rvented that screechin' ter
call the devil, sure. It's jes a certain sign o' death."

He was about to turn, to wreak his vengeance, perchance. But the bird,
sufficiently fortunate itself, whatever woe it presaged for others,
suddenly took its awkward flight through sheen and shadow across the
quadrangle, and when they heard its cry again it came from some remote
section of the building, with a doleful echo as a refrain.

The circumstance was soon forgotten by Keenan. He seemed a happy,
mercurial, lucid nature, and he began presently to dwell with interest
on the availability of the old music-stand in the centre of the square
as a manger. "Hyar," he said, striking the rotten old structure with
a heavy hand, which sent a quiver and a thrill through all the
timbers--"hyar's whar the guerillas always hitched thar beastises. Thar
feed an' forage war piled up thar on the fiddlers' seats. Ye can't do no
better'n ter pattern arter them, till ye git ready ter hev fiddlers an'
sech a-sawin' away in hyar agin."

And he sauntered away from the little pavilion, followed by Dundas, who
had not accepted his suggestion of a room on the first floor as being
less liable to leakage, but finally made choice of an inner apartment in
the second story. He looked hard at Keenan, when he stood in the doorway
surveying the selection. The room opened into a cross-hall which gave
upon a broad piazza that was latticed; tiny squares of moonlight were
all sharply drawn on the floor, and, seen through a vista of gray
shadow, seemed truly of a gilded lustre. From the windows of this room
on a court-yard no light Could be visible to any passer-by without.
Another door gave on an inner gallery, and through its floor a staircase
came up from the quadrangle close to the threshold. Dundas wondered if
these features were of possible significance in Keenan's estimation. The
young mountaineer turned suddenly, and snatching up a handful of slats
broken from the shutters, remarked:

"Let's see how the chimbly draws--that's the main p'int."

There was no defect in the chimney's constitution. It drew admirably,
and with the white and red flames dancing in the fireplace, two or
three chairs, more or less disabled, a table, and an upholstered lounge
gathered at random from the rooms near at hand, the possibility of
sojourning comfortably for a few days in the deserted hostelry seemed
amply assured.

Once more Dundas gazed fixedly at the face of the young mount