The Abandoned Room

avy blankets. "I don't dare!" He echoed Graham's words. "There's nothin

s to learn how he had accomplished the apparent miracles. Then no excuse would remain for not going to Robinson and confessing. The woman at the lake and in the courtyard, the movement of the body and the

e house, and strange, harsh voices. He raised himself on his elbow and glanced from the window. It had long been daylight. Two burly fellows in overalls, carryin

" Bobby ask

a place for Silas Blackburn with his fathers. That's why I've come to wake you up. The mini

d landscape. It was abnormally cold even for the late fall. Dull clo

nerea

d into his mind.

ried," Graham answered soft

"It won't lessen the

"lessens such facts

ced at him

to stand by me after wh

am s

lept like a top last night. I

aid. "Oughtn't I to make a clean breast of it

m fro

leep-walking last night, yet it's as clear as ever that

be in jail," B

t, then we can decide. There's no use talking of the oth

prang u

d to face sleep before, what do you

e satisfied beyond the shadow of a doubt I'd advise you to confe

his sleep had done him good. While he breakfasted Graham urged him to eat, trie

g. Her pictures are in most of the papers. There have

d handed Bobby a nu

obinson?"

I daresay he's wandering around-per

nothing new

m at breakfast

look

obile coming through

ck from Smithtown

which, at their direction, he had failed to mail. Had his exclamation been drawn by an accuser? Bobby started to rise. Graham moved toward the door. Then Jenkins entered and stood to one side. Bobby shared his astonishment, for Paredes walked in, unbuttoni

n the weather I would have brought a heavier ove

ble greeting he faced Bobby. He felt in h

I hadn't noticed until a little while ago. You

with an obvi

an, Carlos? I t

with a flat demand

d you g

waved

Rawlins to drive me back, but he rushed from the courthouse, probably to telephone his rotund superior. Fact is, this

knote. He didn't miss

the money t

ll you, Jenk

ains of Bobby's bre

arly, and prison food, whe

ns at the moment of his arrest, or to the openly expressed enmity of Graham. Only one theory promised to fit at all. It was necessary for the Panamanian to return to the Cedars. His purpose, whatever it was, compelled him to remain for the present in the mourn

erted Bobby's thoughts temporarily from his ow

's good humour. For him yesterday's incident was not so lightly to be passed over. Ev

ly expecte

s short and

would find it necessary to s

e coffee which Je

epresents the company for which I once worked. He's a prominent and brilliant man. He planned it with some local fellow. When I was arraigned at the opening of court this morning the ju

ham had awakened him urged Bobby

you did. I was tired, at my wits' end. Your presence in the pr

ffee cup and lighted a cigarette.

forgive, Bobby. Let us ca

moved

now what you were doing

moke. His eyes still smile

ygones. Isn't

wish it,"

ham desired, loomed the old question. Wha

n it had been yesterday. Worry had increased the incongruou

arned me. But I must say I didn't think

es la

ce in Smithtown I keep myself at your service

ength. His mind was subtler than theirs. His reserve and easy daring mastered them all; and always, as now, he laughed at the futility of their efforts to sound his purposes, to limit his freedom of action. Bobby didn't care to meet the

y appeared as much a

e said dryl

obby, he asked wi

o the gentleman visiti

e amused at Robinson's obvious fancy of

d his head tow

there. I guess when he's laid away you'll

nswered with a quic

eered, "since everybody know

Robinson st

the grave-as c

the house. He had walked some distance. The underbrush had long interposed a veil between him and the Cedars above whose roofs smoke wreathed in the still air like fantastic figures weaving a shroud to lower over the time-stained, melancholy walls. For once he was grateful to the forest because it had forbidden him to glance perpetually back at that dismal and pensive picture. Then he became aware of twigs hastily lopped off, of bushes bent

obby. Its brevity pointed the p

p en

restored path, as if fleeing from an immaterial th

al justice in the condition of the old cemetery. It had received no interment since the death of Katherine's father. Like everything about the Cedars, Silas Blackburn had delivered it to the swift, obliteratin

al. It would, doubtless, be more difficult to endure than Howells's experiment over Silas Blackburn's body in the old room. Could he witness the definite imprisonment of his gra

igure was appropriate to the Cedars. Bobby stepped to one side, placing a screen of dead foliage between himself and the man whose profession it was to mourn. He emerged from the forest and saw again the leisurely weaving of the smoke shroud above the h

aham leave the court

you up, Bobby. The min

Everything's

or Gr

l of your grandfather. It's nat

y back to the house. Graham made it plain tha

ing were wrong?" he asked. "He ignores what happened

it," Bobby answered. "This morn

eration, startling Bobby; for this friend expressed practically

s wits to hang on here. He suggests resources as hard to understand as anything that has happened in

ound with him, if th

f the last two or thr

Yo

arlos for that,"

nt," Graham persisted, "to refuse to leave wi

her share,"

ff, lookin

e you dr

is psychic. Maybe he can do things we don't understand. I've wondered if he had, without your knowing it, acquired sufficie

to the hall last night, perhaps sent

essed the idea Bobby foug

I've been weak, Hartley

el Howells's body m

n you went to the old room to take the evidence. It was a shock to have your candle go out. Your own hand, reaching ou

e of the evidence?" B

ht have retained its bulging shape. We know now th

I was there, and you weren't. I know with my own senses what happened, an

raham asked quietly, "why d

turned

such thoughts? If you think I'm gu

lization that he had spoken to Graham as he might have done to an enemy, as he had spo

u by seeking physical facts in order to escape the ghosts. For Groom has brought the g

s for me. But I want it quickly. I

ngering resentment at Graham's suggestion lessened the difficulty of hi

by, glowering at Paredes. The Panamanian had changed his clothing. He, too, was sombrely dressed, and, instead of the vivid necktie he had worn from the courthouse, a je

nctuous figure. Bobby noticed that the great stolid form of the doctor was ill at ease.

not delay. Your cousin is upstairs." He include

who car

the district attorney realized that, too, for he sprang from his chair, and, followed by Rawlins,

Why do

f some comfort," Pare

nister made that rest

or of Silas Blackburn's room. He stepped aside, beckoning. He had an

his mind with his dislike of the old man. The iron bed; the chest of drawers, scratched and with broken handles; the closed colonial desk; the miserly rag car

. From the chest of drawers two candles, the only light, played wanly over the still figure an

s Blackburn who could no longer accuse. He stared i

s thing. I didn'

is vague light, raced along his nerves. Silas Blackburn had moved once since his death. If the power to move and speak should mira

e, to the lovely one that was active with a little smile of encouragement. He was grateful for that. It taught him that in the heavy presence of death and from the harsh trappings of mourning the magnetism of youth is unconquerable. So

will be read

late of metal from the floor, and fit it in place, hiding from his eyes the closed eyes of

y, Mr. B

the dull autumn air. He followed at the side of Katherine across the clearing and into the o

she said. "Perhaps we never understood him. That is dreadfu

that also. Because of his selfishness Silas Blackburn had lived alone. Because of it

g to Kathe

only know!"

is hand. She

wn beside it, glancing at each other with relief. Across the heap of earth Bobb

deep e

eemed to take a pleasure in the terrible words it lo

revolting in his ears. He scarcely heard them. He imagined a fantasy. He pictured the inhabitants of these forgotten, narrow houses straying to the great dwelling where they had lived

vines on the fallen stones. Later, he thought, it would snow, an

sorrel pit. It passed from Bobby's sight. The two roughly dressed labourers came from the thicket where they had hidden, and with their spades approached the grave. The sound from whose immi

d glanced up. One of the black-clothed men was

Mr. Blackburn. Ever

ttorney, took a sombre pride in facing it out until even the men with the spades had gone. The ordeal, he reflected, had lost its poignancy. His mind was intent on the empty trappings he had witnessed. He wondered if there was, after all, no justice against his grandf

xcavation, appearing to intimate that Silas Blackburn's earthy blanket could hide nothing from the closed eyes it sheltered. At his age he faced the near approach of that inevitable fact, and he didn't hesita

use your s

ugh the woods. The broad shoulders twitched

e stones and trim the graves. You couldn't blame them, could

ter the earth continued to fall became once more a potent

atherine

of the backs of the spades on the completed mound beat into his brain the end. The workme

in in such a place. Peop

tried t

"If Paredes spoke of this cemetery as be

ep bass answere

t myself. The Cedars and the forest are full of things that seem to whispe

of it," Robinso

she seemed not to notice. She walked ahead of him along the

ine!" h

alk to m

rtion of a grief that seeks to control itself. He slackened his pace and let her walk ahead. He followed with a sort of a

the district attorney. Strangely it made him sorry that Robinson s

s no longer low over the roofs. Against the forest and the darker clouds the ho

he Cedars was left alone to

s nothing to say. Paredes placed with a delicate accuracy fresh lo

ossible of entrance when the house is left as

but in her face was expressed an aversion for solitude, a desir

e consultation, Bobby guessed. Katherine sat on the ar

e said. "It is ver

s's announcement that luncheon was ready, but they scarcely disturbed the hurriedly prepared dishes, and afterward they gathered again in the ha

ving about, but no one, save Graham, seemed to care. Already the officers had had every opportunity to search the house. The old room no longer held

something. Yo

m a little trivial. Bobby fancied it gathering density to cradle new my

he grumbled. "What

ir again and appeared to h

hought he had joined Rawlins

n either side of the front door. Bobby, watching these, was, even wi

to him, he arranged the cards in neat piles. The uncertain firelight made it barely possible to identify t

ed, "so soon after he

es st

he sai

she glanc

ected. "There has been so much

fingers on the edge of

oing?" Dr. Groo

aredes sa

softly across the face of the table and flutter to the floor. The tab

d. "It's moving. I can feel

obby unavoidably his ex

hat!" the d

es sm

or a solution? You see how quickly the table responds. It is as I thought. There is something in this

n. Katherine lifted her hands with a visible effort, as if the table had t

on't

appealing to the doctor. The hug

't in this hall. That is why I'll have nothing to do with such dangero

It would be useful to speak with the

jectedly. He stooped and commenced pi

sighed. "I don't kn

his coat

to the stab

t was colder and damper, and even beyond the chill was more penetrating than it had been at the

ked when he had taken the blanket from

rought him back the previous night from the stairhead, to which he ha

as you are already in Graham's hands. Maybe that is all right. But the district attorney? You're

those who know about that first

't make an arrest pretty soon with something back of it he'll lose his mind. He mightn't

e courage to sleep t

thought f

time your reactions were better diagnosed. I'll share your room, and you can go to sleep, assured that you'll come to no harm, that harm will come to no one throu

smothering garment. This old man, who had always filled him with discomfort, had become a capable support in his difficult hour. He saw him drive away. He studied his watch, computing the time that must elapse b

rom his mind the memory of the ordeal at the grave, the grim, impending atmosphere of the house. A

or of the forest. If this weather continued the woods would cease to be habitable for that dark feminine figure through which

separated him from the little time-devastated city of the dead, but its mere proximity fo

ifference the fluttering caresses of the snowflakes. Bobby paused with a quick expectancy. He saw nothing of the woman who had startled him

ded the lake and was some distance beyond it, however, the moaning reached him again, and through the fast-deepening twilight he saw, as indistinctly as he had before, a black feminine figure flitting amon

? Why do you cry t

re disappeared. In retrospect it was again as unsubstantial as a

r. A black figure stood in the open, quite close to him, gazing over the stagnant water that was like a veil for sinister things

ard until he was close

ll me who you are and why

for there was still enough light to disclose to him the troubled face of Katherine, an

htened me

ou I saw here before? But surely you didn't cry in the ho

disturbed. When she answered her v

do you

t now? It was you I saw r

ur woman in black, if that's what you think. I happened to pick up

e tears angril

walk. I hoped I would find you. I thought you had come this way,

he more intimate one of his heart. There was a thrill i

appiness. It wasn't the thought of Graham that held him back. Last night, under an equal temptation, he might have spoken. To-night a new element silence

Let us go ba

at him in

to-day than you have ever been before. H

dn't increase her own trou

umination from the passage of the snowf

ything will come out straight. You must keep telling

filled him with a new courage, obscured to an ext

believe. If necessary I'll tell everything

on his arm. Her voic

police will find nothing. By and by they will leave. It will all be forgotten

ied, surprised. "W

renely calling attention to the fact that Katherine had alarmed the household and had led i

the house the snow had spread a white mantle. F

to go in," K

e room of death, they saw, had been raised. A dim, unhealthy light slipped from the small-paned

erine stopped

t?" she ask

e. He saw a black patch against the wall

shadow,

ared at it with a hypnotic belief that the Cedars was at last disclosing its supernatural secret. He knew it could be no illusion, since Katherine swayed, half-fainting, ag

day to return to his grave. For there wasn't the slightest doubt. The unhealthy candlel