All three were somewhat silent.

It was as if the weight of the matter which was that day to be discussed pressed upon their spirits.

The smallest of the trio, Septimus Codd by name, who was habitually taciturn, spoke scarcely a word.

He was a strange little man, a nineteenth century villain in a sense.

He was a rogue and a vagabond, yet his one hobby, apart from his business, was a study of the Past, and many an authority on Eastern History would have been astonished at the extent of his learning.