heightened this effect.
Little wonder is it that a feeling of depression came over the young
travelers as they approached.

No other houses were near the tavern and guests were evidently few. The
road which passed it was not a main thoroughfare, and no stage-coach made
the Eagle a regular stopping-place. It may have been a handsome;
much-frequented place at one time, but those days had long since
departed.

Up to the watering-trough Ree drove, however, and unreined the horse,
that it might drink.

"It does look kind of creepy around here," he remarked in an undertone;
"but put on a bold front, John, we are going to stay, just to prove to
ourselves that we are not afraid."

"I would a great deal rather camp out," John frankly confessed, "but you
are the captain, Ree. I can stand it if you can."

A skulking fellow of about thirty years, none the handsomer for having
lost nearly all his front teeth, came to help put up their horse when the
boys had made their wants known inside the tavern. No unusual thing
occurred, however, and the young travelers had shaken off the gloomy
feelings which the lonely place inspired by the time their supper was
ready. As they were by themselves at the table, a man whom Ree had not
seen before approached and took a chair nearby, tilting back against the
wall and calmly surveying them.

John kicked Ree's shins under the table. It was not, perhaps, a polite
way of imparting the information that this was the fellow he had seen
peering out of the barn, but Ree understood perfectly.

Having eyed the boys for a minute or two, the stranger said, in a gruff,
indifferent tone:

"Good evenin'."

"Good evening, sir," spoke Ree, and John's voice repeated the words like
an echo.

"Traveled far?" growled the stranger.

"Far enough for one day," Ree answered, little inclined to engage in
conversation with the man, for the fellow's appearance was far from
favorable. The sneaking glance of his eyes, his unshaved face and uncouth
dress, half civilized, half barbarian, gave him an air of lawlessness,
though except for these things he might have been considered handsome.

For a minute the stranger did not speak, and John suppressed a laugh as
he saw with what cool unconcern Ree returned the fellow's stare whenever
he looked at them.

"Don't show off your smartness, bub," sharply spoke the man at last, as
he fully comprehended that Ree had purposely given him an evasive answer,
"I asked a civil