Chapter 5
THE FEAST OF FEARAT first the large stone stair seemed to Syme as deserted as a
pyramid; but before he reached the top he had realised that there
was a man leaning over the parapet of the Embankment and looking
out across the river. As a figure he was quite conventional, clad
in a silk hat and frock-coat of the more formal type of fashion; he
had a red flower in his buttonhole. As Syme drew nearer to him step
by step, he did not even move a hair; and Syme could come close
enough to notice even in the dim, pale morning light that his face
was long, pale and intellectual, and ended in a small triangular
tuft of dark beard at the very point of the chin, all else being
clean-shaven. This scrap of hair almost seemed a mere oversight;
the rest of the face was of the type th
