Gentlemen of Crime by Arthur Gask

Next morning Mattin, the dweller in the cottage by the castle gates, awoke at his usual hour, five o'clock, and rolling out of bed proceeded to make himself a cigarette.

The Syrian was a lithe, athletic-looking man, not unlike the hunter, Texworthy, in build. He carried himself with the same confident and self-reliant bearing, and moved quickly, like a man always ready with his decisions. His features, however, were mild, and from rather dreamy eyes he regarded the world with the calm, untroubled expression of the fatalist.