ok his head.

"Tell me how he was dressed."

The old servant covered his face.

"Mr. Silas stumbled through the kitchen," he answered hoarsely. "I tried
to stop him, but he pushed me away and ran out." His voice rose. "I tell
you he ran without a coat or a hat into the storm."

Paredes sighed.

"The Cedars's final tragedy, yet it was the most graceful exit he could
have made."

Maria struggled to her feet. Her eyes were the eyes of a person without
reason. That familiar, hysterical quality which they had heard before at
a distance vibrated in her voice.

"Then he was the one! I wanted to kill him, I couldn't kill him because I
never was sure."

"Did you see him go out an hour or so ago?" Paredes asked.

"I saw him," she cried feverishly, "run from the back of the house and
down the path to the lake. I--I tried to catch him, but my feet were
frozen, and the snow was slippery, and I couldn't find my shoes. But I
called and he wouldn't stop. I had to know, because I wanted to kill him
if it was Silas Blackburn. And I saw him run to the lake and splash in
until the water was over his head."

She flung her clenched hands out. Her voice became a scream, shot with
all her suffering, all her doubt, all her fury.

"You don't understand. He can't be punished. I tell you he's at the
bottom of the lake with the man he murdered. And I can't pay him. I tried
to go after him, but it--it was too cold."

She sank in one of the chairs, shaking and sobbing.

"Unless we want another tragedy," the doctor said, "this woman must be
put to bed and taken care of. She has been terribly exposed. You've heard
her. She's delirious."

"Not so delirious that she hasn't told the truth," Paredes said.

The doctor lifted her in his arms and with Rawlins's help carried her
upstairs. Katherine went with them. Almost immediately the doctor and
Rawlins hurried down.

"I have told Katherine what to do," Doctor Groom said. "The woman may be
all right in the morning. What's she been up to here?"

"Then," Bobby cried, "there was a connection between the dinner party and
the murders. But what about my coming here unconscious? What about my
handkerchief?"

"I can see no answer yet," Graham said.

Paredes smiled.

"Not when you've had the answer to everything? I have shown you that
Silas Blackburn was the murderer. The fact stared you in the face.
Everything that has happened at the Cedars has pointed to his guilt."

"Except," the docto