leaked through every
chink and crack in the office blinds.

"Boys have turned out well, I guess," said Robbins.

"They _better_ turn out!" said Orr.

No word was spoken by either while they unhitched their horses, led them
within the sheds, and tied them among the sorry company already housed.
Robbins noted that after Orr had laid the blanket which had served them
for robe on one thin back, he flung his own quilt over the other. Then
they stumbled (for they were unwieldy with cold) through the yard to the
hotel.

The office was full of men, gathered about the stove, talking to each
other. The innkeeper sat behind his counter, affecting to busy himself
with a blotted ledger. Originally he had been a stout man, but he had
lost flesh of late years. He was wrinkled and flabby, and the furtive
eyeshots that he cast toward the stove were anxious beyond his
concealing. Any one, however, could perceive that matters of heavy
import were being discussed. The miserably clad men about the stove all
looked sullen. There was none of the easy-going badinage so habitual
with Westerners. They exchanged glances rather than words; what words
were spoken were uttered in low tones.

"Where is he?" said Orr, in the same undertone to a large man in a
buffalo coat. The large man was the sheriff of the county. He jerked his
thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the dining-room.

"What's he like?"

"Little feller with a game leg."

Orr frowned. Robbins felt uncomfortable. A gaunt man on the outskirts of
the circle added: "He's powerful slick, though; you can bet your life.
That girl Susy is all won over already; and she's suspecting something,
sure's shooting. I guess she's warned him there's something in the air."

"Well, if there is, I don't know it," said the sheriff.

"You never _will_ know anything about it, either," a gray-haired man
added.

"That's right, Kinney," two or three spoke at once. But immediately a
silence fell on them. Robbins, who felt himself an outsider, could see
that the others drew closer together. Once or twice he caught sinister
murmurs. He began to wish that he had not come.

"It would be no earthly use for me to chip in and try to soften them,"
he thought. "They're crazy with defeat and misery and the fool stuff
campaign orators have crammed down their throats."

Just then the dining-room door opened, and Robbins was the only one of
the group to turn his head. The other men gazed at the fire, an