But from behind it the dog barked again, and Jolly Roger made quickly toward it.

Here there was no ash under his feet, and he knew that at last he had found an oasis of life in the desolation.

Loudly he knocked with his fist at the cabin door and soon there was a response inside, the heavy movement of a man's body getting out of bed, and after that the questioning voice of a woman.

He knocked again and the flare of a lighted match illumined the window.

Then came the drawing of a bar at the door and a man stood there in his night attire, a man with a heavy face and bristling beard, and a lamp in his hand.
"I beg your pardon for waking you," said Jolly Roger, "but I am just down from the north, hoping to find my friends back here and I have seen nothing but destruction and death.