s the first
now to reach for a rational explanation of this new phase.

"We mustn't let our fancies run away with us. The coroner's right for
once. No excuse for a woman hiding in that thicket. A bird, maybe, or
some animal--"

"Sounded more like a human being," Robinson objected.

The detective reasoned in a steady unmoved voice: "Only a mad woman would
wander through the woods, crying like that without a special purpose.
This man Paredes has left the house and come through here. I'd guess it
was a signal."

"Graham and I had thought of that," Bobby said.

"Howells was a sharp one," Robinson mused, "but he must have gone wrong
on this fellow. He 'phoned me the man knew nothing. Spoke of him as a
foreigner who lolled around smoking cigarettes and trying to make a fool
of him with a lot of talk about ghosts."

"Howells," Graham said, "misjudged the case from the start. He wasn't to
blame, but his mistake cost him his life."

Robinson didn't answer. Bobby saw that the man had discarded his
intolerant temper. From that change he drew a new hope. He accepted it as
the beginning of fulfilment of his prophecy last night that an accident
to Howells and the entrance of a new man into the case would give him a
fighting chance. It was clearly Paredes at the moment who filled the
district attorney's mind.

"Go after him," he said shortly to Rawlins. "If you can get away with it
bring him back and whoever you find with him."

Rawlins hesitated.

"I'm no coward, but I know what's happened to Howells. This isn't an
ordinary case. I don't want to walk into an ambush. It would be safer not
to run him down alone."

"All right," Robinson agreed, "I don't care to leave the Cedars for the
present. Perhaps Mr. Graham--"

But Graham wasn't enthusiastic. It never occurred to Bobby that he was
afraid. Graham, he guessed, desired to remain near Katherine.

"I'll go, if you like," Doctor Groom rumbled.

It was probable that Graham's instinct to stay had sprung from service
rather than sentiment. The man, it was reasonable, sought to protect
Katherine from the Cedars itself and from Robinson's too direct methods
of examination. As an antidote for his unwelcome jealousy Bobby offered
himself to Rawlins.

"Would you mind if I came, too? I've known Paredes a long time."

Robinson sneered.

"What do you think of that, Rawlins?"

But the detective stepped close and whispered in the district
attorney's ear.

"All right," Robin