," Paredes answered, "it had the power of attack; but
that, as you'll recall, is by no means unusual here. That's why I've come
in rather against my will. It seems strange, but I, too, have been
struck by a sharp and slender object, and I thought, perhaps, the doctor
had better look at the result."

With a motion of repugnance he moved his left hand from behind his back
and stretched it to the light. The coat below the elbow was torn. The
slender hand was crimson. He tried to smile.

"Luckily it wasn't at the back of my head."

"Sit down," Doctor Groom said, waving Robinson and Rawlins away. "Let me
see how badly he's hurt. There'll be plenty of time for questions
afterward."

Paredes lay back in one of the chairs and extended his arm. He kept his
eyes closed while the doctor stooped, examining the wound. All at once
his nearly perpetual sleeplessness since coming to the Cedars had
recorded itself in his face. His nerves at last confessed their
vulnerability as he fumbled for a cigarette with his good hand, as he
placed it awkwardly between his lips.

"Would you mind giving me a light, Bobby?"

Bobby struck a match and held it to the cigarette.

"Thanks," Paredes said. "Are you nearly through, doctor? I daresay
it's nothing."

Doctor Groom glanced up.

"Nothing serious with a little luck. It's only torn through a muscle. It
might have pierced the large vein."

His forehead beneath the shaggy black hair was deeply lined. He turned to
Robinson doubtfully.

"Maybe you'll tell us," Robinson said, "what made the wound."

"No use shirking facts," the doctor rumbled. "Mr. Paredes has been
wounded just as he said, by something sharp and slender."

"You mean," Robinson said, "by an instrument that could have caused death
in the case of Howells and--and--"

"I won't have you looking at me that way," Silas Blackburn whined.

"Yes," the doctor answered. "Before we go any farther I want to bind this
arm. There must be an antiseptic in the house. Where is Katherine? See if
you can find her, Bobby."

As Bobby started to cross the dining room he heard the slight scraping of
the door leading to the kitchen. He knew there was someone in the room
with him. He touched a cold hand.

"Bobby!" Katherine breathed in his ear.

He understood why the little light from the hall had failed to disclose
her when she had come from the kitchen. She wore the black cloak. Against
the darkness at the end of the room she had made no