What fear of the supernatural had gathered about Trenholme's mind fell off from it instantly in self-scorn.

The stranger was tall and strong, dressed in workman's light-coloured clothes, with a big, somewhat soiled bit of white cotton worn round his shoulders as a shawl.
He carried in his hand a fur cap such as Canadian farmers wear; his grey head was bare.

What was chiefly remarkable was that he passed Trenholme without seeming to see him, and stood in the middle of the room with a look of expectation.

His face, which was rugged, with a glow of weather-beaten health upon it, had a brightness, a strength, an eagerness, a sensibility, which were indescribable.
"Well ?" asked Trenholme rather feebly; then reluctantly he shut the door, for all the cold of the night was pouring in.

Neither of him nor of his words or actions did the old man take the slightest notice.
The description that had been given of old Cameron was fulfilled in the visitor; but what startled Trenholme more than this likeness, which might have been the result of mere chance, was the evidence that this man was not a person of ordinary senses and wits.