Wadsworth Camp

“ Silas Blackburn walked to the fire, and stood with his back to the smouldering logs. In this light he had the pallor of death—the lack of colour Bobby remembered beneath the glass of the coffin. The old man, always so intolerant and authoritative, was no longer sure of himself.
"Why do you talk about ghosts?" he whined. "I—I wish I hadn't waked up."
Paredes sank back in his chair. ”

“ Robinson said, "who is buried in that grave."
With a spade Jenkins scraped the snow from the mound. Rawlins joined him. They commenced to throw to one side, staining the white carpet, spadesful of moist, yellow earth. Their labour was rapid. Silas Blackburn watched with an unconquerable fascination. He continued to shake.
"I'm too cold. I'll never be warm again," he whined. "If anything happens to me, Bobby, try to forget I've been hard, and don't let them bury me. Suppose I should be buried alive?"
"Suppose," Paredes said, "you were buried alive to-day?"
He turned to Bobby and Katherine. ”

“ Groom spoke hoarsely:
"It isn't too late to let the dead rest."
Robinson gestured him away. Graham, Paredes, and he knelt in the snow and helped the detective raise the heavy lid. They placed it at the side of the grave.
They all forced themselves to glance downward.
Katherine screamed. Silas Blackburn leaned on Bobby's arm, shaking with gross, impossible sobs. Paredes shrugged his shoulders. The light wavered in Robinson's hand. They continued to stare. There was nothing else to do. ”

“ She had been kinder to Graham, more mysterious about him, to draw Bobby back. Yet ever since his arrival at the Cedars, Graham had assumed toward Katherine an attitude scarcely to be limited by friendship. He had done what he had in Bobby's service clearly enough for her sake. For a long time past, indeed, in speaking of her Graham always seemed to discuss the woman he expected to marry.
"You are quite sure," he asked, puzzled, "that Hartley understood?"
"Why do you ask? He has shown how good a friend he is."
"He has always made me think," Bobby said, "that he had your love. ”

“ Jenkins, standing in the excavation, broke into torrential speech.
"Mr. Robinson! I can't work with the light. It makes the stones seem to move. It throws too many shadows. I seem to see people behind you, and I'm afraid to look."
Nothing aggressive survived in Rawlins's voice.
"We can work well enough without it, sir."
Robinson snapped off the light. The darkness descended eagerly upon them. Above the noise of the spades in the soft earth Bobby heard indefinite stirrings. In the graveyard at such an hour the supernatural legend of the Cedars assumed an inescapable probability. ”

“ Robinson stepped to Bobby's side.
"All along Howells was right. Tell me what you did with that evidence."
Bobby turned away. Katherine tried to laugh. Graham beckoned to Robinson.
"What's the use of bothering with evidence against a suspected murderer when the murdered man stands talking to you?"
Robinson frowned helplessly. Paredes sprang to his feet.
"You're taking too much for granted, Graham. There was a murder. Blackburn was killed. We've as many witnesses to that fact as we have that he's come back. This man who talks with us, accusing Bobby, may not stay. Have you thought of that? ”

“ Paredes's questions had clearly added to the uncertainty of his manner. Katherine spoke softly:
"We are afraid."
The others came down. Robinson walked close to Silas Blackburn and for some time gazed at the gray face.
"Yes," he said. "You are Silas Blackburn. You came to my office in Smithtown the other day and asked for a detective, because you were afraid of something out here."
"There's no question," Graham cried. "Of course it is Mr. Blackburn, yet it couldn't be."
"What you all talking about? Why are the police in my house? Why do you act like fools and say I was dead?" ”

“ They saw among the indistinct masses of the trees restless patches of black. Katherine stumbled against one of the fallen stones. They stood with the others in the burial ground, close to the mound that had been made that day.
"They haven't begun," Bobby whispered. ”

“ Jenkins rested on his spade. He groaned. It occurred to Bobby that the man couldn't have worked hard enough in this cold air to have started the perspiration that streamed down his wrinkled face.
"It would be a tough job to lift it out," Rawlins said.
"No need," Robinson answered. "Get the soil away from the edges."
He bent over, passing a screw driver to the detective.
"Take off the top plate. That will let us see all we want."
Jenkins climbed out.
"I shan't look. I don't dare look."
Silas Blackburn touched Bobby's arm timidly. ”

“ Or I was afraid he might hire somebody. You can buy men for that sort of work in New York. I tell you the more I thought of it the more I was sure he'd do something. You'd understand if you lived in this lonely place with all that money and nobody you wanted to will it to. I nearly sent for Howells right then. But if nothing had happened I'd have looked a fool."
"I wanted you to send for a man," Katherine cried.
Bobby leaned against the wall, repeating to himself the words of Maria's note which accused him of having made the very threat his grandfather had feared. ”

“ It makes me feel queer. You're all crazy."
"It's probably Doctor Groom," Bobby said, and stepped to the door, opening it.
It was Groom. The huge man walked in, struggling out of his coat. At first the others screened Silas Blackburn from him, but he acknowledged their strained attitudes, the excitement that still animated Paredes's face.
"What's the matter with you?" he asked. "Found something, Mr. District Attorney?"
Robinson moved to one side, jerking his thumb at Silas Blackburn. The coat and hat slipped from Doctor Groom's hand. His mouth opened. ”

“ I have been afraid to speak of it. But it makes me hesitate to say that this man is alive, as we understand life. We have to learn the nature of the forces we are dealing with, exactly how dangerous they are. ”

“ His experience when he had gone to the room to take the evidence from Howells's body became active in Bobby's memory.
"There I lay with my eyes shut," Silas Blackburn went on in his strange, inquiring voice. "And yet I seemed to see those dead people all around me, and I thought they were in pain again, and were mad at me because I didn't do anything. I guess maybe I must 'a' been dozing a little, for I thought——"
He broke off. He raised his hand slowly and pointed in the direction of the overgrown cemetery where they had seen his coffin covered that noon. ”

“ So I'd spoken to Howells, thinking I'd trip him if he tried any funny business. When he didn't come that night I got scared. He knew I wouldn't make the new will until morning, and since I couldn't see any man throwing all that money away, I figured he'd guessed he couldn't turn me and wouldn't waste any time talking.
"When you got a lot of money and a grandson who hates you, you have to think of such things. ”

“ That also is possible. You remember the old theories that have never been disproved of the disintegration of matter into its atoms, of its passage through solid substances, of its reforming in a far place? ”