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 excited fancy, the
words seemed to tinkle like falling ice as one by one they came from
his lips. He spoke in Italian--perfect Italian of Venice--and young Day,
whose teeth where chattering with fear, translated his words.
"Is this your welcome to a stranger," he said, "the companions of whose
voyage have unhappily met with misfortune?" Here with a faint motion of
his fingerless glove he indicated the dead who lay all about the decks
of that fatal ship.
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