Maple discovers the hoofprint on George

Miss Maple’s discovery of a hoofprint on George’s stomach gives the flock a physical clue that complicates the apparent murder: a sheep was close to him around the time he died, yet none has accounted for its presence. The mark shifts the inquiry from the unknown murderer’s hands to the flock’s own members and what they may have seen or done.

The Body and the Clue

Earlier, Miss Maple had told Rameses that she did not know whether the murderer had bloodstained hands; in truth, she did not even know whether the murderer had hands at all. Her examination of George offered impressions rather than an answer. His face looked peaceful, and he smelled slightly of Guinness and tea. His clothes were smoky, and he held a couple of flowers, an unusual detail because he ordinarily gave more attention to vegetables.

While nudging up the bloodstained Norwegian sweater, Miss Maple found a single hoofprint on George’s pale stomach, slightly above the place where the spade had entered. The mark was distinct enough to register as evidence, not merely as an indistinct trace. It placed a sheep’s body in direct physical contact with George, although the print alone could not establish how or when that contact occurred.

Miss Maple’s Inference

Miss Maple later confided the finding to Mopple the Whale and reasoned through its possible timing. A sheep might have stood hard on George or kicked him; because the print remained so clear, she judged it could not have been made long before his death. She therefore placed a sheep with George just before, during, or just after the fatal moment.

The print also suggested something about the animal: it must have been strong or heavy. Miss Maple considered whether a sheep could have kicked George and whether there had been a struggle, comparing the possibility with the earlier question of the calcium tablets. That comparison raises a line of inquiry but does not prove that the mark came from a fight or explain why a sheep would have attacked him.

An Unanswered Question

The clue’s force lies as much in its silence as in its shape. Miss Maple found it strange that the sheep responsible had not told the flock about it. She considered whether that sheep might have forgotten, but the available account leaves the thought unfinished and does not resolve the animal’s identity, intention, or memory.

The hoofprint thus narrows the circumstances without solving the killing. It makes the flock’s proximity to George newly consequential: one of its members was likely near him at the decisive time, but the mark cannot distinguish a witness from an assailant or establish whether the contact was deliberate. Miss Maple’s discovery turns an unexplained trace on a human body into a question the sheep must ask of themselves.