ifferently. He still wanted to know Paredes's goal, but his
disappointment and its meaning obsessed him.

When they crept up the growing light exposed the scars of the deserted
house. Everything was as Bobby remembered it. At the front there was no
decayed wood or vegetation to strengthen the doctor's half-hearted theory
of a phosphorescent emanation.

The tangle of footsteps near the rear door was confusing and it was some
time before the three men straightened and glanced at each other, knowing
that the doctor's wisdom was proved. For Paredes had been there recently;
for that matter, might still be in the house. Moreover, he hadn't hidden
his tracks, as he could have done, in the thick grass. Instead he had
come in a straight line from the woods across a piece of sandy ground
which contained the record of his direction and his continued stealth.
But inside they found nothing except burnt-out matches strewn across the
floor, testimony of their earlier search. The fugitive had evidently
left more carefully than he had come. The chill emptiness of the deserted
house had drawn and released him ahead of the chase.

"I guess he knew what the light meant," the detective said, "as well as
he did that queer calling. It complicates matters that I can't find a
woman's footprints around here. She may have kept to the grass and this
marked-up path, for, since I don't believe in banshees, I'll swear
there's been a woman around, either a crazy woman, wandering at large,
who might be connected with the murders, or else a sane one who
signalled the foreigner. Let's get back and see what the district
attorney makes of it."

"It might be wiser not to dismiss the banshees, as you call them, too
hurriedly," Doctor Groom rumbled.

As they returned along the road in the growing light Bobby lost the
feeling he had had of being spied upon. The memory of such an adventure
was bound to breed something like confidence among its actors. Rawlins,
Bobby hoped, would be less unfriendly. The detective, in fact, talked as
much to him as to the doctor. He assured them that Robinson would get the
Panamanian unless he proved miraculously clever.

"He's shown us that he knows something," he went on. "I don't say how
much, because I can't get a motive to make it worth his while to commit
such crimes."

The man smiled blandly at Bobby.

"While in your case there's a motive at least--the money."

He chuckled.

"That's the easiest motive to unders