"When once you've turned, keep on past two roads and turn to the right along the third. After that——"
Perplexed by these elaborate directions, confusing indeed to a total stranger, I could not help interrupting.
"Please, how can I follow all these clues in pitch-darkness, without ever having been near here before, and with only an indifferent pair of headlights to tell me what is and what isn't a road? Besides, I think it's going to storm pretty soon, and my car is an open one. It looks as if I were in a bad fix if I want to get to Cape Girardeau tonight. The fact is, I don't think I'd better try. I don't like to impose, but in view of the circumstances, do you suppose you could put me up for the night? I won't be any trouble. Just let me have a corner to sleep in till daylight, and I'm all right. I can leave the car in the road where it is; wet weather won't hurt it."
As I made my sudden request I could see the old man's face lose its former expression of quiet resignation and take on an odd, surprised look.
"Sleep here?"
He seemed so astonished at my request that I repeated it.
"Yes, why not? I assure you I won't be any trouble. What else can I do? I'm a stranger hereabouts, these roads are a labyrinth in the dark, and I'll wager it'll be raining torrents inside of an hour——"
This time it was my host's turn to interrupt, and as he did so I could feel a peculiar quality in his deep, musical voice.
"A stranger—of course you must be, else you wouldn't think of sleeping here; wouldn't think of coming here at all. People don't come here nowadays."
He paused, and my desire to stay was increased a thousandfold by the sense of mystery his laconic words seemed to evoke. There was something queer about this place, and the pervasive musty smell seemed to cloak a thousand secrets. Again I noticed the extreme decrepitude of everything about me; manifest even in the feeble rays of the single small lamp. I felt woefully chilly, and saw with regret that no heating seemed to be provided; yet so great was my curiosity that I still wished most ardently to stay and learn something of the recluse and his dismal abode.