In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives.

Along the _________ walked an old man. He was white-headed as a mountain, ____________ in the shoulders, and faded in general aspect. He wore a glazed hat, an ancient boat-cloak, and shoes; his brass buttons bearing an anchor upon their face. In his hand was a silver-headed __________ stick, which he used as a veritable third leg, perseveringly dotting the ground with its point at every few inches' intervals. One would have said that he had been, in his day, a __________ officer of some sort or other. Before he stretched the long, laborious road, dry, empty, and white. It was quite open to the heath on each side, and bisected that vast dark surface like the ___________ on a head of black hair, diminishing and bending away on the furthest horizon.