On the Frontier

Wait, said Patterson, glancing towards the building. Its blank, shutterless windows revealed no inner light; a profound silence encompassed it. Come quick, he whispered. Letting his grasp slip down to the unresisting hand of the stranger, he half-dragged, half-led him, brushing against the wall, into the open door of the deserted bar-room he had just quitted, locked the inner door, poured a glass of whiskey from a decanter, gave it to him, and then watched him drain it at a single draught.