‘You are doubtless aware, Watson, that there may be tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, and sermons in stones. To this exalted list, we may now add a source of information unguessed at even by the Bard; autobiography in boots. There is a matter for another monograph, I fancy. In any event, I may have saved a poor wretch’s life today. The near miscarriage of justice was Lestrade’s doing, I fear. He brought these boots round yesterday afternoon and asked if I might look them over. According to his account, they were last seen on the feet of a clerk named Mottram, who went missing a week ago, and whose body was recovered from the Thames yesterday, minus the boots. These were found wrapped in a week-old newspaper, in the wardrobe of one of Mottram’s drinking friends, a man named Rodgers, who cannot account for his whereabouts at the time of Mottram’s disappearance. As a result, Rodgers now languishes in gaol, and Lestrade anticipates charges within twenty-four hours.
‘It seems a damning enough piece of evidence, Holmes. Did Lestrade say how Rodgers explained his possession of the boots?
‘He claims they are not Mottram’s, and that he obtained them in a parcel of clothes given in part-payment for a gambling debt. Lestrade hopes that I can establish evidence linking the boots to Mottram. Naturally, I asked Lestrade for a description of the victim, and was told that he was a large, fat man with heavy nicotine stains on the fingers of his right hand. Lestrade seemed particularly proud of his powers of observation. Personally, I do not see how anyone could have observed less! However, it has proved sufficient to discomfit our friend the Inspector. I am now convinced that the owner of these boots was a lightly-built, left-handed pipe smoker, who favoured a dark shag tobacco. He had calloused hands, and worked outdoors - probably as a gardener - for a strict employer.‘Oh, come now, Holmes,’ I said. ‘You can’t possibly tell all that from a fellow’s boots!’
‘On the contrary, Watson, it is all quite obvious. Let us cast our eyes over the offending articles and see what they tell us. A supple, much-used boot of the serviceable working kind, but not the style I would associate with a City clerk; the uppers are well worn, but the soles - which are original - hardly worn down at all. Light on his feet, then.’
‘I concede as much. But why a gardener?’
‘Traces of soil and compost on the sole, not picked up in an office!’
‘Calloused hands?’
‘The faint line worn across the sole of the left boot, running parallel to the face of the heel, surely caused by repeatedly pushing a spade down into the earth. There is nothing quite like regular spadework for raising callouses on the hands.’
‘Could not such a mark be caused by some other means - such as a stirrup?’
‘An interesting suggestion, Watson, but there is no corresponding mark on the right sole.’
‘Very well, then. How can you tell he was a pipe smoker?’
‘The circular burn marks on the inside of the right heel, and traces of ash in the seam. He has often tapped out a pipe there. I could hardly fail to identify the ash as a dark shag tobacco. - it is by chance a variety that I have used myself. And incidentally, since it is natural, merely for balance, to raise the foot opposite the hand that holds the pipe when tapping out, there is further evidence for a left-handed man.’
I made one last attempt. ‘The strict employer, then. Surely that is a guess?’
‘Come, come, Watson; do you deduce nothing from the fact that there are not merely ashes, but burn marks on the heel? Our man has often knocked out his pipe while it is still burning. Would he repeatedly waste the best part of his smoke unless often interrupted by someone who does not approve of smoking in his presence?’­