ver to do with the murder."

"Good Lord! I didn't think he had. But still he may have been a
friend, and--"

"That man was all right. I know that."

"You _know_?" Leverage was incredulous.

"Yes." Carroll grinned. "I was the man!"

"You--? Holy sufferin' mackerel! Sa-a-ay! Was that chicken I seen you
with downtown, Lawrence's sister-in-law?"

"Yes. Miss Evelyn Rogers. And Good Lord! Leverage, how that girl can
talk! She holds all records for conversational distance and speed. She
talked me dumb."

Leverage was staring respectfully at Carroll. "If you were the man who
was with her, David--you must have seen Barker when he left the house."

"I did."

The face of the chief showed his disappointment: "That's what I get for
thinking I had a real surprise up my sleeve. You sit back with that
innocent kid face of yours and let me spill all the dope--and then tell
me perfectly matter-of-factly that you knew it all the time. How'd you
ever get wise to the thing, anyway?"

Carroll was honest. "No thanks to my sagacity, Leverage. One of those
pieces of bull luck which I have always contended play an enormous part
in solving crime. In the first place Evelyn Rogers came to me the day
after Warren was killed to assure me that Miss Gresham had a perfect
alibi. This afternoon she lassoed me and dragged me into an ice cream
place because she wanted to prove to some of her school companions that
we were really friends." Carroll chuckled. "I quaffed freely from the
fountain of youth--and enjoyed it awhile. Then I got bored stiff. Took
her to the movies--she invited me--and did it only because I've passed
beyond the years of adolescence and didn't know how to crawfish out of
it. After which--because it seemed the proper thing to do--I volunteered
to ride her home in my car. And it was then that I saw Barker leaving the
Lawrence home. So you see, Leverage, my knowledge is the result of pure
accident--and not at all the fruit of keen perception."

"Well, anyway--Carroll: you knew! And that takes the edge off what I
told you."

"Not at all," returned Carroll seriously. "For while what I discovered is
perhaps valuable--that combined with the fact that Barker has been there
once before: and that on his first visit when Lawrence was probably at
home he stayed nearly five times as long as he did when we know that
Lawrence was not there--that is of help--or ought to be."

"What do you think of it?"

Carroll hesitated. "I don't kn