With the ropes, despite the sullen objections of the men, he bound their hands and feet tightly, afterward picking the men up and tossing them ungently into upper bunks on opposite sides of the room.
He stood, after watching them for a time, his face expressionless.
"That's just so you won't get to thinking you are company," he said.
"We're holed up for a long time, maybe, and I don't want you to bother me, a heap.

If you get to bothering me--disturbing my sleep trying to untangle yourselves from those ropes, why----" He significantly tapped his pistol.

Then he pulled a chair close to the fire, dropped into it, rolled a cigarette, and calmly smoked, watching the white fleece trail up the chimney..