Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/101

 trative case before a class of students, "this man's manner after I have spoken will be assertive; it may even be arrogant when he feels me submissive, but as he feels a gathering weight opposed to this will projection of his which you pretend to think so irresistible, you will see a change … ach! he sees us."

Dessalines had drawn to the side of the road and was awaiting their approach. The great black stallion, neck arched, tail streaming, stood like a statue, a statue of heroic proportions. Virginia's nervousness was in some subtle way communicated to her mount, which began to caracole restlessly.

Dessalines removed his hat with a flourish; Virginia could feel the atmosphere charged with the counter-currents of the adverse influences about to engage. The personality of Dessalines, ultraphysical, material, loomed sinister. The huge stature, shocking strength, compelling voice, hypnotizing eyes which were clear and lustrous and not of the chocolate shade usual in his race, but of an odd tone of color, a gun metal in tint and sheen; all gathered ominous as a cyclone cloud, appalling as it hovered above an entity as little flamboyant as the clear, concise, concentrated, and thoroughly contained personality of Leyden.

Dessalines was upon the left; the road being narrow at this point brought Virginia close to him. He had ridden his great stallion twice daily since coming to the locality, and the animal was by this time thoroughly cowed. Virginia noticed that bits and reins were flecked with bloody foam; the stallion stood still as a listening deer, but the wildness of the dark eye and the quiver of the fine nostrils told of the pressure within. 91