With time winding down on the fourth quarter, Enron put pressure on Merrill and the Andersen accountants to help it complete some kind of deal.

Still, what the Enron executives and Andersen accountants were actually doing remains opaque.

And in offices around the world, Andersen accountants are saving documents - afraid, at least for now, to throw out anything related to a client audit.

Two days earlier, Ms. Watkins shared her worries with James A. Hecker, an Andersen accountant she knew.

Executives at other firms say privately that they are receiving many résumés from Andersen accountants - not just partners, but also midlevel employees concerned about the firm's future.

That official said Andersen accountants viewed the company's structuring of financial instruments to be on the cutting edge.

According to that testimony, Andersen accountants who followed what they believed were the rules found themselves under pressure when their decisions prevented Enron from doing a deal just the way it wanted to.

Andersen accountants who did work for HIH often found themselves across the table from former colleagues.

But Andersen accountants and alumni say that something deeper was at work than rogue accountants.

Over the next 24 hours, the Andersen accountants pieced together the mystery.