The use of novel and piquant forms of speech is one of the most obvious of Stevenson’s devices.  No man handles his adjectives with greater judgment and nicer discrimination.  There is hardly a page of his work where we do not come across words and expressions which strike us with a pleasant sense of novelty, and yet express the meaning with admirable conciseness.  “His eyes came coasting round to me.”  It is dangerous to begin quoting, as the examples are interminable, and each suggests another.  Now and then he misses his mark, but it is very seldom.  As an example, an “eye-shot” does not commend itself as a substitute for “a glance,” and “to tee-hee” for “to giggle” grates somewhat upon the ear, though the authority of Chaucer might be cited for the expressions.

Next in order is his extraordinary faculty for the use of pithy similes, which arrest the attention and stimulate the imagination.  “His voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock.”  “I saw her sway, like something stricken by the wind.”  “His laugh rang false, like a cracked bell.”  “His voice shook like a taut rope.”  “My mind flying like a weaver’s shuttle.”  “His blows resounded on the grave as thick as sobs.”  “The private guilty considerations I would continually observe to peep forth in the man’s talk like rabbits from a hill.”  Nothing could be more effective than these direct and homely comparisons.

After all, however, the main characteristic of Stevenson is his curious instinct for saying in the briefest space just those few words which stamp the impression upon the reader’s mind.  He will make you see a thing more clearly than you would probably have done had your eyes actually rested upon it.  Here are a few of these word-pictures, taken haphazard from among hundreds of equal merit—­

  “Not far off Macconochie was standing with his tongue out of
  his mouth, and his hand upon his chin, like a dull fellow
  thinking hard.

  “Stewart ran after us for more than a mile, and I could not
  help laughing as I looked back at last and saw him on a hill,
  holding his hand to his side, and nearly burst with running.

  “Ballantrae turned to me with a face all wrinkled up, and his
  teeth all showing in his mouth....  He said no word, but his
  whole appearance was a kind of dreadful question.

  “Look at him, if you doubt; look at him, grinning and gulping,
  a detected thief.

  “He looked me all over with a warlike eye, and I could see the
  challenge on his lips.”

What could be more vivid than the effect produced by such sentences as these?