is chair--

"Gerald Lawrence, or I'm a bum guesser," he stated positively.

"Looks that way," admitted Carroll. "What I hate about the idea is that
if Lawrence is the man there will be no way on earth to keep Mrs.
Lawrence's name out of it."

"You're right--How about Barker?"

"I believe Barker's story. So does Mrs. Lawrence. She believes that
Barker thinks she killed Warren in the taxi."

Leverage glanced keenly at his friend. "You are going to arrest
Lawrence?"

"No-o. Not yet. He may not have done it--"

"Well," sizzled the chief of police, "if he didn't and Barker didn't--who
the devil did?"

Carroll shook his head hopelessly. "I don't know, Eric. If neither of
those two men did, we'll be left hopelessly in the air."

"Exactly. We know that one of 'em did the shooting. We've covered this
case from every angle, and if we believe that the shooting was not done
by Mrs. Lawrence, we must suspect one of the two men involved. And if you
are sure it wasn't Barker--"

"Let's wait a little while longer," counseled Carroll. "I want to be
absolutely sure of my ground."

The two men sat in Leverage's office and talked. They discussed the case
again from the beginning to its present status--threshing out each detail
in the hope that they might have overlooked some vital fact which would
give them a basis upon which to proceed. Their efforts were fruitless.
The investigation had developed results--true enough--but those results
were not at all satisfactory.

And it was about an hour later that a knock came on the door. In response
to Leverage's summons, an orderly entered. In his hand he carried an
evening paper--

"Just brought this in, sir. Thought you and Mr. Carroll might like
to read it."

The orderly retired. Carroll spread the paper--then did something very
rare. He swore profoundly. His eyes focused angrily on the enormous
first page headlines:

"CARROLL HAS SOLVED WARREN MYSTERY

"Identity of Clubman's Slayer Known to Famous Detective

"WILL MAKE ARREST WITHIN 24 HOURS

"Sensational Developments Promised by David Carroll in Exclusive
Interview with Reporter for The Star."

It all came back to Carroll now. The eager reporter, the news-hunger,
his non-committal statements. He read furiously through the story. It
proved to be one of those newspaper masterpieces which uses an enormous
number of words and says nothing. Carroll was quoted as saying only what
he had actually said. It was the personal c