"No."
"I thought," Bobby said excitedly, "that there was some one in the hall. I--I simply got that impression, for I
saw nothing myself. My back was turned."
Paredes strolled silently in.
"It may have been Mr. Paredes," the doctor said.
But Bobby wasn't convinced.
"Did you see or hear anything coming through the hall, Carlos?"
"No," Paredes said.
He had brought the light. With its help they explored the tiny cellar and the upper floor. There was no sign of
a recent occupancy. Everything was as Bobby had found it on awakening. A vagrant wind sighed about the
place. They looked at each other with startled eyes. They filed out with an incongruous stealth.
"Then there are ghosts here, too!" Paredes whispered.
"Who knows?" Doctor Groom mused. "It is as puzzling as anything that has happened at the Cedars unless the
light we saw was some phosphorescent effect of decaying wood or vegetation."
"Then why should it go out all at once?" Bobby asked. "Is there any connection between this light and what
has happened at the Cedars?"
"The house at least," Paredes put in, "is connected with what has happened at the Cedars through your
experience here."
At Doctor Groom's suggestion they sat in the automobile for some time, watching the house for a repetition of
the pallid light. After several minutes, when it failed to come, Bobby set his gears.
"Graham and Katherine will be worried."
They drove quickly away from the black, uncommunicative mass of the abandoned building. The woods were
lonelier than before. They impressed Bobby as guarding something.
He drove straight to the stable. As they walked into the court they saw the uncertain candlelight diffused from
the room of death. In the hall Bobby responded to a quick alarm. The Cedars was too quiet. What had
happened since he and Paredes had left?
"Katherine! Hartley!" he called.
He heard running steps upstairs. Katherine leaned over the banister. Her quiet voice reassured him. "Is the
doctor with you?"
He nodded. Paredes yawned and lighted a cigarette. He settled himself in an easy chair. Bobby and Doctor
Groom hurried up. Katherine led them down the old corridor. Two chairs had been placed in the broken
doorway. Graham sat there. He arose and greeted the doctor.
"Nothing has happened since I left?" Bobby asked