His second horse, staunch cow-pony that it was, stumbled on with sagging knees and hanging head, but Pierre rode upright, at ease, for his mind was untired.
Broken-backed indeed was the house before which he dismounted.

The roof sagged from end to end, and the stove pipe chimney leaned at a drunken angle.

Nature itself was withered beside that house; before the door stood a great cottonwood, gashed and scarred by lightning, with the limbs almost entirely stripped away from one side.

Under this broken monster Pierre stepped and through the door.

Two growls like the snarls of watch-dogs greeted him, and two tall, unshaven men barred his way.