k he was on the level with all that storming
and raging. It might have been just a great big bluff--that's all. And
yet, that Braceway he talked about is good, a wonder. He's done some
wonderful work."

"Here's one point," Greenleaf advanced: "why didn't he ask for help from
the police yesterday afternoon when he lost track of that fellow with the
gold tooth?"

"Yes," the other returned absent-mindedly; "why didn't he?"

CHAPTER VI

MORLEY IS IN A HURRY

Bristow looked at his watch. It was nearly half-past two o'clock.

"Hear anything about Perry?" he asked.

"Yes," Greenleaf informed him. "My man found him. They've got him down at
headquarters. I phoned from Number Five and got this. He'd been drinking.
I gather that he's about half-drunk now."

"Good! If he'll talk at all, it will be easier for you to get the truth
out of him that way than if he were cold sober. Suppose you see him and
Douglas Campbell; and later on this afternoon you and I can talk to Miss
Fulton and her father."

"Her father won't be here today. He wired that a little while ago. He'll
get here early in the morning."

"Very well. It's of no consequence just now. Come back here for me at
four, will you?"

When the chief had gone, Bristow sat down to his delayed dinner. As he
ate, he went over the facts so far discovered, and catalogued them:

Perry, the negro--incriminated, probably, by the buttons from his
overalls jacket; by the ease with which he could have obtained from Lucy
Thomas the kitchen key to No. 5; by the possible motive of robbery; and
by the brutal means, choking, employed to inflict death.

Morley--incriminated by his unknown whereabouts during the two hours
following his missing the midnight train, and by the discovery of the
ring (possibly Mrs. Withers') in his room at the Brevord.

Withers--involved by the probable motive of jealousy and rage, and by his
secret trip to Furmville.

Maria Fulton--well, he would see.

"Just now," he concluded in his own mind, "it looks worse for the negro
than anybody else. There's one thing certain: the man against whom the
most evidence rests by the time they have the inquest tomorrow will be
the one held for the action of the grand jury. That's the thing to
do--get the one who seems most probably guilty."

He thought of Douglas Campbell and immediately dismissed him as a
possibility in the list of probable murderers. The young real estate
dealer had been completely exon