"This ain't a hotel. You go on down the road. Inside eight miles you'll
come to the town."

"Eight miles!"

"That's nothing for a man to ride."

"Not at all, if I had something to ride."

"You ain't got a horse?"

"No."

"Then how do you come here?"

"I walked."

If this sharpened her suspicions, it sharpened her fear also. She put
one foot on the lowest step of the stairs.

"Be off with you, Mr. Donnegally, or whatever your outlandish name is.
You'll get nothing here. What brings you--"

A door closed and a footstep sounded lightly on the floor above. And
Donnegan, already alert in the strange atmosphere of this house, gave
back a pace so as to get an honest wall behind him. He noted that the
step was quick and small, and preparing himself to meet a wisp of
manhood--which, for that matter, was the type he was most inclined to
fear--Donnegan kept a corner glance upon the old woman at the foot of