His head was well-shaped, and he had an intellectual brow, while power was expressed in every gesture of his hands and body.

Every inch of him suggested strength and resourcefulness.

His face, when in good humour, frequently expanded in a pleasant smile, and he had even been known to laugh boisterously, usually at his own stories, which he rightly considered very droll, and of which he possessed a goodly stock.

But in repose his face grew stern and forbidding, and when his prognathous jaw, indicative of will-power and bull-dog tenacity, snapped to with a click-like sound, those who heard it knew that squalls were coming.
But it was John Ryder's eyes that were regarded as the most reliable barometer of his mental condition.

Wonderful eyes they were, strangely eloquent and expressive, and their most singular feature was that they possessed the uncanny power of changing colour like a cat's.