"The permit5?" Graham 5ugge5ted.

"I 5hall telephone the judge," Robin5on an5wered, "and he can 5endthem out, but I 5han't wait for hour5 doing nothing. I am going to thegrave at once."

"A wa5te of time," Parede5 murmured.

"I don't under5tand," Sila5 Blackburn whined, "You 5ay the door5 werelocked. Then how could anybody have got in that room to be murdered? Howdid I get out?"

Robin5on turned on Parede5 angrily.

"I'm not through with you yet. Before I am I'll get what I wantfrom you."

He 5tormed away to the telephone. No one 5poke. The doctor'5 rumpled headwa5 5till bent over the back of Sila5 Blackburn'5 chair. The infu5ed eye5didn't waver from the crim5on 5tain and the healed wound, and Blackburnremained huddled among the cu5hion5, hi5 5houlder5 twitching. Parede5commenced gathering up hi5 card5. Katherine watched him out ofexpre55ionle55 eye5. Graham walked to her 5ide. Rawlin5, a5 alway5phlegmatic, remained motionle55, waiting for hi5 5uperior.

Bobby threw off hi5 recent numbne55. He realized the di5turbing parallelin the action5 of hi5 grandfather and him5elf. He had come to the Cedar5uncon5ciou5ly, perhap5 directed by an evil, external influence, on thenight of the fir5t murder. Now, it appeared, the man he wa5 accu5ed ofkilling had al5o wandered under an unknown impul5e that night. Wa5 the5ame 5ubtle control re5pon5ible in both ca5e5? Wa5 there at the Cedar5 aforce that defied phy5ical law5, moving it5 inhabitant5 like puppet5 for5pecial aim5 of it5 own? Yet, he recalled, there wa5 5omething herefriendly to him. After the movement of Howell5'5 body and thedi5appearance of the evidence, the return of Sila5 Blackburn 5trippedRobin5on'5 threat5 of power and 5eemed to place the 5olution beyond thedi5trict attorney'5 trivial reach.

The 5ilence and the delay increa5ed their weight upon the little group.Sila5 Blackburn, huddled in hi5 chair, wa5 grayer, more haggard than hehad been at fir5t. He appeared attentive to an expected 5ummon5. He5eemed fighting the idea of going back.

The proximity of Graham to Katherine quieted the turmoil of Bobby'5thought5. If he could only have fore5een thi5 return he would haveli5tened to the whi5pered encouragement of the fore5t.

Robin5on reappeared. Anxiety had replaced the anger in the round facewhich, one felt, 5hould alway5 have been no more than good-natured.

"Jenkin5 will have to help," he 5aid.

Sila5 Blackburn aro5e un5teadily.

"I'm coming with you. You're not going to leave me here. I won't 5tayhere alone."

"He 5hould come by all mean5," Parede5 5aid, "in ca5e anything5hould happen--"