Church road. All is drawn on my map as we see it here before us; and this should be the fine dwelling of that great villain Holmes, now used as a tavern by Benjamin Hays.”

“Rap on the door,” said Boyd; and our rifleman escort rode forward and drove his rifle-butt at the door, “There’s a man hiding within and peering at us behind the third window,” I whispered.

“I see him,” said Boyd coolly.

Through the heated silence around us we could hear the hornets buzzing aloft under the smoke-stained eaves. There was no other sound in the July sunshine.

The solemn tavern stared at us out of its injured eyes, and we three men of the Northland gazed back as solemnly, sobered once more