drawn farther over chin and ears, and
the buckskin gloves kept his fingers warm and flexible. Besides, his
blood was uncommonly hot in his veins.

His comprehensive eye told him that, while some of the buildings had not
been destroyed, they were so ravaged and damaged that they could never
be used again, save as a passing shelter, just as they were being used
now. He slid cautiously about the desolate place. He crossed a brook,
frozen almost solidly in its bed, and he saw two or three large mounds
that had been haystacks, now covered with snow.

Then he slid without noise back to the nearest of the houses from which
the smoke came. It was rather more pretentious than the others, built of
planks instead of logs, and with shingles for a roof. The remains of a
small portico formed the approach to the front door. Henry supposed that
the house had been set on fire and that perhaps a heavy rain had saved a
part of it.

A bar of light falling across the snow attracted his attention. He knew
that it was the glow of a fire within coming through a window. A faint
sound of voices reached his ears, and he moved forward slowly to the
window. It was an oaken shutter originally fastened with a leather
strap, but the strap was gone, and now some one had tied it, though not
tightly, with a deer tendon. The crack between shutter and wall was at
least three inches, and Henry could see within very well.

He pressed his side tightly to the wall and put his eyes to the crevice.
What he saw within did not still any of those primitive feelings that
had risen so strongly in his breast.

A great fire had been built in the log fireplace, but it was burning
somewhat low now, having reached that mellow period of least crackling
and greatest heat. The huge bed of coals threw a mass of varied and
glowing colors across the floor. Large holes had been burned in the side
of the room by the original fire, but Indian blankets had been fastened
tightly over them.

In front of the fire sat Braxton Wyatt in a Loyalist uniform, a
three-cornered hat cocked proudly on his head, and a small sword by his
side. He had grown heavier, and Henry saw that the face had increased
much in coarseness and cruelty. It had also increased in satisfaction.
He was a great man now, as he saw great men, and both face and figure
radiated gratification and pride as he lolled before the fire. At the
other corner, sitting upon the floor and also in a Loyalist uniform,
was his