ysiognomy by no means pleasing to one skilled in reading the heart
thereby. His complexion was swarthy--his skin coarse--and the general
expression of his features repulsive in the extreme; this expression
arising from the combination of three distinct parts of his
countenance--namely: the forehead which was low and receding from two
dark-red, shaggy eye-brows,--the eyes themselves, which were small,
bloodshot and very fiery; and the mouth, which was narrow, thin-lipped,
and habitually contracted into a sneering, sinister smile. In this
general expression, was combined cunning, deceit, treachery, and
bloodthirsty ferocity--each one of which passions were sufficiently
powerful, when fully excited, to predominate over the whole combination.
The hair of his head was short, thick, coarse and red, grew low upon his
forehead, and, in its own peculiar way, added a fierceness to his whole
appearance. Nature had evidently designed him for a villain of the
darkest die; and on the same principle that she gives a rattle to a
certain venomous snake, that other creatures may be warned of the deadly
fang in time to avoid it--so had she stamped him with a look wherein his
passions were mirrored, that those who gazed thereon might know with
whom and what they had to do, and be prepared accordingly. The costume
too of the stranger was rather singular, and worthy of note--being
composed, for the most part, of an extraordinary long frock or
overcoat--more like the gown of some monk than either--which reached
almost down to the moccasins covering his feet, and was laced together
in front, nearly the whole length, by thongs of deerskin. Around the
waist passed a rude belt of the same material--carelessly tied at one
side--in which, contrary to the usual custom of that period, there was
not confined a single weapon, not even so much as a knife; and this
fact, together with the general appearance of the individual and his own
suspicious movements, led Algernon, almost at the first glance, to
consider the long frock or gown an article of disguise, beneath which
the stranger was doubtless doubly armed and costumed in a very
different manner.

As the eyes of the new comer, after closely scanning Reynolds, rested
for the first time upon Ella, there flashed across his ugly features an
expression of admiration and surprise--while the look of suspicion which
he had previously exhibited, seemed entirely to disappear. Turning to
the young man, who on h