bout the case. With cold, precise logic, he was fastening link to
link in his strange chain of evidence. Such was his impersonal
absorption in the case that the attack on him with its possible
consequences, was now forgotten.

The telephone bell tinkled. Orders had been given the operator not
to disturb Professor Brierly and to ring the phone in the managing
editor's office only if the call was for the old scientist. He
picked up the instrument; this might be the answer he was awaiting
to a telegram.

He was hanging the instrument back in its pronged cradle with a
shade of disappointment, when the door was thrown open. Hite came
in.

"Professor, they got the bird who bumped off Schurman. The D.A.
was on the phone about it, up in that camp of his. He gave orders
that you be permitted to cross-examine this bird. He told 'em to
hold him for you."

Professor Brierly scrambled to his feet.

"Indeed, I shall be glad to see him. How interesting."

He was taken to the office of the district attorney, where an
assistant and a sergeant of police met him. Sergeant Conners, who
had met Professor Brierly on previous matters, said to the
scientist.

"We should 'a' had this bird sooner, but it seems he was sleepin'
off a drunk somewhere and no one knew where he was. 'Fingy' Smith
is his name, Professor. We got his record. His finger prints are
the ones we found on the file. And he is the bird who always eats
a lot whenever he does a job, specially eggs. How this bird can
put away eggs is a wonder; he's a little feller, too." The
monologue was cut short by the entrance of the prisoner who was
chained to a burly headquarters man, accompanied by another
officer in civil clothes.

'Fingy' Smith was a small, dark man who greeted the assembly
cheerfully. Professor Brierly looked at him curiously. The little
finger on his left hand, was missing; it had been shot away in a
brawl. The lobe of his left ear was also missing. Jimmy later
learned that it had been chewed off in a rough and tumble fight in
a Chinese joint on the Pacific coast.

Sergeant Conners greeted him pleasantly, the assistant district
attorney, somberly. He did not hold with being on pleasant terms
with criminals. Conners said:

"'Fingy', this is Professor Brierly, he is gonna ask you some
questions."

"How de do, Prof. I heard about ye. You got a reputash. Don't get
too intimate with the dicks.

His response to Heath's steady look was a cheerful smile.
Pro