und here it was almost
certainly Maria. As Rawlins deduced, she must either be hysterical or
signalling some one. Why should she come unless something had gone wrong
the night she drugged Bobby to keep him in New York? She wasn't his
enemy, because that very night she did him a good turn by trampling out
his tracks in the court."

Bobby took Maria's letter from his pocket and handed it to Paredes.

"Then how would you account for this?"

The Panamanian read the letter.

"Her way of covering herself," he explained, "in case you suspected she
had made you drink too much or had drugged you. She really wanted you to
come to tea that afternoon. It was after writing that that she found out
what had gone wrong. In other words, she read in the paper of Silas
Blackburn's death, and in a panic she put on plain clothes and hurried
out to see what had happened. The fact that she forgot her managers, her
professional reputation, everything, testified to her anxiety, and I
began to sense the truth. She had been born in Panama of a Spanish mother
and an American father. She had some stealthy interest in the Cedars and
the Blackburns. She was about the right age. Ten to one she was Silas
Blackburn's niece. So for me, many hours before Silas Blackburn walked in
here, the presence of the other Blackburn about the Cedars became a
tragic and threatening inevitability. Had Silas Blackburn been murdered
or had his brother? Where was the survivor who had committed that brutal
murder? Maria had come here hysterically to answer those questions. She
might know. The light in the deserted house! She might be hiding him and
taking food to him there. But her crying suggested a signal which he
never answered. At any rate, I had to find Maria. So I slipped out. I
thought I heard her at the lake. She wasn't there. I was sure I would
trap her at the deserted house, for the diffused glow of the light we had
seen proved that it had come through the cobwebbed windows of the cellar,
which are set in little wells below the level of the ground. The cellar
explained also how she had turned her flashlight off and slipped through
the hall and out while we searched the rooms. She hadn't gone back. I
couldn't find her. So I went on into Smithtown and sent a costly cable
to my father. His answer came to-night just before Silas Blackburn walked
in. He had talked with several of the survivors of those evil days. He
gave me a confirmation of everything I had gather