Sentence:  I do n't know whether he was after our rider , who had gone by a minute before , or whether he was simply scouting <WSD>conditions</WSD> ; but when he passed us by , a musket roared , and he reared his horse , swung it around , and began to whip it back in the direction from which he had come . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a state at a particular time