of careless people in the world."

When she had gone back to the kitchen, the full force of what she had
said struck him. How simple it would have been for Perry to have taken
the key from the drunken Lucy and gone to No. 5! After the commission of
the crime, what would have been easier than for him to throw the key on
the floor in Lucy's house, thus apparently proving that he had had no way
of gaining entrance to the bungalow?

"I didn't foresee this," he meditated. "There's only one thing more
needed to hang that darky. That is the discovery that he has in his
possession, or has hidden, the jewelry."

He seemed suddenly reminded of something else by this thought. He went to
the telephone and called up the Brevord Hotel.

"A Mr. Morley, Mr. Henry Morley, registered there last night, didn't he?"
he inquired of the clerk.

"Yes," the clerk replied.

"I wonder," continued Bristow suavely, "if you'd mind looking at the
register and telling me exactly at what time he did register. This is
Chief Greenleaf's office talking."

"I see. Yes, sir; very glad to. Just hold the wire a moment while I
look."

Bristow waited. The Brevord was scarcely four minutes' walk from the
railroad station. Morley, having missed the midnight train by two
minutes, should have registered at the hotel certainly not later than ten
minutes past midnight.

"I have it," came the clerk's voice. "Mr. Henry Morley, of Washington, D.
C., registered here at five minutes past two this morning."

Bristow was astonished, but his voice was uncoloured by surprise when he
inquired:

"Are you sure of that?"

"Quite," said the clerk laconically. "We always put down opposite each
guest's name the time of arrival and registering."

"Thanks ever so much." Bristow hung up the receiver slowly.

It was now after one o'clock, and, following the routine prescribed by
his doctor, he made his way to the sleeping porch to lie down for half an
hour before dinner, his midday meal.

"From midnight until two o'clock this morning," he reflected, revolving a
dozen different facts in his mind. "Mr. Morley failed to mention how he
amused himself during all that time. If he's not a criminal, he's
criminally stupid."

CHAPTER V

THE HUSBAND'S STORY

Mr. Bristow, however, was not allowed to rest half an hour. Instead, he
was called upon to consider a phase of the Withers murder more amazing
than any of those so far uncovered. Barely ten minutes after his
c