arn?" asked Packard.

The rancher waved his pipe widely.

"Help yourself, stranger," he answered, in a voice meant to be
hospitable but which through long habit had acquired an unpleasantly
sullen tone. "You'll find the sleeping all right, but when it comes to
something to eat you can take it from me you'll find damn' poor
picking. Get down, feed your horse, and come in."

When he entered the house Packard was conscious of an oddly bare and
cheerless atmosphere which at first he was at a loss to explain. For
the room was large, amply furnished, cheerfully lighted by a crackling
fire of dry sticks in the big rock fireplace, and a lamp swung from the
ceiling. What the matter was dawned on him gradually: time was when
this chamber had been richly, even exquisitely, furnished and
appointed. Now it presented rather a dejected spectacle of faded
splendor, not entirely unlike a fine gentleman of the old school fallen
among bad companions and into tattered ill repute.

The untidy host, more untidy than ever here in the full light, dragged
his slippered feet across the threadbare carpet to a corner cupboard,
from which he took a bottle and two glasses.

"We can have a drink anyhow," he said in that dubious tone which so
harmonized both with himself and his sitting-room. "After which we'll
see what's to eat. Terry fired the cook last week and there's been
small feasting since."

Packard accepted a moderate drink, the rancher filled his own glass
generously, and they drank standing. This ceremony briefly performed
and chairs dragged comfortably up to the fireplace, Packard's host
called out loudly:

"Hi, Terry! There's a man here wants something to eat. Anything left?"

"If he's hungry," came the cool answer from a room somewhere toward the
other end of the long house, "why can't he forage for himself? Wants
me to bring his rations in there and feed it to him, I suppose!"

Packard lifted his eyebrows humorously.

"Is that Terry?" he asked.

"That's Terry," grumbled the rancher. "She's in the kitchen now. And
if I was you, pardner, and had a real hankering for grub I'd mosey
right along in there while there's something left." His eye roved to
the bottle on the chimneypiece and dropped to the fire. "I'll trail
you in a minute."

Here was invitation sufficient, and Packard rose swiftly, went out
through the door at the end of the room, passed through an untidy
chamber which no doubt had been intended ori