you what your name was, stranger?"

"My name is Gwynne. I left Crawfordsville this morning, hoping to
reach Lafayette before night. But the road is so heavy we couldn't---"

"Been rainin' steady for nearly two weeks," interrupted the settler.
"Hub-deep everywhere. It's a good twenty-five or thirty mile from
Crawfordsville to Lafayette. Looks like more rain, too. I think
she'll be on us in about two minutes. I guess mebby we c'n find a
place fer you to sleep to-night, and we c'n give you somethin' fer
man an' beast. If you'll jest ride around here to the barn, we'll
put the hosses up an' feed 'em, and--Eliza, set out a couple more
plates, an' double the rations all around." His left arm and hand
came into view. "Set this here gun back in the corner, Eliza. I
guess I ain't goin' to need it. Gimme my hat, too, will ye?"

As the woman drew back from the door, a third figure came up behind
the man and took her place. The horseman down at the roadside,
fifty feet away, made out the figure of a woman. She touched the
man's arm and he turned as he was in the act of stepping down from
the door-log. She spoke to him in a low voice that failed to reach
the ears of the travellers.

The man shook his head slowly, and then called out:

"I didn't jist ketch your name, mister. The wind's makin' such a
noise I--Say it again, will ye?"

"My name is Kenneth Gwynne. Get it?" shouted the horseman. "And
this is my servant, Zachariah."