the truth. Then he
had told it in the library yesterday when they had caught him prowling in
the private staircase. All along he had told it while they had tried to
convict him of under-handed and unfriendly intentions.

"I saw," Paredes was saying, "that Howells wouldn't succeed, and it was
obvious you and Rawlins would do worse, while Graham's blundering from
the start left no hope. Somebody had to rescue Bobby."

"Then why did you give us the impression," Graham asked, "that you were
not a friend?"

Paredes held up his hand.

"That's going rather far, Mr. Graham. Never once have I given such an
impression. I have time after time stated the fact that I was here in
Bobby's service. That has been the trouble with all of you. As most
detectives do, you have denied facts, searching always for something more
subtle. You have asked for impossibilities while you blustered that they
couldn't exist. Still every one is prone to do that when he fancies
himself in the presence of the supernatural. The facts of this case have
been within your reach as well as mine. The motive has been an easy one
to understand. Money! And you have consistently turned your back."

Robinson spread his hands.

"All right. Prove that I'm a fool and I'll acknowledge it."

Doctor Groom interrupted sharply.

"What was that?"

They bent forward, listening. Even with Paredes offering them a physical
explanation they shrank from the keening that barely survived the heavy
atmosphere of the old house.

"You see the woman in black isn't Miss Perrine," Paredes said.

He ran down the stairs. They followed, responding to an excited sense of
imminence. Even in the private staircase the pounding that had followed
the cry reached them with harsh reverberations. Its echoes filled the
house as they dashed across the library and the dining room. In the hall
they realized that it came from the front door. It had attained a
feverish, a desperate insistence.

Paredes walked to the fireplace.

"Open the door," he directed Rawlins.

Rawlins stepped to the door, unlocked it, and flung it wide.

"The woman!" Katherine breathed.

A feminine figure, white with snow, stumbled in, as if she had stood
braced against the door. Rawlins caught her and held her upright. The
flakes whirled from the court in vicious pursuit. Bobby slammed the
door shut.

"Maria!" he cried. "You were right, Hartley!"

Yet at first he could scarcely accept this pitiful creature as t