After several miles the road, that had hung midway of the rough hill, dipped down sharply, and they came out into another and broader valley, where there were tilled farms, and a little settlement, with a blacksmith shop and a country store, post-office and inn combined.

The storekeeper stood in the door, smoking a cob pipe.

Seeing Oscar, he went inside and brought out some letters and newspapers, which he delivered in silence.
"This is Lamar post-office," announced Oscar.
"There must be some mail here for me," said Armitage.
Oscar handed him several long envelopes--they bore the name of the Bronx Loan and Trust Company, whose office in New York was his permanent address, and he opened and read a number of letters and cablegrams that had been forwarded.

Their contents evidently gave him satisfaction, for he whistled cheerfully as he thrust them into his pocket.
"You keep in touch with the world, do you, Oscar?
It is commendable." "I take a Washington paper--it relieves the monotony, and I can see where the regiments are moving, and whether my old captain is yet out of the hospital, and what happened to my lieutenant in his court-martial about the pay accounts.

One must observe the world--yes?
At the post-office back there"-- he jerked his head to indicate--"it is against the law to sell whisky in a post-office, so that storekeeper with the red nose and small yellow eyes keeps it in a brown jug in the back room." "To be sure," laughed Armitage.