or takes his million dollars
elsewhere?"

"I don't know, I'm sure," Farland said. "But it seems peculiar to me
that Sid would tell a rotten falsehood like that. Doesn't it look
peculiar to you?"

"I must confess that it does not," George Lerton replied. "I suppose it
was the first thing that came into his head. He was trying to establish
an alibi, of course, and he probably thought he would get a chance to
telephone to me and ask me to stand by the story he had told, thinking
that I would do it because of our relationship."

"I was hoping that you would tell me you had met him on Fifth Avenue,"
Farland said. "It would have made his alibi stronger, of course, and
every little bit helps."

"Stronger? You mean to say that he has any sort of an alibi at all?"

"A dandy!" Farland exclaimed. "In fact, we have an alibi that tells us
that Sid was quite a distance from Rufus Shepley's suite when Shepley
was slain."

"Why, how is that?"

"Sid picked up a bum and tried to make a man of him. He bought the
fellow some clothes and took him to a barber shop. The clothing merchant
and the barber furnish the alibi."

An expression of consternation was in George Lerton's face, and Jim
Farland was quick to notice it.

"Of course, I am glad for Sidney's sake," Lerton said. "But I had really
believed that he had killed Shepley. It caused me a bit of trouble,
too."

"How do you mean?" Farland asked.

"Shepley was a sort of client of mine," Lerton said. "I handled a deal
for him now and then. He has been traveling on business for some time,
as you perhaps know. I had hopes that he would give me a certain large
commission and that I would make a handsome profit. He was about
convinced, I am sure, that I was the man to handle it for him. His small
deals with me had always been to his profit and my credit."

"Oh, I understand!"

"And a possible good customer is removed," Lerton went on. "So you have
an alibi for Sidney, have you? In that case--if he did not kill Rufus
Shepley--he must have told that story about meeting me when he was in a
panic immediately following his arrest. Sid always was panicky, you
know."

"I didn't know that a panicky man could pick up a million dollars in ten
years."

"Oh, I suppose Sidney was fortunate. There are wonderful opportunities
at times in Central America, and I suppose he happened to just strike
one of them right. He was very fortunate, indeed. Not every man can have
good luck like that.