Errington and his friend were for a moment speechless,--partly from
displeasure at the summary manner in which they had been seized and
twisted round like young uprooted saplings, and partly from surprise
and involuntary admiration for the personage who had treated them
with such scant courtesy. They saw before them a man somewhat above
the middle height, who might have served an aspiring sculptor as a
perfect model for a chieftain of old Gaul, or a dauntless Viking.
His frame was firmly and powerfully built, and seemed to be
exceptionally strong and muscular; yet an air of almost courtly
grace pervaded his movements, making each attitude he assumed more
or less picturesque. He was broad-shouldered and deep-chested; his
face was full and healthily colored, while his head was truly
magnificent. Well-poised and shapely, it indicated power, will, and
wisdom; and was furthermore adorned by a rough, thick mass of snow-
white hair that shone in the sunlight like spun silver. His beard
was short and curly, trimmed after the fashion of the warriors of
old Rome; and, from under his fierce, fuzzy, grey eyebrows, a pair
of sentinel eyes, that were keen, clear, and bold as an eagle's,
looked out with a watchful steadiness--steadiness that like the
sharp edge of a diamond, seemed warranted to cut through the brittle
glass of a lie. Judging by his outward appearance, his age might
have been guessed at as between fifty-eight and sixty, but he was,
in truth, seventy-two, and more strong, active, and daring than many
another man whose years are not counted past the thirties. He was
curiously attired, after something of the fashion of the Highlander,
and something yet more of the ancient Greek, in a tunic, vest, and
loose jacket all made of reindeer skin, thickly embroidered with
curious designs worked in coarse thread and colored beads; while
thrown carelessly over his shoulders and knotted at his waist, was a
broad scarf of white woollen stuff, or wadmel, very soft-looking and