ed there the rest of the night."

"Is that all?"

"That's all."

"How about the lavalliere? Wasn't it found under his window? The papers
said so."

"Yes; in the grass in the yard. But he denies knowing anything about it."

"Of course! And his confession is nothing but a confirmation of the case
against him."

"Exactly. He seems to want to hang himself. And he'll do it. The grand
jury meets next Thursday. He'll be indicted then, and tried two weeks
later."

"What are the people here saying about Braceway's bitterness against
Morley? Anything?"

"Yes. I'd meant to tell you about that. Some of the gossip hits Withers
pretty hard. They can't understand what's behind this persecution of
Morley after it's been proved that Perry did the murder. You've seen
hints of it in the papers.

"And it looks queer. Some say Withers is guilty, out-and-out guilty, and
afraid the case against Perry won't hold good. So, they say, he wants to
get a case against Morley."

"A sort of second line of defense?"

"I reckon so. But, then, there are others saying right now that Morley
was mixed up in some sort of scandal for which Withers wants revenge.
That's what you said at the very start. Remember?"

Bristow laughed softly.

"Yes; I had that idea, and I've reasoned it out. On the way to
Washington, and after we got there, I saw that Braceway wasn't entirely
frank with me. You know how a man can feel a thing like that. He gets it
by intuition.

"And it worried me. Having handled the case here, I didn't want him to
spring some brand new angle which possibly, in some way, might make me
look like a fool.

"I puzzled over the thing a whole lot. What was it he was after without
letting me in on it? The night we talked to Morley in the station house,
I got it. We were in a cab at the time, a lucky thing, because, when it
burst upon me, I narrowly escaped hysterics. The thing came to me like an
inspiration.

"Braceway was afraid Morley knew something detrimental to Withers and
would spring it under questioning. Understand now: it wasn't directly
connected with the murder, but something that would make it pretty hot
for Withers. And here was the laugh: while Morley didn't know it, I did.
Braceway had made the trip to gag Morley, to see that he didn't uncover
something which, after all, Morley didn't know--and I did!

"It was this: about nine months ago Mrs. Withers, while in Washington,
got a lawyer, the firm of Dutton & Dutton, to