MEREDITH - As a burglar alarm sounded at a downtown consignment shop early Tuesday morning, police followed a trail of blood droplets and footprints in the snow from the shop to a nearby inn, where they arrested two men - one of whom was bleeding "significantly" from a laceration on his left pinky finger - on burglary charges.

Police said Travis Watson, 22, of Moultonborough, and Ray Punturieri, 23, of Tampa, Fla., smashed through a casement window in the back of The Etcetera Shoppe at 65 N.H. Route 25, setting off the shop's burglar alarm at 5:21 a.m.

Meredith Police Lt. Keith True said officers quickly responded to the scene and found that a burglary had occurred. Two gold rings, valued at $700, were missing from the store's jewelry case, he said.

Investigators aren't sure if a larger burglary was planned and was cut short by the alarm. But True said it appears that the two suspects had prior knowledge of the two rings, and they got what they were after.

"It looked like they knew what they wanted going in," True said. "But they also heard the alarm going off, so we can't say if they were looking for more and then ran."

After discovering the broken window, police found blood droplets near "two distinct sets of footprints in the freshly fallen snow" that left the area. Police followed the footprints through the downtown area to The Inn at Mill Falls.

A staff member at the inn said she had just seen two men walk past her as they entered the inn. She asked them about their business at the inn, police said, and the two men answered that they were looking for Room 205. There is no Room 205 at the inn, however, so the staff member alerted managers and the police.

They found the suspects in the pool room. "Punturieri had sustained a serious laceration to his left pinky finger and was bleeding significantly," True said.

After a brief questioning, police said both men admitted to committing the break-in, and they were taken into custody. At the Meredith Police Department, the charges were processed and both men refused bail, police said.

Both were arraigned Tuesday at Laconia District Court. Punturieri was charged with burglary and held on $10,000 cash bail. Watson was charged with receiving stolen property, a Class A misdemeanor, and ordered held on $5,000 cash bail.

Police recovered the two rings. They estimated the damage done to the store at $400. Officers Greg Mangers and Bart Merrill conducted the investigation.