“Thank you, Roman traveller, for your testimony. It has allowed me to examine some evidence and see more clearly in this mysterious affair. Yes, your story was helpful, despite some weaknesses.

Perhaps the most helpful element is the horses. Wild or domesticated, their behaviour is trustworthy, for they do not plot to deceive like human beings do. From their reaction, it is plain that you came close to some wild animal of which horses are naturally afraid.

Then there is the vanishing trail of footprints : the slave’s, and those of “a very large dog” you say. Most interesting. That evidence is, paradoxically, both a strength and a weakness. A strength because it is very difficult to fake such traces. You must have the authentic animal, dead or alive, to make authentic paw prints. Carrying around a dead animal makes a person very conspicuous, and dead dogs don’t frighten horses. The animal was therefore very much alive. But it is also a weakness, for all of this happened in the dead of night. Your only source of light was a pair of torches. Your vision was necessarily impaired. It seemed worthwhile to re-examine the footprints in broad daylight, which I did.

Finally, there is the missing slave. When he heard the horrible shrieks, why did he not run back to you for safety ? You presume he was dragged away by the beast. I rather suspect that he decided to make his escape. We have a case of a fugitive slave, whose master should be annoyed and go looking for him, unless.... But that is another story.

Footprints disappear either because the ground is too stony and hard to retain the imprint, or because they are swept away, deliberately or by accident. I went looking for the slave’s body and did find it near the Antioch road. I also found both sets of footprints, the missing slave’s and the beast’s. Both sets vanish where the soft ground leads to the paved road. That part of the ground looked very much like someone had smashed a flat rock all around, making a patch of slightly sunken ground. Under the light of a torch, you thought they were the marks of a body being dragged away. I found the rock that was used to smash the footprints, thrown carelessly to the side. No doubt the criminal ran when he heard you approaching, before he could erase all the footprints.

It is a case of murder, gentlemen, and of escape. Taking advantage of the darkness, the missing slave suggests to the other that they run away. Their master is perhaps a cruel beast himself. The other refuses. Perhaps he threatens to raise the alarm, inform the master. He is killed, and the killer runs off into the night.

As for the animal, even though neither you nor your companions actually saw it, it frightened the horses even at some distance. I suggest an exceptionally large and smelly dog-wolf or jackal - more likely a wolf, as jackals tend to go around in packs whereas wolves are more solitary creatures. A solitary beast - who apparently did not frighten the runaway slave.

To me that can mean only one thing, gentlemen : the slave and the beast know each other.”