little inn asked angrily.

"What mean you by keeping your door shut in the face of travellers
on such a night as this?" Hector replied, even more loudly. "Are
honest men to be kept waiting in the rain while you are taking no
steps to let them in?"

"How could I tell that you are honest men?" the landlord retorted.

"Because if we had not been honest men we should long before this
have battered your door down, as indeed I was just going to do
when you opened it."

"Well, come in," the landlord said with an evil smile. "Maybe you
would have done better to have passed on."

He showed them into the taproom, where two or three rough men were
sitting.

"What did these fellows mean by knocking so loudly?" one of them
asked angrily.

"It means," Hector replied, "that travellers have a right to claim
shelter of an inn; and indeed, inn or no inn, no one would refuse
shelter to travellers on such a night as this is going to be." And
his words were emphasized by a crash of thunder overhead.

"You crow pretty loud, young fellow," the man growled.

"I speak loud because I have right on my side. I desire to quarrel