblong impressions brimming with water which disfigured the center of this small plot.
"They look like footprints," ventured Ransom.
"They are footprints," decided Mr.Harper as they stooped to examine the marks, "and the footprints of a person dropping from a height.

Nothing else explains their depth or general appearance." "Couldn't they be those of a person approaching the ell to converse with some one above?
I see others similar to these in the open place over there beyond the kitchen door." "It is a trail.

Let us follow it.