A LIE GETS THE AX

“The body’s under the wood pile, but remember—you gotta keep me outa this,” whined Stig Carona, casting shifty eyes at Professor Fordney and Inspector Kelley. Sniffing through a nose which an ungenerous nature had placed at an unlovely angle and licking lips cut on the bias, Stig twisted his greasy cap in nervous fingers.

An hour later the three men got out of a police car and walked to a clump of bushes in Wilson’s woods.

“Bill and Jake were fightin’ in front of that shack over there,” Stig explained, pointing to a clearing. “Jake knocked Bill down, then grabbed an ax. When Bill got up Jake hit him over the head with it a couple of times. Then he dragged the body toward the shack. He must’ve thought he heard somethin’ ’cause he propped it up against the house and walked over this way. I knew if he found me here I’d get what Bill got, so I lammed to the road, jumped in my car and went for the cops.”

Fordney observed bloodstains on the shack about three feet from the ground which appeared to bear out Stig’s story. Some freshly cut fire wood spattered with dark stains lay near a chopping block.

Opening the door of the shack the Professor was about to enter when Kelley called from the yard. “The body’s under the wood pile, all right. Gad, what a sight!”

But Fordney’s interest at the moment was not the body but a bright, clean, shining ax standing in the far corner of the shack’s single room. Carrying it by its battered handle, he took it outside. At the Professor’s quiet words Stig turned with a startled look.

“Unless,” said Fordney, “you want to be placed under arrest for murder immediately, you will tell us the truth about this crime.”

How did Fordney know Stig’s account was untrue? Turn page for solution.