do the
worrying. I'll get him if he's above the sod."

* * * * *

"So, you see," Braceway said, in reciting the incident to Bristow, "we're
getting a little warm on the scent. This Morley, this wooer of Maria,
seems to have his head within stinging range of the hornets, doesn't he?"

"Undoubtedly."

"What do you make of it?" pressed Braceway.

Bristow thought a little while.

"It might be this," he advanced: "Morley is in trouble with his bank,
short in his accounts--probably has been for several months. Two months
ago, sixty-one days ago, he confided to Miss Fulton that he stood in
great danger of arrest, pointed out that he had made a mistake, asked
assistance from her, told her a thousand dollars would arrange things.

"But, instead of paying the thousand into the bank, he went to gambling
with it in the hope of trebling or quadrupling it and--lost it. In other
words, he's been afraid to tell his financee how much he really owed the
bank and then played the thousand to win enough to enable him to square
himself."

"Once more," observed the Atlanta man, "you speak in mouthfuls."

"Again and further--of course, all this is on the theory that Morley is a
pusillanimous kind of man; but he would have to be just that to be taking
money from a woman, any woman, much less the one to whom he is engaged to
be married--again and further, when he had lost the thousand and saw ruin
just ahead of him again, he ran down here and asked for more money.

"Perhaps, Mrs. Withers, at her sister's tearful request, had previously
raised more than a thousand for him, had added to that thousand other
money obtained from pawning some of her jewelry; and he now insisted that
Maria make Mrs. Withers go the limit and pawn _all_ her jewelry.

"By George!" Bristow concluded. "That may explain the quarrel which Miss
Rutgers, the trained nurse in Number Seven, heard the two sisters engaged
in the day before the murder. Yes; it might. Evidently, Mrs. Withers
refused to be bled further. After that, what? What would you say?"

"It's plain enough," Braceway answered. "There was Morley, crazed by the
fear of arrest and conviction for embezzlement. There was Mrs. Withers,
still possessing and holding enough jewelry to get him out of trouble, if
he had time to convert the jewels into cash and to get back to his bank
with the money.

"What was the result of that situation? Evidently, he never intended to
catch