These miles we finished soon. The buildings changed in their aspect as they grew to my approach, showing their desolation more clearly, and in some way bringing apprehension into my mood. And around them the horses, too, all standing with ears erect, watching me as I came--there was something about them; or was it the silence? For the silence which I had liked until now seemed suddenly to be made too great by the presence of the deserted buildings. And then the door of the stable opened, and men came out and stood, also watching me arrive. By the time I was dismounting more were there. It was senseless to feel as unpleasant as I did, and I strove to give to them a greeting that should sound easy. I told them that I hoped there was room for one more here to-night. Some of them had answered my greeting, but none of them answered this; and as I began to be sure that I recognized several of their strangely imperturbable faces, the Virginian came from the stable; and at that welcome sight my relief spoke out instantly. “I am here, you see!” “Yes, I do see.” I looked hard at him, for in his voice was the same strangeness that I felt in everything around me. But he was looking at his companions. “This gentleman is all right,” he told them. “That may be,” said one whom I now knew that I had seen before at Sunk Creek; “but he was not due to-night.” “Nor to-morrow,” said another. “Nor yet the day after,” a third added. The Virginian fell into his drawl. “None of you was ever early for anything, I presume.” One retorted, laughing, “Oh, we’re not suspicioning you of complicity.” And another, “Not even when we remember how thick you and Steve used to be.” Whatever jokes they meant by this he did not receive as jokes. I saw something like a wince pass over his face, and a flush follow it. But he now spoke to me. “We expected to be through before this,” he began. “I’m right sorry you have come to-night. I know you’d have preferred to keep away.” “We want him to explain himself,” put in one of the others. “If he satisfies us, he’s free to go away.” “Free to go away!” I now exclaimed. But at the indulgence in their frontier smile I cooled down. “Gentlemen,” I said, “I don’t know why my movements interest you so much. It’s quite a compliment! May I get under shelter while I explain?” No request could have been more natural, for the rain had now begun to fall in straight floods. Yet there was a pause before one of them said, “He might as well.” The Virginian chose to say nothing more; but he walked beside me into the stable. Two men sat there together, and a third guarded them. At that sight I knew suddenly what I had stumbled upon; and on the impulse I murmured to the Virginian, “You’re hanging them to-morrow.” He kept his silence. “You may have three guesses,” said a man behind me.