Graham whispered.

"Then you don't think Katherine--"

"If she'd done it she'd have taken good care not to be so curious. I
doubt if it was Katherine."

They followed the others into the hall. Bobby, scarcely appreciating why
at first, realized there had been a change there. Then he understood:
Robinson faced an empty chair. The hall was pungent with cigarette smoke,
but Paredes had gone.

Robinson pointed to the stairs.

"Get him down," he said to Rawlins.

"He wouldn't have gone to bed," Graham suggested. "Suppose he's in the
old room where Howells lies?"

But Rawlins found him nowhere upstairs. With an increasing excitement
Robinson joined the search. They went through the entire house. Paredes
was no longer there. He had, to all appearances, put a period to his
unwelcome visit. He had definitely disappeared from the Cedars.

His most likely exit was through the kitchen door which was unlocked, but
Jenkins who had returned to his room had heard no one. With their
electric lamps Robinson and Rawlins ferreted about the rear entrance for
traces. The path there was as trampled and useless as the one in front.
Rawlins, who had gone some distance from the house, straightened with a
satisfied exclamation. The others joined him.

"Here's where he left the path right enough," he said. "And our foreigner
wasn't making any more noise than he had to."

He flashed his lamp on a fresh footprint in the soft soil at the side of
the path. The mark of the toe was deep and firm. The impression of the
heel was very light. Paredes, it was clear, had walked from the house
on tiptoe.

"Follow on," Robinson commanded. "I told this fellow I wanted to question
him. I've scared him off."

Keeping his light on the ground, Rawlins led the way across the clearing.
The trail was simple enough to follow. Each of the Panamanian's
footprints was distinct. Each had that peculiarity that suggested the
stealth of his progress.

As they continued Bobby responded to an excited premonition. He sensed
the destination of the chase. He could picture Paredes now in the
loneliest portion of the woods, for the trail unquestionably pointed to
the path he had taken that afternoon toward the stagnant lake.

"Hartley!" he said. "Paredes left the house to go to the stagnant lake
where I fancied I saw a woman in black. Do you see? And he didn't hear
the crying of a woman a little while ago, and when we told him he became
restless. He wandered about t