The Hidden Children Large Print

In the middle of the Bedford Road we three drew bridle. Boyd lounged in his reeking saddle, gazing at the tavern and at what remained of the tavern sign, which seemed to have been a new one, yet now dangled mournfully by one hinge, shot to splinters.The freshly painted house itself, marred with buckshot, bore dignified witness to the violencedone it. A few glazed windows still remained unbroken; the remainder had been filled with bluepaper such as comes wrapped about a sugar cone, so that the misused house seemed to be watchingus out of patched and battered eyes.It was evident, too, that a fire had been wantonly set at the northeast angle of the house, wheresill and siding were deeply charred from baseboard to eaves.Nor had this same fire happened very long since, for under the eaves white-faced hornets werestill hard at work repairing their partly scorched nest. And I silently pointed them out to LieutenantBoyd."Also," he nodded, "I can still smell the smoky wood. The damage is fresh enough. Look at yourmap."He pushed his horse straight up to the closed door, continuing to examine the dismantled signwhich hung motionless, there being no wind stirring."This should be Hays's Tavern," he said, "unless they lied to us at Ossining. Can you makeanything of the sign, Mr. Loskiel?""Nothing, sir. But we are on the highway to Poundridge, for behind us lies the North CastleChurch road. All is drawn on my map as we see it here before us; and this should be the finedwelling of that great villain Holmes, now used as a tavern by Benjamin Hays.""Rap on the door," said Boyd; and our rifleman escort rode forward and drove his rifle-butt atthe door, "There's a man hiding within and peering at us behind the third window," I whispered."I see him," said Boyd coolly.Through the heated silence around us we could hear the hornets buzzing aloft under the smokestained eaves. There was no other sound in the July sunshine.The solemn tavern stared at us out of its injured eyes, and we three men of the Northland gazedback as solemnly, sobered once more to encounter the trail of the Red Beast so freshly printed hereamong the pleasant Westchester hill