"Now, then, fire away!" he said.

"Nobody'll interrupt us, and my time's yours.

You've some message for me ?" I took a good look at him before I spoke.

He was a big, fine, handsome man, some five-and-fifty years of age, I should have said, but uncommonly well preserved--a clean-shaven, powerful-faced man, with quick eyes and a very alert glance; maybe, if there was anything struck me particularly about him, it was the rapidity and watchfulness of his glances, the determination in his square jaw, and the extraordinary strength and whiteness of his teeth.

He was quick at smiling, and quick, too, in the use of his hands, which were always moving as he spoke, as if to emphasize whatever he said.