Down in History - An ExcerptIt had been a great while since I'd seen his nose looking so red. He said nothing as I strode into his lantern-lit parlor; he even remained silent about the fact that I had left the front door open. He sat sunken into the cushions of a turd-brown, moth-eaten couch, across from a fireplace in which a fire was slowly going out. He idly swirled a half-empty bottle of peppermint schnapps as he stared at me out of the corner of one dark eye."Did the old man send you here, too?" he eventually greeted me in a gravelly voice. "I already told off one of his helpers today. Persistent bugger, that one."I was barely aware that I was shuffling m