The Murder at Jex Farm | Page 7

talked long together, and we both of us cried a great
deal. I do not think the world holds so sweet and unselfish a woman as
Mary Judson. Whatever our lots are in life, hers and mine, we shall
always be as sisters one to the other. To-morrow I leave Jex Farm.

The immediate effect upon my mind of the reading of this evidence
was to supply me with what had been wanting: a motive for the crime.
Everything pointed in my estimation to treachery in the household;
everything seemed to be against the possibility of the crime being
committed by an outsider.
Assuming thieves and murderers not connected with the household,
what possible reasons could have brought them to run such a risk as to
shoot down an innocent unoffending girl within forty yards of a
dwelling-house, where probably several men were within call, and
certainly within earshot of the sound of firearms? Then again, if a
stranger had done this thing for the sake of robbery, how could he be
sure that the girl would have money or a watch about her? A third and
stronger reason against any stranger criminal, was the fact that no
stranger had left the imprint of his steps within five yards of the gate on
the further side of which the girl had fallen. Her head, as she lay, all but
touched the lower bar of the orchard gate. She had been shot down at

her accustomed trysting-place with her lover, in the dusk, and with the
shade of the trees, the deep of darkness of late evening. What stranger
could guess she would be there? What stranger could know so well
where and how she would stand as to be able to fire three following
shots, through the shadows of falling night, with such deadly aim as to
take effect within an inch of each other on the poor girl's temple?
I abandoned the idea of a murder for the sake of robbery; it was
untenable. I scouted the theory suggested by Charles Jex, and
persevered by him with curious insistence, that the murderers were the
bicyclists whom he had seen in the bar at the "Lion." The murderer was
an inmate of Jex Farm; of that there could be no manner of doubt; the
evidence of the footprints was proof enough of that.
Who, then, was the murderer?
Before I answer that question I put in another document, a very
important piece of evidence. It is the report--the very concise but
careful report of one of the most conscientious, painstaking and
intelligent provincial officers I have ever had the pleasure of doing
business with, Sergeant Edwardes of the Surrey Constabulary.
"Sergeant Edwardes' report on the footprints near the spot where the
body of Miss Judson was found at 9:35 P.M., on October 17, 189-."
"I have counted 43 distinct human footprints and 54 partial imprints.
"Of the 43, 24 are made by the left foot and only 19 by the right.
"Of the 54 faint or partial impressions I found 17 of the left foot and
only 12 of the right, the rest are not distinctive enough to pronounce
upon.
"Of the total number of the fainter footprints 18 are deeply marked in
the soft clay, the others are less strongly impressed. Of the 18 that are
deeply marked, 11 are made by the left foot, 7 by the right.
"This accords with what I was told subsequently--that Mr. Jex's three

labourers, and Mr. Jex himself, on finding Miss Judson's dead body, at
once took it up in their arms and bore it into the house.
"Bearers of a heavy weight, such as a dead body, walking together,
invariably bear heavily upon the left foot, both those who are
supporting it on the left and those who are supporting it on the right
side.
"Distinguishing the bootprints by their length, breadth, and the pattern
of the nail marks upon them, I find that they are the footprints of five
separate persons, all of them men. I also found, clearly impressed, the
footprints of the victim herself.
"There had been heavy rain in the morning of the 17th, and the soil is a
sticky clay. I examined it at daybreak on the morning of the 18th, and,
as it had not rained during the night, the impressions were as fresh as if
they had just been made. By my orders no one had been allowed to
come near the spot where the body was found during the night. Just
inside the gate of the orchard the grass has been long trodden away by
passers-by, leaving the earth bare; and this patch of bare earth forms an
area rather broader than the gate. On this area the body had fallen, and
round about