"I was coming to hunt you up, Bobby. The minister's arrived. So has
Doctor Groom. Everything's about ready."
"Doctor Groom?"
"Yes. He used to see a good deal of your grandfather. It's natural enough he should be here."
Bobby agreed indifferently. They walked slowly back to the house. Graham made it plain that his mind was far from the sad business ahead.
"What do you think of Paredes coming back as if nothing were wrong?" he asked. "He ignores what happened yesterday. He settles himself in the Cedars again."
"I don't know what to think of it," Bobby answered. "This morning Carlos gave me the creeps."
Graham glanced at him curiously. He spoke with pronounced deliberation, startling Bobby; for this friend expressed practically the thought that Paredes's arrival had driven into his own mind.
"Gave me the creeps, too. Makes me surer than ever that he has an abominably deep purpose in using his wits to hang on here. He suggests resources as hard to understand as anything that has happened in the old room. You'll confess, Bobby, he's had a good deal of influence over you—an influence for evil?"
"I've liked to go around with him, if that's what you mean."
"Isn't he the cause of the last two or three months nonsense in
New York?"