His get-up is faultless, and he sits with the easy grace of a practiced horseman an animal of exceptional symmetry and strength.

His well-knit figure is slim and almost youthful, and he holds himself as erect on his saddle as a dragoon on parade.

But his closely cropped hair is turning gray, and his face that of a man far advanced in the fifties, if not past sixty.

And a striking face it is--long and oval, with a straight nose and fine nostrils, a broad forehead, and a firm, resolute mouth.

His complexion, though it bears traces of age, is clear, healthy, and deeply bronzed.