"From a long ways off," she answered. "Then I--I thought it must be in the room with you, and I wondered if you saw--" Graham shook his head. "We saw nothing. It was probably Ella or Jane. They've been badly frightened. Perhaps a nightmare, or they've heard us moving around the front part of the house. I am going to see." Katherine and Bobby followed him downstairs. Doctor Groom and Paredes stood in front of the fireplace, questioningly looking upward. Paredes didn't speak at first, but Doctor Groom burst out in his grumbling, bass voice: "What's been going on up there?" "Did you hear just now a queer crying?" Graham asked. "No." "You, Paredes?" "I've heard nothing," Paredes answered, "except Doctor Groom's disquieting theories. It's an uncanny hour for such talk. What kind of a cry--may I ask?" "Like a woman moaning," Bobby said, "and, Doctor, Howells has changed his position." "What are you talking about?" the doctor cried. "He has turned on his side as Mr. Blackburn did," Graham told him. Paredes glanced at Bobby. "And how was this new mystery discovered?" Bobby caught the implication. Then the Panamanian clung to his slyly expressed doubt of Katherine which might, after all, have had its impulse in an instinct of self-preservation. Bobby knew that Graham and Katherine would guard the fashion in which the startling discovery had been made. Before he could speak for himself, indeed, Graham was answering Paredes: "This crying seemed after a time to come from the room. We entered." "But Miss Katherine called you up," Paredes said. "I supposed she had heard again movements in the room." Bobby managed a smile. "You see, Carlos, nothing is consistent in this case." Paredes bowed gravely. "It is very curious a woman should cry about the house." "The servants may make it seem natural enough," Graham said. "Will you come, Bobby?" As they crossed the dining room they heard a stirring in the kitchen. Graham threw open the door. Jenkins stood at the foot of the servants' stairs. The old butler had lighted a candle and placed it on the mantel. The disorder of his clothing suggested the haste with which he had left his bed and come downstairs. His wrinkled, sunken face had aged perceptibly. He advanced with an expression of obvious relief. "I was just coming to find you, Mr. Robert." "What's up?" Bobby asked. "A little while ago I thought you were all asleep back here." "One of the women awakened him," Graham said. "It's just as I thought." "Was that it?" the old butler asked with a quick relief. But immediately he shook his head. "It couldn't have been that, Mr. Graham, for I stopped at Ella's and Jane's doors, and there was no sound. They seemed to be asleep. And it wasn't like that." "You mean," Bobby said, "that you heard a woman crying?" Jenkins nodded. "It woke me up." "If you didn't think it was one of the maids," Graham asked, "what did you make of it?"