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conclusion? (6) What else, if anything, will be neces¬ 
sary to establish or corroborate it in court? 
A jury will be convinced only by a complete chain of 
circumstantial evidence, both as to facts and the proof 
that they are facts. Constantly review this chain while 
following clues, to be sure no link is omitted. Also bear 
in mind that any one chain may be broken somewhere 
by the defense; therefore build all the lines of evidence 
possible to your conclusion. 
SPECIAL CLUES. 
Tracks .—Tracks are among the most important clues. 
If a fire is set or other offense committed by human agency, 
a man walks or rides there to do it. He may cover up his 
tracks in the immediate vicinity of the offense, or they 
may be burned over or obliterated by others. Farther 
away from the fire he will settle down to normal gait. If 
no tracks are found at or near the origin, it will be neces¬ 
sary to widen out. This wider search should begin at the 
most likely point; but until the tracks are found the search 
should be conducted on a rigid system, so that no area 
will be overlooked. If it is possible to get wind of the 
present whereabouts of the suspect, the investigator should 
of course cut away and get him, leaving assistants to con¬ 
nect up the complete trail for use as evidence, or post¬ 
poning this until the suspect is disposed of. For the man 
who has gone in pursuit of the suspect it saves time and 
is usually just as effective to take up the completing of 
the trail backward from the point where the suspect is 
taken to the point where it was previously left. 
Identification of tracks .—Study of details is essential; 
dimensions and shape of imprint, nails (present and miss¬ 
ing), seams, creases, cracks, or other distinctive marks; 
wear, repairs; age of track, methods of putting down the 
foot (twist as foot strikes the ground, etc.), angle of feet 
(toes out, straight ahead, or in), and differences between 
the feet in this angle, if any; barefoot, smooth, or rough¬ 
shod horse tracks, specially shaped or weighted shoes, and 
gait of animal (as trot or pace). 
