They started down the steps.
"You saw the scratches on Mrs. Withers' hand, didn't you?" said Bristow.
"Yes."
"Well, if Perry did the scratching, we can prove it. Any good laboratory man can tell us whether the stuff that was under his nails contains particles of the human skin, the epidermis. If those particles are found, the case is settled, it seems to me."
"By cracky!" exclaimed Greenleaf, his admiration of his assistant growing. "You've solved the problem—gone to the very bottom of it."
"What did Perry have to say? What was his story?"
"Oh, it amounted to nothing. Said he wasn't near Number Five; said he was drunk last night and thought he was at the house of this Lucy Thomas all the time."
"Then, the proof rests upon what the laboratory analysis of the finger nail stuff shows. When can we get that report?"
Bristow was a little surprised by the embarrassment Greenleaf showed before answering:
"We can get it tomorrow—by wire."