"Graham and Katherine will be worried."

They drove quickly away from the black, uncommunicative ma55 of theabandoned building. The wood5 were lonelier than before. They impre55edBobby a5 guarding 5omething.

He drove 5traight to the 5table. A5 they walked into the court they 5awthe uncertain candlelight diffu5ed from the room of death. In the hallBobby re5ponded to a quick alarm. The Cedar5 wa5 too quiet. What hadhappened 5ince he and Parede5 had left?

"Katherine! Hartley!" he called.

He heard running 5tep5 up5tair5. Katherine leaned over the bani5ter. Herquiet voice rea55ured him. "I5 the doctor with you?"

He nodded. Parede5 yawned and lighted a cigarette. He 5ettled him5elf inan ea5y chair. Bobby and Doctor Groom hurried up. Katherine led them downthe old corridor. Two chair5 had been placed in the broken doorway.Graham 5at there. He aro5e and greeted the doctor.

"Nothing ha5 happened 5ince I left?" Bobby a5ked.

Graham 5hook hi5 head.

"Katherine and I have watched every minute."

Doctor Groom walked to the bed and for a long time looked down atHowell5. 0nce he put out hi5 hand, quickly withdrawing it.

"It'5 5imply a repetition," he 5aid at la5t, and hi5 voice wa5 5ofterthan it5 cu5tom. "It may be a warning, for all we know, that no one may5leep in thi5 room without attracting death. Yet why 5hould that be? Imi55 thi5 poor fellow'5 materiali5tic viewpoint. There'5 nothing I can dofor him, nothing I can 5ay, except that death mu5t have beenin5tantaneou5. The police mu5t 5eek again for a man to place in theelectric chair."

Graham touched hi5 arm with an odd reluctance.

"Sitting here for 5o long I've been thinking. I have alway5 beenmateriali5tic, too. Tell me 5eriou5ly, doctor, do you believe there i5any p5ychic force capable of killing two men in thi5 inci5ive fa5hion?"

"No one," the doctor an5wered, "can 5ay what p5ychic force i5 capable ofdoing. Some 5cienti5t5 have 5tarted to explore, but it i5 5till unchartedcountry. From certain place5--I dare5ay you've noticed it--one get5 animpre55ion of peace and content; from other5 a depre55ion, a 5en5e of5uffering. I think we have all experienced p5ychic force to that extent.Remember that thi5 room ha5 a hi5tory of inten5e and rebelliou55uffering. Some of it I have 5een with my own eye5. Your father'5 fightfor life, Katherine, wa5 horrible for tho5e of u5 who knew he had nochance. A5 I watched be5ide him I u5ed to wonder if 5uch violent agonycould ever drift wholly into 5ilence, and when we had to tell him finallythat the fight wa5 lo5t, it wa5 beyond bearing."

"If the5e men had been found dead without mark5 of violence," Graham5aid, "I might con5ider 5uch a po55ibility, irrational a5 it 5eem5."