The three others came eagerly to his side. Through the glass, clouded from within by their breath, and filmed from without by the rain, some vague object was moving, and what seemed to be a mop of tangled hair was apparently brushing against the pane. The door shook again, but less strongly. Billings pressed his face against the glass. “Hol' on,” he said in a quick whisper,--“it's 'Lige!” But it was too late. Harkutt had already drawn the lower bolt, and a man stumbled from the outer obscurity into the darker room. The inmates drew away as he leaned back for a moment against the door that closed behind him. Then dimly, but instinctively, discerning the glass of liquor which Wingate still mechanically held in his hand, he reached forward eagerly, took it from Wingate's surprised and unresisting fingers, and drained it at a gulp. The four men laughed vaguely, but not as cheerfully as they might. “I was just shutting up,” began Harkutt, dubiously. “I won't keep you a minit,” said the intruder, nervously fumbling in the breast pocket of his hickory shirt. “It's a matter of business--Harkutt--I”--But he was obliged to stop here to wipe his face and forehead with the ends of a loose handkerchief tied round his throat. From the action, and what could be seen of his pale, exhausted face, it was evident that the moisture upon it was beads of perspiration, and not the rain which some abnormal heat of his body was converting into vapor from his sodden garments as he stood there. “I've got a document here,” he began again, producing a roll of paper tremblingly from his pocket, “that I'd like you to glance over, and perhaps you'd”--His voice, which had been feverishly exalted, here broke and rattled with a cough. Billings, Wingate, and Peters fell apart and looked out of the window. “It's too dark to read anything now, 'Lige,” said Harkutt, with evasive good humor, “and I ain't lightin' up to-night.” “But I can tell you the substance of it,” said the man, with a faintness that however had all the distinctness of a whisper, “if you'll just step inside a minute. It's a matter of importance and a bargain”-- “I reckon we must be goin',” said Billings to the others, with marked emphasis. “We're keepin' Harkutt from shuttin' up.” “Good-night!” “Good-night!” added Peters and Wingate, ostentatiously following Billings hurriedly through the door. “So long!”