"That sounds well, Mr. Paredes, and there is a lot about this case that
looks like ghosts, but leave us a few flesh-and-blood clues. This woman
in black is one of them, although she's been slippery as an eel. It looks
to me as if you went to the grave to meet her alone exactly as you went
to the deserted house to talk quietly with her night before last. Maybe
she mistook you for one of us snooping in the dark, and let you have it."

"If that is so," Paredes said easily, "the nature of my wound would
suggest that she is guilty of the crimes in the old room. Why not go out
and arrest her then? She might explain everything except the return to
life of Mr. Blackburn. I'm afraid that's rather beyond you in any case.
But at least find her."

Robinson joined in Rawlins's laugh.

"Why go outside for that?"

Paredes started.

"You never mean--"

"You bet we do," Rawlins said. "If what I've doped out hadn't been so
we'd have caught her long before. We're not blind, and we haven't missed
the nerve with which she helped the doctor fix you up. We haven't caught
her before because her headquarters have been right in this house all the
time. You remember the other night, Mr. Robinson. You'd just questioned
her in the court and had threatened to question him, too, when she came
in here ahead of us and slipped out the back way. She must have told him
to follow because they had to talk, undisturbed by us. They went by
different roads to the deserted house where a light had been seen before.
We happened to hit his trail first and followed it. I'll guarantee you
didn't see her when you first came in."

Robinson shook his head.

"Mr. Graham kept me busy, and I rather waited for your report before
pushing things. I didn't see her or question her until after Mr. Graham
and Mr. Blackburn had started for New York."

"And she could have sneaked in the back way any time before that,"
Rawlins said.

"It's utter nonsense!" Graham cried.

Rawlins turned on him.

"See here, Mr. Graham, you've been trying to fight me off this way all
afternoon. It won't do."

"Katy's a good girl," Silas Blackburn quavered.

With a growing discomfort Bobby realized that when the woman had cried
near the graveyard he had reached out for Katherine and had failed to
find her. Moreover, the night Graham and he had heard the crying in the
old room she had stood alone in the corridor. It was easily conceivable
that the turn of events after Robinson's arri