"What's this about arrest?" asked Mr. Dorgan.

"I arrest this whole side-show," said Mr. Gubb, pressing his face
between the bars of the cage, "for the murder of that poor, gentle,
harmless man now a dead corpse into that blue box there--Mr.
Winterberry by name, but called by you by the alias of the 'Pet.'"

"Winterberry?" exclaimed Mr. Dorgan. "That Winterberry? That ain't
Winterberry! That's a stone man, a made-to-order concrete man, with
hollow tile stomach and reinforced concrete arms and legs. I had him
made to order."

"The criminal mind is well equipped with explanations for use in time
of stress," said Mr. Gubb. "Lesson Six of the Correspondence School of
Deteckating warns the deteckative against explanations of murderers
when confronted by the victim. I demand an autopsy onto Mr.
Winterberry."

"Autopsy!" exclaimed Mr. Dorgan. "I'll autopsy him for you!"

He grasped one of the Pet's hands and wrenched off one concrete arm.
He struck the head with a tent stake and shattered it into crumbling
concrete. He jerked the Roman tunic from the body and disclosed the
hollow tile stomach.

"Hello!" he said, lifting a rag-wrapped parcel from the interior of
the Pet. "What's this?"

When unwrapped it proved to be two dozen silver forks and spoons and a
good-sized silver trophy cup.

"'Riverbank Country Club, Duffers' Golf Trophy, 1909?'" Mr. Dorgan
read. "'Won by Jonas Medderbrook.' How did that get there?"

"Jonas Medderbrook," said Mr. Gubb, "is a man of my own local town."

"He is, is he?" said Mr. Dorgan. "And what's your name?"

"Gubb," said the detective. "Philo Gubb, Esquire, deteckative and
paper-hanger, Riverbank, Iowa."

"Then this is for you," said Mr. Dorgan, and he handed the telegram to
Mr. Gubb. The detective opened it and read:--

Gubb,
Care of Circus,
Bardville, Ia.

My house robbed circus night. Golf cup gone. Game now
rotten: never win another. Five hundred dollars reward for
return to me.

JONAS MEDDERBROOK

"You didn't actually come here to find Mr. Winterberry, did you?"
asked Syrilla.

Mr. Gubb folded the telegram, raised his matted hair, and tucked the
telegram between it and his own hair for safe-keeping.

"When a deteckative starts out to detect," he said calmly, "sometimes
he detects one thing and sometimes he detects another. That cup is one
of the things I deteckated to-day. And now, if all are willing, I'll
s