ry of the day's developments with profound interest. Except for
the little tremor in his fingers, there was no sign that he had been ill
a few hours earlier. Not a detail escaped him. The whole thing was
photographed on his mind, even the hours and minutes of the time at which
this or that had occurred.

"So," concluded Braceway, "you can see why I feel pretty fine! Morley's
a thief, as I'd believed all along. The motive for the murder is
established, particularly when you remember that Miss Fulton, who had
been advancing him money, was prevented by her sister from doing so any
further."

"No; I can't see that," objected Bristow. "A motive? Yes; but not a
motive for murder. So far as I can size it up, he wanted to steal more
money, and that's all. It's a far cry between theft and murder."

"You stick to your old theory, the negro's guilt?"

"Naturally. There you have the motive and the murder--the proof that he
said he would rob, and the indisputable evidence that he did rob and
kill. Why, he brought away with him particles of the victim's body! What
more do you want?"

For a long moment their glances interlocked and held. In a sharp,
intuitive way Braceway felt that Bristow suspected his concern about
George Withers. He did not know why he suspected it, but he did. He was
convinced that the other, with his darting, analytical mind, had gone to
the secret unerringly.

"Oh, well," he laughed, rising from the table, "if you're so fond of your
own ideas, Bristow, you won't be of much use to me in questioning Morley
tonight."

"On the contrary," the other returned quickly, "I'm just as anxious as
you are to get the truth out of him. As long as one man's story is left
vague and indefinite, just that long you run the risk of somebody's
coming forward with facts or conjectures to overthrow the theory you've
advanced. It applies to my idea as well as to yours."

"No doubt."

"You know as well as I do," the lame man continued, "that, if Perry
Carpenter isn't guilty, the next one to suspect logically is Withers."

"What makes you say that?" The question was put sharply.

"I've two reasons. In the first place, the facts and Withers' own story;
in the second, common sense."

The telephone rang. When Bristow answered it, a man's voice asked for
Braceway. Major Ross himself was on the wire.

"I had the man in Baltimore interviewed," he reported. "Here is his story
in a few words: some years ago Morley's father bought