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is impracticable, and there are shortages of fertilizer and fuel. If we are to harness the power of waterfalls, there is no question that we must also build a railroad. I have been contemplating whether to focus my studies on building power plants or railroads. I shall probably choose the latter, since they must take precedence over power plants, besides which they interest me far more…
    June 5, 1911. Was awarded “udmærked godt” (excellent) in philosophy. Went to the Tivoli amusement park and stayed well into the evening. The fireworks are my favorite feature…
    July 10, 1911. Entrance exams finished today. Professor Christiansen bade me welcome to the engineering course this fall…

J óhann was nearly done examining the footprints, and Marteinn followed him around, carrying a small pocket book into which he jotted down the observations that Jóhann dictated, stamping his feet in between notations to keep warm.
    All the footprints had been identified, apart from one trail that led to the front door of the house and back again. The person who made these prints must have been there either early in the morning or during the night, as a considerable amount of snow had subsequently fallen on them. It was possible, by carefully heating the snow with a gas burner, to melt away what had fallen into the footprints, since the snow underneath was packed more densely and could take more heat without melting. Jóhann had thus managed to retrieve good samples of the prints of both the left and right feet. He arranged his camera on a tripod and pointed it down directly above the right footprint, then set a fifty-centimeter ruler, marked alternately black and white at each centimeter, next to the print before taking a picture. He photographed the left shoe print in the same way.
    An overview picture was taken of the area and the footprints were measured carefully. The feet were twenty-three centimeters long, with an average stride length of forty-five centimeters. Thiscould not be a tall man, and the shoe size was too small for an adult man at all, so Jóhann guessed that the prints belonged to either a woman with small feet or an adolescent.
    Lastly, he set about taking an impression of the shoe print. He mixed hardener with some liquid plastic and poured it into the print, placing a fine wire net on top to reinforce it. The plastic hardened in no time, and the result was a reasonable, if not perfect, reproduction of the print. They would probably be able to discover the size and make of the footwear using the photograph and the plastic cast, but it was not likely that it would suffice to distinguish one particular pair of shoes from another of the same type and size—the prints were not so well defined that any distinctive feature could be made out.
    The final task was to carefully melt all the snow from a selected area in front of the house and around the back door, in case this should reveal prints formed just after it started snowing; that night’s snow had fallen on bare ground, so if there were any prints, they would be fresh ones.
    Jóhann found no further prints, however, so they could assume that nobody else had come to the house during this time.
    Egill emerged from the house with his coat on; he was to organize a search of the garden and its surroundings. A team of officers were to comb the snow with garden rakes to see if anything lay hidden there. It was possible the gun might have been thrown into the garden, in which case it would be preferable to discover it now rather than waiting for the spring thaw.
    Some of the snow that had piled up on the roof of the house broke away and slid down the slope, falling from the eaves with a substantial thud. Jóhann glanced up. The roof looked wet where the snow had been. That meant the insulation was poor and thesnow had no doubt been melted by the heat coming from the house. It must be an expensive house to run, he thought to himself.
    Jóhann saw Hrefna coming down the path