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Let us go back. Let us see if he is all right." Rawlins laughed skeptically. "You're not afraid he'll melt away!" "I'm not so sure he won't," Paredes answered. They followed him downstairs. Because of the position of Blackburn's chair they could be sure of nothing until they had reached the lower floor and approached the fireplace. Then they saw.
"As a lawyer," Graham said easily, "I should think with your lack of evidence it might be asking for trouble. There is Paredes who acknowledges he was in the court." "All right. I'll see what he's got to say." He started for the house. Bobby lingered for a moment with Graham. "Do you know anything about this, Hartley?" "Nothing," Graham whispered. "Then you don't think Katherine "
"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.
His reddish eyes grew always more alarmed. Silas Blackburn turned with a quick, frightened gesture, facing the fire. Paredes drew a deep breath. "Now you'll see," he said. Doctor Groom shrank against the wall again. After a moment, with the motions of one drawn by an outside will, he approached the figure at the fireplace. Then Bobby saw, and he heard Katherine's choked scream.
There was no country on the face of the globe he had not seen, nor battle he had not been engaged in; he had killed more Moors than there are in Morocco and Tunis, and fought more single combats, according to his own account, than Garcilaso, Diego Garcia de Paredes and a thousand others he named, and out of all he had come victorious without losing a drop of blood.
"Even now I don't see how that old scoundrel had the courage to show himself to-night," Rawlins said. "That's the beautiful justice of the whole thing," Paredes answered, "for there was nothing else whatever for him to do. There never had been anything else for him to do since Miss Katherine had spoiled his scheme, since you all believed that it was he who had been murdered.
When he had experienced his first symptoms of slipping consciousness he had been in the cafe in New York with Carlos Paredes, Maria, the dancer, and a strange man whom Maria had brought to the table. Through them he might, to an extent, trace his movements, unless they had put him in a cab, thinking he would catch the train, of which he had talked, for the Cedars.
His laugh rang false. "Hello!" "I'm afraid we've caught you, Paredes," Graham said, and the triumph blazed now in his voice. What Paredes did then was more startling, more out of key than any of his recent actions. He came precipitately down. His eyes were dangerous.
Robinson walked over to Paredes. "Another lawyer?" he sneered. "Another friend," Paredes answered easily. Robinson glanced at Katherine. "Of course you are Miss Perrine. Good. Coroner, these are all that were in the front part of the house when you were here before?" "The same lot," the coroner squeaked. "There are three servants, a man and two women," Robinson went on.
From time to time he stooped close to the ground, shaded his lamp with his hand, and pressed the control. Always the light verified the presence of Paredes ahead of them. Bobby knew they were near the stagnant lake. The underbrush was thicker. They went with more care to limit the sound of their passage among the trees.
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