"Know 'im well, sir?
Seems to 'ave given you quite a start." I made some reply and went slowly up to my chair.

There I sat, composed my mind and tried to define what it was that had shaken me so.

Now it came to me.

The old Throckmartin was on the eve of his venture just turned forty, lithe, erect, muscular; his controlling expression one of enthusiasm, of intellectual keenness, of--what shall I say--expectant search.

His always questioning brain had stamped its vigor upon his face.
But the Throckmartin I had seen below was one who had borne some scaring shock of mingled rapture and horror; some soul cataclysm that in its climax had remoulded, deep from within, his face, setting on it seal of wedded ecstasy and despair; as though indeed these two had come to him hand in hand, taken possession of him and departing left behind, ineradicably, their linked shadows! Yes--it was that which appalled.