From the entrance of the village it was only a few steps to the station. Several carriages stood at the platform,
testimony that a train was nearly due. He prayed that it would be for New York. He didn't want to wait
around. He didn't want to risk Katherine's driving in on some errand.
His mind, intent only on escaping prying eyes, was drawn by a man who stepped from behind a carriage and
started across the roadway in his direction, staring at him incredulously. His quick apprehension vanished. He
couldn't recall that surprised face. There was no harm being seen, miserable as he was, dressed as he was, by
this stranger. He looked at him closer. The man was plainly clothed. He had small, sharp eyes. His hairless
face was intricately wrinkled. His lips were thin, making a straight line.
To avoid him Bobby stepped aside, thinking he must be going past, but the stranger stopped and placed a firm
hand on Bobby's shoulder. He spoke in a quick, authoritative voice:
"Certainly you are Mr. Robert Blackburn?"
For Bobby, in his nervous, bewildered condition, there was an ominous note in this surprise, this assurance,
this peremptory greeting.
"What's amazing about that?" he jerked out.
The stranger's lips parted in a straight smile.
"Amazing! That's the word I was thinking of. Hoped you might come in from New York. Seemed you were
here all the time. That's a good one on me--a very good one."
The beating of Bobby's heart was more pronounced than it had been in the deserted house. He asked himself
why he should shrink from this stranger who had an air of threatening him. The answer lay in that black pit of
last night and this morning. Unquestionably he had been indiscreet. The man would tell him how.
"You mean," he asked with dry lips, "that you've been looking for me? Who are you? Please take your hand
off."
The stranger's grasp tightened.
"Not so fast, Mr. Robert Blackburn. I daresay you haven't just now come from the Cedars?"
"No, no. I'm on my way to New York. There's a train soon, I think."
His voice trailed away. The stranger's straight smile widened. He commenced to laugh harshly and uncouthly.
"Sure there's a train, but you don't want to take it. And why haven't you been at the Cedars? Grandpa's death
grieved you too much to go near his body?"
Bobby drew back. The shock robbed him for a moment of the power to reason.
"Dead! The old man! How--"
The stranger's smile faded.
"Here it is nearly three o'clock in the afternoon, and you're all dressed up for last night. That's lucky."