A fat, pleasant, close-coupled man he was, in loose, green clothes, with gold brocade on them.

And there were two big gold ear-rings in his lobes.

He smoked a wee pipe with the bowl half-ways up it.

The pipe was silver and all stem, and the bowl no bigger than a ten-cent piece.

His shoulders were very powerful, so you'd know he was a man you should be polite to, and out of that chest of his a great shout could come.