The wind swept through the open door with fresh fury. Here a lamp went
out, there the unsteady flame of a candle was extinguished. The smoke
from the shotgun was mingled with much wood smoke whipped out of the
fireplace. The man in the doorway, neither hesitating nor hurrying,
eminently cool and confident, came into the room. The girl studied him
curiously, marking each trifling detail of his costume: the shaggy black
chaps like those of a cowboy off for a gay holiday; the soft grey shirt
and silk handkerchief to match knotted loosely about a brown throat. He
was very tall and wore boots with tall heels; his black hat had a crown
which added to the impression of great height. To the fascinated eyes of
the girl he appeared little less than a giant.
He stopped and for a moment remained tensely, watchfully still. She felt
his eyes on her; she could not see them in the shadow of his hat, but
had an unpleasant sensation of a pair of sinister eyes narrowing in
their keen regard of her. She shivered as though cold.
Moving again he made his away along the wall and to the bar. He stepped
behind it, still with neither hesitation nor haste, and found the two
mail bags with his feet. And with his feet he pushed them out to the
open, along the wall, toward the door.
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