It was nearly the time of full moon, and on this account, though
the sky was lined with a uniform sheet of dripping cloud, ordinary
objects out of doors were readily visible. The sad, wan light
revealed the lonely pedestrian to be a man of supple frame; his
gait suggested that he had somewhat passed the period of perfect
and instinctive agility, though not so far as to be otherwise
than rapid of motion when occasion required. In point of fact, he
might have been about forty years of age. He appeared tall; but a
recruiting sergeant, or other person accustomed to the judging of
men's heights by the eye, would have discerned that this was chiefly
owing to his gauntness, and that he was not more than five feet
eight or nine.

Notwithstanding the regularity of his tread, there was caution in
it, as in that of one who mentally feels his way; and, despite the
fact that it was not a black coat nor a dark garment of any sort
that he wore, there was something about him which suggested that he
naturally belonged to the black-coated tribes of men. His clothes
were of fustian and his boots hobnailed, yet in his progress he
showed not the mud-accustomed bearing of hobnailed and fustianed
peasantry.

By the time that he had arrived abreast of the shepherd's premises,
the rain came down, or rather came along, with yet more determined
violence. The outskirts of the little homestead partially broke
the force of wind and rain, and this induced him to stand still.
The most salient of the shepherd's domestic erections was an empty
sty at the forward corner of his hedgeless garden, for in these
latitudes the principle of masking the homelier features of your
establishment by a conventional frontage was unknown. The traveller's