"Good God, Katherine! It's too big. Whatever it is, we can't fight it."
She looked for some time down the corridor at the black entrance of the sinister room. At last she turned and walked to the banister. She called:
"Hartley! Will you come up?"
Bobby wondered at the steadiness of her voice. The murmuring below
ceased. Graham ran up the stairs. Her summons had been warning enough.
Their attitudes, as Graham reached the upper hall, were eloquent of
Bobby's failure.
"You didn't get the cast and the handkerchief?" he said.
Bobby told briefly what had happened.
"What is one to do?" he ended. "Even the dead are against me."
"It's beyond belief," Graham said roughly.
He snatched up the candle and entered the corridor. Uncertainly Katherine and Bobby followed him. He went straight to the bed and thrust the candle beneath the canopy. The others could see from the door the change that had taken place. The body of Howells was turned awkwardly on its side. The coat pocket was, as Bobby had described it, flat and empty.
Katherine turned and went back to the hall. Graham's hand shook as
Bobby's had shaken.