He saw the house presently,
a comfortable two-story frame building, standing among fine shade trees.
Without hesitation he knocked heavily on the door with the butt of a
pistol.

He was so anxious to hasten that his blows would have aroused the best
sleeper who ever slept, and the door was quickly opened by an elderly man,
not yet fully awake.

"I want to buy a horse."

"Buy a horse? At this time of the night?"

He was about to slam the door, but Harry put his foot over the sill and
the muzzle of his pistol within six inches of the man's nose.

"I want to buy a horse," he repeated, "and you want to sell one to me.
I think you realize that fact, don't you?"

"Yes, I do," replied the man, looking down the muzzle of the big horse
pistol.

"Come outside and close the door behind you. I know you haven't on many
clothes, but the night's warm, and you need fresh air."

The man with the muzzle of the pistol still near his nose, obeyed.
But as he looked at the weapon he also had a comprehensive view of the
one who held it.

"Wet ain't you?" he said.

"Do you think it necessary to put it in the form of a question?"

"I don't like to say, unless I'm shore."

"Where do you keep your horses?"

"In the barn here to the left. What kind of a horse did you think you'd
keer fur most, stranger?"

"The biggest, the strongest and fastest you've got"

"I thought mebbe you'd want one with wings, you 'pear to be in such a
pow'ful hurry. I wish you wouldn't keep that pistol so near to my nose.
'Sides, you've gethered so much mud an' water 'bout you that you ain't so
very purty to look at!"

"It's your own mud and water. I didn't bring it into this country with
me."

"Which means that you don't belong in these parts. I reckon lookin' at
you that you wuz one o' them rebels that went to Gettysburg and then come
back ag'in."

"Exactly right, Mr. Farmer. I'm an officer in General Lee's army."

"Then I wuz right 'bout you needin' a horse with wings. An' I guess all
the men in your army need horses with wings. Don't be in such a tarnal
hurry. You're goin' to stay right up here with us, boarders, so to speak,
till the war is over."

Harry laughed.

"Kind of you," he said, "but here is the stable and do you open the stall
doors one by one, and let me see the horses. At the first sign of any
trick I pull the trigger."

"Well, as I don't like violence I'll show you the horses. Here's the
gray mare, five years o