Read "The Man Called Gilray" by Fred M. White online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Brachi had made no idle boast. He had promised to give Sparrow the surprise of his life, and he had done so. The whole thing had been accomplished with the neatness and certainty of a conjuring trick. It had been as if Brachi had found the cunning hand of the lightning draughtsman who produces a likeness by a few dashes of charcoal and then by one bold stroke alters the face beyond imagination. As he bent over the coffin the onlookers saw a clean-cut, clean-shaven face quite full and youthful, and yet in the twinkling of an eye, beheld the features of a middle-aged, almost plain-looking man with a neat grey beard and carefully trained moustache. The alteration was amazing. It would have deceived the sharpest pair of eyes that ever attempted to look into a disguise. Sparrow scratched his head in helpless astonishment.
"Well, I never saw anything quite like that before," he said. "It's wonderful!"