and pieces! It's blown up! It's gone glimmering!--What do
you think of that?"

Hastings refrained from replying that he had regarded such an event as
highly probable. Instead, he inquired:

"And that simplifies things?"

"Does it!" exploded Mr. Crown. "I'm getting to you a few minutes ahead
of the afternoon papers. You'll see it all there." An apologetic laugh
came over the wire. "You'll excuse me, I know; I had to do this thing up
right, put on the finishing touches before you even guessed what was
going on. I've wound up the whole business. The Washington police nabbed
Russell an hour ago, on my orders.

"'Simplifies things?' I should say so! I guess you can call 'em
'simplified' when a murder's been committed and the murderer's waiting
to step into my little ring-tum-fi-diddle-dee of a country jail! 'No
clue to this mystery,' the papers have been saying! What's the use of a
clue when you _know_ a guy's guilty? That's what I've been whistling all
along!"

"But the alibi?" Hastings prompted. "You say it's blown up?"

"Blown! Gone! Result of my sending out those circulars asking if any
automobile parties passed along the Sloanehurst road the murder night.
Remember?"

"Yes." The old man recalled having made that suggestion, but did not say
so.

"This morning the chief of police of York--York, Pennsylvania--wired me.
I got him by long-distance right away. He gave me the story, details
absolutely right and straight, all verified--and everything. A York man,
named Stevens, saw a newspaper account, for the first time this morning,
of the murder. He and four other fellows were in a car that went up Hub
Hill that night a little after eleven--a few minutes after.--Hear that?"

"Yes. Go on."

"Stevens was on the back seat. They went up the hill on low--terrible
piece of road, he calls it--they were no more than crawling. He says he
was the only sober man in the crowd--been out on a jollification tour of
ten days. He saw a man slide on to the running board on his side of the
car as they were creeping up the hill. The rest of the party was
singing, having a high old time.

"Stevens said he never said a word, just watched the guy on the running
board, and planned to crack him on the head with an empty beer bottle
when they got on the straight road and were hitting up a good clip--just
playing, you understand.

"After he'd watched the guy a while and was trying to fish up a beer
bottle from the bottom of the car, the