THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 
* 3 * 
It was to the effect that the gang consisted 
of ten men — seven in boots, two in socks, and 
one with bare feet, all armed, who had come 
through the fence to the back door of the 
office. They were provided with heavy 
clothing or wrappers, which they had left 
Outside the fence and carried away on their 
return, presumably for the purpose of wrap- 
ping up the safe for removal. The trackers 
were quite prepared to identify any of the 
footprints, but they observed that, on ap- 
proaching the fence, the thieves had endea- 
voured to queer the pitch, so to speak, by 
twisting on the ball of the foot at each step. 
Seeing, however, that they were tracked for a 
“THE TRACKERS WERE ABLE TO DETECT THE 
BODIES CARRIED OFF WAS A WOUNDED MAN, WHILE 
considerable distance in the direction of a 
neighbouring village, this expedient was not 
of much avail. 
The next step was to ask the authorities 
of the institution for the names of any dis- 
charged employes who might be suspected of 
complicity. The presumption was that the 
inside stall were innocent, for the gang, who 
knew the night routine, were evidently unpre- 
pared for the safe having been recently 
secured. 
A number of names were accordingly given, 
and the police, who had brought a native 
magistrate with them, at once got him to 
sign warrants, and the men were sent for. 
The procedure on 
their arrival was suffi- 
ciently amazing. The 
suspects were ranged 
in a row before an open 
space of sand. One of 
the police, with a bar 
of wood, smoothed out 
all old footmarks, and 
the men were ordered 
to walk across it. The 
trackers then examined 
the footmarks, and at 
once declared that one 
of them was the bare- 
footed man. He was 
accordingly removed to 
jail, and may be the 
means of tracing the 
whole gang. 
The episode was par- 
ticularly interesting to 
me, for I had often 
heard of these trackers 
and their performances, 
but this was the first 
occasion on which I 
had been able to see 
them at work. 
Their powers, how- 
ever, are only 7 slightly 
shadowed forth by the 
performance I have 
described. Some y r ears 
ago I met at dinner the 
Chief of the Frontier 
Police, Colonel Dum- 
reicher, and his account 
of the performances of 
these trackers on coast- 
guard duty was abso-. 
lutcly amazing. He 
FACT THAT ONE OF THE told US of the tVcXi k 
the other was dead.” ing, for days together, 
