Robinson threw back his shoulders.  He turned to Rawlins with his old authority.  The unimaginative detective had stood throughout, releasing no indication of his emotions; but as he raised his hand now to an unnecessary adjustment of his scarf pin, the fingers were not quite steady.

“Telephone this man Waters,” Robinson directed.  “Then get in communication with the office and put them on that end.”

Rawlins walked away.  Robinson apologized to Silas Blackburn with an uneasy voice.

“Got to check up what I can.  Can’t get anywhere with these things unless you make sure of your first facts.  I daresay Waters’s story will tally with yours.”

Blackburn nodded.  Graham cleared his throat.

“Now perhaps we may ask that very important question.  The day Mr. Blackburn called at your office in Smithtown he told Howells he was afraid of being murdered.  According to Howells, he said:  ’My heart’s all right.  It won’t stop yet awhile unless it’s made to.  So if I’m found cold some fine morning you can be sure I was put out of the way.’”

“I know,” Robinson said.

“And that night,” Graham continued, “when he went to the old room, he was terrified of something which he wouldn’t define for Miss Perrine.”

“He warned me not to mention he’d gone there,” Katherine put in.  “He told me he was afraid—­afraid to sleep in his own room any longer.”

Robinson turned.

“What about that, Mr. Blackburn?”

For a moment Bobby’s curiosity overcame the confusion aroused by his grandfather’s apparently occult return.  All along they had craved the knowledge he was about to give them, the statement on which Bobby’s life had seemed to depend.  Blackburn, however, was unwilling.  The question seemed to have returned to him something of his normal manner.

“No use,” he mumbled, “going into that.”

“A good deal of use,” Robinson insisted.

Blackburn shifted his feet.  He gazed at his pipe doubtfully.

“I don’t see why.  That didn’t come, and seems it wasn’t what I ought to have been afraid of after all.  All along I ought to have been afraid only of the Cedars and the old room.  I’ve been accused of being unjust.  I don’t want to do an injustice now.”

“Please answer,” Robinson said impatiently.

“You must answer,” Graham urged.

“I don’t see that it makes the slightest difference,” Paredes drawled.  “What has it got to do with the case as it stands to-night?”

Robinson snapped at him.

“You keep out of it.  Don’t forget there’s a lot you haven’t answered yet.”

Silas Blackburn looked straight at Bobby.  Slowly he raised his hand, pointing an accusing finger at his grandson.

“If you want to know, I was afraid of that young rascal.”

Katherine started impulsively forward in an effort to stop him.  Blackburn waved her away.