It was not a cheering prospect.
Through the growing gloom there pulsed the red glow of the furnaces on the sides of the hills.
Great heaps of slag and dumps of cinders loomed up on each side, with the high shafts of the collieries towering above them.
Huddled groups of mean, wooden houses, the windows of which were beginning to outline themselves in light, were scattered here and there along the line, and the frequent halting places were crowded with their swarthy inhabitants.
The iron and coal valleys of the Vermissa district were no resorts for the leisured or the cultured. Everywhere there were stern signs of the crudest battle of life, the rude work to be done, and the rude, strong workers who did it.
The young traveller gazed out into this dismal country with a face of mingled repulsion and interest, which showed that the scene was new to him.
At intervals he drew from his pocket a bulky letter to which he referred, and on the margins of which he scribbled some notes.
Once from the back of his waist he produced something which one would hardly have expected to find in the possession of so mild-mannered a man.
It was a navy revolver of the largest size.
As he turned it slantwise to the light, the glint upon the rims of the copper shells within the drum showed that it was fully loaded.