'Then let me look at him!' the man retorted, and he turned on
his stool.
He started, finding me standing over him.
'At your service!' I said grimly. 'A little time and it will be
the other way, my friend.
CHAPTER VII
A MASTER STROKE
I have a way with me which commonly commands respect; and when
the landlord's first terror was over and he would serve me, I
managed to get my supper--the first good meal I had had in two
days--pretty comfortably in spite of the soldiers' presence. The
crowd, too, which filled the room, soon began to melt. The men
strayed off in groups to water their horses, or went to hunt up
their quarters, until only two or three were left. Dusk had
fallen outside; the noise in the street grew less. The firelight
began to glow and flicker on the walls, and the wretched room to
look as homely as it was in its nature to look. I was pondering
for the twentieth time what step I should take next, and
questioning why the soldiers were here, and whether I should let
the night pass before I moved, when the door, which had been
turning on its hinges almost without pause for an hour, opened
again, and a woman came in.
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