e like a ruby.

Such was the head-dress. The broad shoulders beneath were covered with a
cape of long and glossy fur blacker than coal, on to either shoulder
of which drooped ear-rings made of rings of green stone which afterward
Hugh came to know was jade. The cape of fur, which hung down to the
knees and was set over a kind of surplice of yellow silk, was open in
front, revealing its wearer's naked bosom that was clothed only with row
upon row of round gems of the size of a hazel nut. These like the fur
were black, but shone with a strange and lustrous sheen. The man's thick
arms were naked, but on his hands he wore white leather gloves made
without division like a sock, as though to match the white sandals on
his feet.

This was the Man's attire. Now for him who wore it. He was tall, but not
taller than are many other men; he was broad, but not broader than many
other men, and yet he looked stronger than all the men in the world. On
his brow, which was prominent, smooth black hair parted in the middle
was plastered back as that of women sometimes is, making hard lines
against the yellow skin below. He had very thin eyebrows that ran upward
on either side of a bow-shaped wrinkle in the centre of his forehead.
The eyes beneath were small and pale--paler even than those of Grey
Dick--yet their glance was like the points of thrusting swords.
With those little eyes alone he seemed to smile, for the rest of his
countenance did not move. The nose was long and broad at the end with
wide spreading nostrils and a deep furrow on either side. The mouth was
thin-lipped and turned downward at the corners, and the chin was like a
piece of iron, quite hairless, and lean as that of a man long dead.

There he stood like some wild vision of a dream, smiling with those
small unblinking eyes that seemed to take in all present one by one.
There he stood in the moonlit silence, for the mob was quiet enough now
for a little while, that yet was not silence because of a soughing noise
which seemed to proceed from the air about his head.

Then suddenly the tumult broke out again with its cries of "Kill the
devil! Tear the wizard to pieces! Death is behind him! He brings death!
Kill, kill, kill!"

A score of knives flashed in the air, only this time Grey Dick set no
arrow on his string. Their holders ran forward; then the Man lifted his
hand, in which was no weapon, and they stopped.

Now he spoke in a low voice so cold that, to Hugh's ex