I."

"Here it is. I wrote out her story and read it back to her, and she
signed it."

Greenleaf took the paper and read it:

"I know Perry Carpenter went to Mrs. Withers' house Monday night. He
and I had been drinking together, and I was nearly drunk, but he was
only about half-drunk. He told me he knew where he could get a lot of
money, or 'something just as good as money,' because he had seen 'that
white woman' with it. He and I had a fight because he wanted me to
give him the key to Mrs. Withers' house, to her kitchen door.

"He broke the ribbon on which I used to hang the key around my neck,
and he went out. That was pretty late in the night. Before daylight,
he came back and flung the key on the floor, and he cursed me and hit
me. I had two keys on the ribbon, one to Number Five, Manniston Road,
and one to the house where I worked before I went to Mrs. Withers. He
had taken the wrong one. When he hit me, he said: 'You think you're
damn smart, giving me the wrong key; but that didn't stop me.' He
seemed to be drunker then than he was when he went out earlier in the
night.

(Signed) "Lucy Thomas."

The chief whistled. "How in thunder did you get this out of the woman?"

"Sent for her and had a talk with her. She told so many stories and
contradicted herself so much that, at last, she broke down and let me
have the real facts."

"Will she stick to what she says in this paper?"

"Oh, yes. There won't be any trouble about that."

Greenleaf offered him the signed confession.

"No; keep it," he said. "It's your property, not mine."

The chief folded it and put it carefully into his breast pocket.

"I wonder," he speculated, "what Mr. Braceway will say to this."

"He'll realize that the case is settled. But I don't think he'll quit
work."

"Why won't he, if he sees we've got the guilty man?"

"That's what I'd like to know. I believe--this is between you and me--I
believe he's working more for George Withers now than he is for the
state. You see, as I've already told you, there may be some family
scandal in this, something the husband wants to keep quiet. Braceway will
be satisfied as soon as we show him that the only thing we want is to
present the evidence against the negro; that we take no interest in
private scandals. But there's one thing, however, chief, I wish you'd do:
let Morley go to Washington on the midnight train tonight instead of
making him wai