wn.
There were probably some others. The reason I think Mr. Woods was here
was because he called my attention to the fact a few nights after the
murder. There were a few gentlemen in here and they were talking of
Mr. Felderson's death. Mr. Woods said, in view of the fact that the
murderer hadn't been found, almost any one might be accused. Some one
asked him if he was worried--we all knew, sir, that Mr. Felderson and
Mr. Woods were not very friendly--and Mr. Woods laughed and said that
fortunately he had a perfect alibi and called my attention to the fact
that he was in here at about the time the crime was committed."

"And you're not sure that he was?" I asked.

"Oh, his alibi is good of course, because he was around the club all
that evening. I guess he was here and I don't remember it."

I shook hands with him and left.

Far out on the golf links the coroner was bending over, examining
something on the ground. When I reached him he grabbed me by the
sleeve and pointed to two barely discernible tracks paralleling each
other for almost a hundred yards. Between them ran a shallow, jagged
rut, where the spade of an aeroplane had dug up the turf.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE MECHANICIAN

"We've got it! We're on the trail at last!" I exclaimed. "I just
found out at the club that Woods left his dinner hurriedly and was not
seen again until twenty-five minutes past eight."

"We've got to go slow," cautioned the coroner. "A man who is ingenious
enough to devise this means of murdering a man won't be tripped up for
lack of a perfect alibi."

"I've found what that is too. He has the bartender at the club half
believing that he was in the bar at the time the murder was committed."
I told him briefly what I had discovered.

"See!" the coroner pointed out. "If they bring him into court, the
bartender won't be able to swear he wasn't in the bar and the short
time that he was absent will convince the jury that Woods is telling
the truth and that our theory is all bunk."

"But we're not going to leave things as they stand, just when we are
hot on the trail. What do we do now?"

"I'm of the opinion that there is a short-cut to the solution of the
whole affair. Woods must have had a mechanician with him on the night
of the murder."

"What makes you think that?" I asked rather impatiently.

"Because we know Woods came back to the club immediately after the
murder and played cards the rest of the evening.