gain.

Then Bobby, scarcely aware of what was going on, saw the cards glide
softly across the face of the table and flutter to the floor. The table
had lifted slowly toward the Panamanian. It stood now on two legs.

"What is it?" Katherine said. "It's moving. I can feel it move beneath
my fingers."

Her words recalled to Bobby unavoidably his experience in the old room.

"Don't do that!" the doctor cried.

Paredes smiled.

"If," he answered, "the source of these crimes is, as you think,
spiritual, why not ask the spirits for a solution? You see how quickly
the table responds. It is as I thought. There is something in this hall.
Haven't you a feeling that the dead are in this dark hall with us? They
may wish to speak. See!"

The table settled softly down without any noise. It commenced to rise
again. Katherine lifted her hands with a visible effort, as if the table
had tried to hold them against her will. She covered her face and sat
trembling.

"I won't! I--"

Paredes shrugged his shoulders, appealing to the doctor. The huge, shaggy
head shook determinedly.

"I'm not so sure I don't agree with you. I'm not so sure the dead aren't
in this hall. That is why I'll have nothing to do with such dangerous
play. It has shown us, at least, that you are psychic, Mr. Paredes."

"I have a gift," Paredes murmured. "It would be useful to speak with
them. They see so much more than we do."

He lifted his hands. He waved them dejectedly. He stooped and commenced
picking up the cards. The doctor arose.

"I shall go now." He sighed. "I don't know why I have stayed."

Bobby got his coat and hat.

"I'll walk to the stable with you."

He was glad to escape from the dismal hall in which the firelight
grew more eccentric. The court was colder and damper, and even beyond
the chill was more penetrating than it had been at the grave that
noon. Uneven flakes of snow sifted from the swollen sky, heralds of a
white invasion.

"No more sleep-walking?" the doctor asked when he had taken the blanket
from his horse and climbed into the buggy.

Bobby leaned against the wall of the stable and told how Graham had
brought him back the previous night from the stairhead, to which he had
gone with a purpose he didn't dare sound. The doctor shook his head.

"You shouldn't tell me that. You shouldn't tell any one. You place
yourself too much in my hands, as you are already in Graham's hands.
Maybe that is all right. But the district att