as the sunlight on his own flagstones--until he gazed up at
me, and then I was as usual disconcerted by the blank, veiled, unwinking
stare of his eyes.

"Remarkably fine Morgan stallion you have, sir," I greeted him. "I
didn't know such a creature existed in this part of the world."

But the little man displayed no gratification.

"He's well enough. I have him more to keep Tim happy than anything else.
We'll go in to breakfast."

I cast a cautious eye at the barred window in the left wing. The
curtains were still down. At the table I ventured to ask after Miss
Hooper. The old man stared at me up to the point of embarrassment, then
replied drily that she always breakfasted in her room. The rest of our
conversation was on general topics. I am bound to say it was
unexpectedly easy. The old man was a good talker, and possessed social
ease and a certain charm, which he seemed to be trying to exert. Among
other things, I remember, he told me of the Indian councils he used to
hold in the old days.

"They were held on the willow flat, outside the east wall," he said. "I
never allowed any of them inside the walls." The suavity of his manner
broke fiercely and suddenly. "Everything inside the walls is mine!" he
declared with heat. "Mine! mine! mine! Understand? I will not tolerate
in here anything that is not mine; that does not obey my will; that does
not come when I say come; go when I say go; and fall silent when I say
be still!"

A wild and fantastic idea suddenly illuminated my understanding.

"Even the crickets, the flies, the frogs, the birds," I said,
audaciously.

He fixed his wildcat eyes upon me without answering.

"And," I went on, deliberately, "who could deny your perfect right to do
what you will with your own? And if they did deny that right what more
natural than that they should be made to perish--or take their
breakfasts in their rooms?"

I was never more aware of the absolute stillness of the house than when
I uttered these foolish words. My hand was on the gun in my
trouser-band; but even as I spoke a sickening realization came over me
that if the old man opposite so willed, I would have no slightest chance
to use it. The air behind me seemed full of menace, and the hair crawled
on the back of my neck. Hooper stared at me without sign for ten
seconds; his right hand hovered above the polished table. Then he let it
fall without giving what I am convinced would have been a signal.

"Will you have