and at length the sound of bolts and chains undone and the
breathing now very close. The door was opened swiftly; a man with
mean eyes, and expression devoted to evil, stood watching him for
an instant; then the door slammed to again, the bolts were heard
going back again to their places, the steps and the breathing
moved away over the stone floor, and the inner stairway began
again to echo.

"If the wars are here," said Rodriguez to himself and his sword,
"good, and I sleep under the stars." And he listened in the street
for the sound of war and, hearing none, continued his discourse.
"But if I have not come as yet to the wars I sleep beneath a
roof."

For the second time therefore he drew his sword, and began to
strike methodically at the door, noting the grain in the wood and
hitting where it was softest. Scarcely had he got a good strip of
the oak to look like coming away, when the steps once more
descended the wooden stair and came lumbering over the stones;
both the steps and the breathing were quicker, for mine host of
the Dragon and Knight was hurrying to save his door.

When he heard the sound of the bolts and chains again Rodriguez
ceased to beat upon the door: once more it opened swiftly, and he
saw mine host before him, eyeing him with those bad eyes; of too
much girth, you might have said, to be nimble, yet somehow
suggesting to the swift intuition of youth, as Rodriguez looked at
him standing upon his door-step, the spirit and shape of a
spider, who despite her ungainly build is agile enough in her way.