Which I did stiffly; and our rifleman escort scrambled from his sweatty saddle and gathered all three bridles in his mighty, sunburnt fist.
"Either there is a man or a ghost within," I said again, "Whatever it is has moved." "A man," said Boyd, "or what the inhumanity of man has left of him." And it was true, for now there came to the door and opened it a thin fellow wearing horn spectacles, who stood silent and cringing before us.

Slowly rubbing his workworn hands, he made us a landlord's bow as listless and as perfunctory as ever I have seen in any ordinary.

But his welcome was spoken in a whisper.
"God have mercy on this house," said Boyd loudly.

"Now, what's amiss, friend?
Is there death within these honest walls, that you move about on tiptoe ?" "There is death a-plenty in Westchester, sir," said the man, in a voice as colorless as his drab smalls and faded hair.

Yet what he said showed us that he had noted our dress, too, and knew us for strangers.
"Cowboys and skinners, eh ?" inquired Boyd, unbuckling his belt.
"And leather-cape, too, sir." My lieutenant laughed, showing his white teeth; laid belt, hatchet, and heavy knife on a wine-stained table, and placed his rifle against it.
Then, slipping cartridge sack, bullet pouch, and powder horn from his shoulders, stood eased, yawning and stretching his fine, powerful frame.
"I take it that you see few of our corps here below," he observed indulgently.
The landlord's lack-lustre eyes rested on me for an instant, then on Boyd: "Few, sir." "Do you know the uniform, landlord ?" "Rifles," he said indifferently.
"Yes, but whose, man?
Whose ?" insisted Boyd impatiently.
The other shook his head.
"Morgan's!" exclaimed Boyd loudly.