and pleased. "It must
have belonged to Mrs. Withers, don't you think?"

"There's one way to find out," Bristow answered, looking at his watch. It
was half-past eight o'clock. "Let's go and ask Withers."

They went around to the front of No. 5.

"One of the end links is broken," Bristow said as they ascended the
steps. "My guess is that this is a part of the necklace Mrs. Withers wore
when she was killed. You remember the mark on the back of her neck. It
might have been made by the jerk that would have been required to break
these links."

Miss Kelly, answering their ring, told them Mr. Withers had gone to the
railroad station to meet Mr. Braceway.

"Then, too," she added, "Miss Fulton's father is due on the nine o'clock
train. Mr. Withers may stop down town to meet him."

"I'd forgotten about that," said Bristow. "We'll have to ask your help."
He handed her the fragment of chain. "Will you be so kind as to take
that back to Miss Fulton and ask her whether she recognizes it, whether
she can identify it?"

Miss Kelly complied with the request at once.

She returned in a few moments.

"Miss Fulton," she reported, handing the links back to Bristow, "says
this is a part of the chain Mrs. Withers wore round her neck night before
last. She wore a lavalliere; it had two emeralds and eighteen rather
small diamonds."

"Good!" exclaimed Greenleaf, glancing at the lame man. "I guess that
fixes Perry."

"Undoubtedly," Bristow assented; and spoke to Miss Kelly: "I beg your
pardon, but is Miss Fulton up this morning, or will she be up later?"

"She's dressing now. She wants to be up to meet her father."

"In that case, I'll wait until later. What I would like to have is a
complete, detailed description of all of Mrs. Withers' jewelry. I wish
you'd mention that to her, will you?"

Greenleaf was anxious to return to his office.

"This last piece of evidence," he said, "ought to go to the coroner's
jury. It clinches the case against Perry. Here's the whole business in a
nutshell: the buttons missing from his blouse, one found in Number Five,
the other in your bungalow; Miss Hardesty's having seen him the night of
the murder; the ease with which he undoubtedly got the kitchen key from
Lucy Thomas; the imprint of his rubber-soled shoe on the porch; the
finding of this piece of gold chain; and his failure to establish an
alibi. It's more than enough to have him held for the grand jury--it's
murder in the first degree."