Although they knew Paredes had been in the court the spell of the Cedars was so heavy upon them that for a moment they didn't know what to expect. They hesitated with a little of the abnormal apprehension Silas Blackburn exposed. Then Rawlins sprang forward, and Bobby called: "Carlos!" Paredes stepped from one side. He lingered against the black background of the doorway. It was plain enough something was wrong with him. In the first place, although he had opened the door, he had been unwilling to enter. "Shut the door," Silas Blackburn moaned. Paredes, with a quick gesture of surrender, stepped in and obeyed. His face was white. He had lost his immaculate appearance. His clothing showed stains of snow and mould. He held his left hand behind his back. "What's the matter with you?" Robinson demanded. The Panamanian's laugh lacked its usual indifference. "When I said the Cedars was full of ghosts I should have heeded my own warning. I might better have stayed comfortably locked up in Smithtown." Silas Blackburn spoke in a hoarse whisper: "What did you see out there? Are they coming?" "I saw very little," Paredes answered. "It was too dark." "You saw something," Doctor Groom rumbled. Paredes nodded. He looked at the floor. "A--a woman in black." "By the lake!" Bobby cried. "Not as far as the lake. It was near the empty grave." Silas Blackburn commenced to shake again. The doctor's little eyes were wider. "It was a woman--a flesh-and-blood woman?" Robinson asked. "If it was a ghost," Paredes answered, "it had the power of attack; but that, as you'll recall, is by no means unusual here. That's why I've come in rather against my will. It seems strange, but I, too, have been struck by a sharp and slender object, and I thought, perhaps, the doctor had better look at the result." With a motion of repugnance he moved his left hand from behind his back and stretched it to the light. The coat below the elbow was torn. The slender hand was crimson. He tried to smile. "Luckily it wasn't at the back of my head." "Sit down," Doctor Groom said, waving Robinson and Rawlins away. "Let me see how badly he's hurt. There'll be plenty of time for questions afterward." Paredes lay back in one of the chairs and extended his arm. He kept his eyes closed while the doctor stooped, examining the wound. All at once his nearly perpetual sleeplessness since coming to the Cedars had recorded itself in his face. His nerves at last confessed their vulnerability as he fumbled for a cigarette with his good hand, as he placed it awkwardly between his lips. "Would you mind giving me a light, Bobby?" Bobby struck a match and held it to the cigarette. "Thanks," Paredes said. "Are you nearly through, doctor? I daresay it's nothing." Doctor Groom glanced up. "Nothing serious with a little luck. It's only torn through a muscle. It might have pierced the large vein."