The wind was blowing towards the stranger, so that he was nearly upon her when Teresa first took the alarm.

He was a man over six feet in height, strongly built, with a slight tendency to a roundness of bulk which suggested reserved rather than impeded energy.

His thick beard and mustache were closely cropped around a small and handsome mouth that lisped except when he was excited, but always kept fellowship with his blue eyes in a perpetual smile of half-cynical good-humor.

His dress was superior to that of the locality; his general expression that of a man of the world, albeit a world of San Francisco, Sacramento, and Murderer's Bar.

He advanced towards her with a laugh and an outstretched hand.
"YOU here!" she gasped, drawing back.
Apparently neither surprised nor mortified at this reception, he answered frankly, "Yeth.