"I won't have a sling," Paredes said. "I wouldn't know what to do without
the use of both my hands."

"You ought to congratulate yourself that you still keep it," the
doctor grumbled.

Bobby took the pan and the bottles from Katherine and rang for Jenkins.
It was clear that Robinson had hoped the girl would go out with them
herself and so give Paredes an opportunity to speak. This new development
made him wonder about Graham's theories as to Paredes. If it was Maria
who had struck the man there had either been a quarrel among thieves or
else no criminal connection had ever existed between the two. Paredes,
however, aping the gestures of an invalid, was less to Bobby's taste than
his satanic appearance when he had come from the private staircase.

Rawlins still held the cloak. After Jenkins had removed the doctor's
paraphernalia, everyone seemed to wait. It was Silas Blackburn who
finally released the strain.

"Katy, where you been with that cloak? What's he doing with it?"

Without answering she took the cloak from Rawlins, and gave the detective
and the district attorney the opportunity they craved. She walked up the
stairs, turning at the landing. Her farewell seemed pointed at the
Panamanian who looked languidly up at her.

"If I'm wanted I shall be in my room."

"Who would want you, Katherine?" Graham blurted out. But it was clear he
had caught the coincidence, too, and the trouble he had confessed a
little earlier was radically increased.

"That remains to be seen," Robinson sneered as soon as she had gone.
"Now, Mr. Paredes."

"I've really told you everything," he said. "I walked toward the
graveyard. At a point very close to it I felt the presence of this
creature in black. I spoke. I took my courage in my hands. I reached
out. I touched nothing." He raised his injured hand. "I got this for
my pains."

"What made you go to the graveyard?" Robinson asked suspiciously.

There was no mockery in the Panamanian's answer.

"I have told you the court for me has always been full of ghosts." He
pointed to Silas Blackburn. "It frightened me that this man should come
back through the court from his grave with all the evidence pointing to
an astral magic. I wanted to retrace his journey. I thought at the grave,
if I were alone, something might expose itself that had naturally
remained hidden in the presence of so many materialistic human beings."

A smile spread over Rawlins's cold, unimaginative features.