of Withers' whereabouts."

Beneath the Washington dispatch was one from Atlanta:

"Inquiry made here today failed to disclose where George S. Withers,
husband of the victim of the brutal crime at Furmville, N. C., is now.
He left this city the morning Mrs. Withers was buried, according to
his friends, but said nothing as to his destination or the probable
length of time he would be away.

"The Atlanta authorities were asked by the Washington police to locate
him if possible. No reason for the request was given."

There was a smile on Bristow's lips when he tossed the paper to one side.
Braceway, he deduced from the article, was having his troubles making the
Morley theory hang together. And why should he hurry back to Furmville?
There was nothing new here.

He shrugged his shoulders and unwrapped the bundle of out-of-town papers.

Recalling how late he had received the albino message the night before,
he concluded that Braceway had filed it in Washington during the
afternoon, with instructions that it be sent as a night message. His
resentment for Braceway flared up again.

"'Amazing disclosure,'" he mentally quoted the headlines. "Well, we shall
see what we shall see. Perhaps, it will come as an amazing disclosure to
him that I've been on the sound side of this question all along."

He began the work of cutting from the papers the accounts of the Loutois
kidnapping. As he read them, he built up a tentative outline showing
who the kidnappers were and where they probably had secreted the boy. He
grew absorbed, whistling in a low key.

So far as he was concerned, the Withers case was a closed incident.

Early in the afternoon he called Greenleaf on the telephone, and
announced:

"I'm leaving town for a few days tomorrow morning."

"Again! What for?" the chief asked.

"They've asked me to work out that kidnapping case in New Orleans--the
Loutois child."

"Good! I'm glad to hear it; I congratulate you."

Greenleaf was sincerely pleased. He felt that he had sponsored and
developed the lame man as a detective.

"Thanks. Before I go, I want to have a talk with you. We might as well go
over everything once more and----"

"That reminds me. I was just about to call you up, but your news made me
forget. I've a wire from Braceway, just got it. He filed it at Salisbury,
on his way here. Let me read it to you:

"'Have all the stuff I can get on Withers case. Can not go further
before con