Bobby.

"Then Howells knew the criminal was in the house."

"Howells, I daresay," Graham said, "telephoned you something of his
suspicions." Robinson nodded.

"He was on the wrong line," Graham argued, "or he wouldn't have been so
easily overcome. You can see for yourself. Locked doors, a wound that
suggests the assailant was close to him, yet he must have been awake and
watchful; and if there had been a physical attack before the sharp
instrument was driven into his brain he would have cried out, yet Miss
Perrine was aroused by nothing of the sort, and the coroner, I daresay,
will find no marks of a struggle about the body."

The coroner who had been busy at the bed glanced up.

"No mark at all. If Howells wasn't asleep, his murderer must have been
invisible as well as noiseless."

Doctor Groom smiled. The coroner glared at him.

"I suggest, Mr. District Attorney," he squeaked, "that the ordinary
layman wouldn't know that this type of wound would cause immediate
death."

"Nor would any man," the doctor answered angrily, "be able to make such a
wound with his victim lying on his back."

"On his back!" Robinson echoed. "But he isn't on his back."

The doctor told of the amazing alteration in the positions of both
victims. Bobby regretted with all his heart that he had made the attempt
to get the evidence. Already complete frankness was impossible for him.
Already a feeling of guilt sprang from the necessity of withholding the
first-hand testimony which he alone could give.

"And a woman cried!" Robinson said, bewildered. "All this sounds like a
ghost story."

"You've more sense than I thought," Doctor Groom said dryly. "I never
could get Howells to see it that way."

"What are you driving at?" Robinson snapped.

"These crimes," the doctor answered, "have all the elements of a
ghostly impulse."

Robinson's laugh was a little uncomfortable.

"The Cedars is a nice place for spooks, but it won't do. I'll be frank.
Howells telephoned me. He had found plenty of evidence of human
interference. It's evident in both cases that the murderer came back and
disturbed the bodies for some special purpose. I don't know what it was
the first time, but it's simple to understand the last. The murderer
came for evidence Howells had on his person."

Bobby couldn't meet the sharp, puffy eyes. He alone was capable of
testifying that the evidence had been removed as if to secrete it from
his unlawful hand. Yet if he spoke