ect upon me was such that, after gazing at it uninterruptedly for a
few minutes, I discovered that its various features--the narrow eyes in
which a hint of craft gave a strange gleam to their native intelligence;
the steadfast chin, strong as the rock of the hills I had wearily
tramped all day; the cunning wrinkles which yet did not interfere with
a latent great-heartedness that made the face as attractive as it was
puzzling--had so established themselves in my mind that I continued to
see them before me whichever way I turned, and found it impossible to
shake off their influence even after I had resolutely set my mind in
another direction by endeavoring to recall what I knew of the town into
which I had strayed.

I had come from Scranton and was now, according to my best judgment, in
one of those rural districts of western Pennsylvania which breed such
strange and sturdy characters. But of this special neighborhood, its
inhabitants and its industries, I knew nothing nor was likely to, so
long as I remained in the solitude I have endeavored to describe.

But these impressions and these thoughts--if thoughts they were--presently
received a check. A loud "Halloo" rose from somewhere in the mist, followed
by a string of muttered imprecations, which convinced me that the person
now attempting to approach the house was encountering some of the many
difficulties which had beset me in the same undertaking a few minutes
before.

I therefore raised my voice and shouted out, "Here! this way!" after
which I sat still and awaited developments.

There was a huge clock in one of the corners, whose loud tick filled up
every interval of silence. By this clock it was just ten minutes to
eight when two gentlemen (I should say men, and coarse men at that)
crossed the open threshold and entered the house.

Their appearance was more or less noteworthy--unpleasantly so, I am
obliged to add. One was red-faced and obese, the other was tall, thin
and wiry and showed as many seams in his face as a blighted apple.
Neither of the two had anything to recommend him either in appearance or
address, save a certain veneer of polite assumption as transparent as it
was offensive. As I listened to the forced sallies of the one and the
hollow laugh of the other, I was glad that I was large of frame and
strong of arm and used to all kinds of men and--brutes.

As these two new-comers seemed no more astonished at my presence than
the man I had met at th