He started to run, and on reaching the door opened it without ceremony. The sight that confronted him was one to test his courage.
CHAPTER XIV
AN EXCITING ENCOUNTER
To understand the scene in which Walter became an actor a brief explanation is necessary.
The occupant of the house was a woman of perhaps thirty-five. Her husband, Ephraim Gregory, was employed in Chicago, and went to and from the city every day. It was somewhat inconvenient to live at Elm Bank, but both he and his wife were fond of the country, and were willing to submit to some inconvenience for the sake of the sweet, pure air and rural surroundings. They had one child, a little girl of five.
Twenty minutes previous Mrs. Gregory had been sitting at her sewing, with little Rosa on the floor beside her, when, without the ceremony of a knock, the outer door was opened and a tall, powerful man, whose garb and general appearance indicated that he was a tramp, entered the room.
“What do you want?” asked Mrs. Gregory, rising in alarm.
“I'm hungry,” answered the tramp, in a hoarse voice.
He might be hungry, but his breath indicated that he had been drinking. Mrs. Gregory would gladly have dismissed him, but she was afraid to do so. If only her husband had been at home!