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He pounded his criments, Williaedy than the boy itnessed it Less so-yes!-if one applies the same cruel criteria to my actions!"

I did not reply to this passionate outburst, for it was not so ued his conscience; I was but a witness to the exorcism I was keenly aware, as hefro to our skin and hair, the tart taste of it tingling on our tongues

Upon our return to Harrington Lane, the doctor descended to the basement, where he stood, motionless, before the suspended corpse of the us Was this immobility a mere illusion? Below the surface of this cale? I suspect, like the whole and wholesolass inside the little church, Warthrop’s psyche had been split, and though now far away, a part of hi, as it were, before the hollowed-out skull of the good reverend Stinnet I could hear hiu with a difficult bridge, seeking to impose melodic balance to the discordant chords of his recalcitrant re petered out For several minutes he did not speak; he did not move Statue-still he stood, the maelstrom within as well-veiled as the winds of a hurricane seen from space

"It is she," he said finally, in a tone tinged onder "The matriarch blinded by Varner By some malevolent twist of fate, she has coive voice to the proposition It ran counter to everything he believed "As if she has co for him"

I did not ask to whom he referred I did not need to ask; I knew

"I wonder," he said pensively, addressing thebefore him upon the hook, "if she would be satisfied with his son"

NINE"There Is So I Should Show You"

The constable returned to Harrington Lane later that afternoon, his reappearance predicted by theup, Will Henry," he said "The good constable will be arriving shortly to petition- or re-petition, I should say-for our assistance When his frustrated hounds give out or his incredulous shooting party gives up, he will call again"

There was a great deal of "tidying up" to do after the doctor’s frantic foraging from the previous day He went to the study while I tackled the library, shelving books, stacking papers, and throwing away the blackened fragrave-robber’s hat and the heat-warped spine of his father’s journal, which had escaped the fire I felt rather like aup the scene of a cried from the study as I worked I suspected the reason for this silence, and when I ducked into the room to inform him I was finished,He sat in his chair, an island in a sea of rubble, lost in reverie Without a word I set to hile he watched, his gaze not unlike the inward stare of Malachi Stinnet, seeing ether different

The knock came at a quarter past three The doctor rose and said, "You can finish later, Will Henry Just close the door for now, and show the constable to the library"

Morgan had not colea on his lapel, and revolver conspicuously strapped to his side, and Malachi Stinnet, whose dejected countenance noticeably brightened uponof the door

"Is the doctor in, Will Henry?" asked the constable in a rigid, for for you in the library"

"Waiting for me? No doubt he is!"

They followedtable upon which I had left thelines and sloppily drawn circles and stars, rectangles and squares I had neglected in my haste to roll it up, but the doctor seeht, or he did not care

He stiffened e entered, and said to Morgan, "Robert, I aan coldly His attitude was one of barely contained conte me"

The doctor nodded toward the deputy and the lone survivor of that ’s massacre "You Not them"

"Malachi asked to come And I asked O’Brien"

The constable tossed so onto the table It slid a few inches on the slick surface of the ertips

It was my beloved little hat, the one lost at the ces to your assistant"

Warthrop said nothing He was not looking at the hat; he was looking at Malachi

"Will, is that not your initials on the inside band there, WH?" asked the constable, though he had not turned his i eye from Warthrop

"Will Henry, would you take Malachi into the kitchen, please?" said the doctor quietly

"No one leaves this roo smirk the burly deputy stationed himself in the doorway

"I think it would be best if Malachi-," began the doctor

Morgan interrupted hi have you known, Warthrop?"

The doctor hesitated Then he said, "Since the an was aghast "You have known four days, and yet you told no one?"

"I did not believe the situation-"

"You did not believe!"