"Yes, yes, I've got money. I will pay you for your trouble if that is what you want. Let me have a drink first and take some to my companion; then I will do whatever you wish in the way of paying," begged the lad.
The hermit eyed him with a steady, disconcerting gaze that gave Tad a creepy feeling up and down his spine.
"You want water?"
"Yes, yes."
A moment's hesitation, then the hermit grasped Tad by the arm and strode rapidly back among the rocks. Pushing aside a growth of tangled vines he stooped to enable him to enter the opening that was revealed, dragging Tad in after him.
The Hermit Grasped Tad by the Arm.
"See here, where are you taking me?" demanded the lad, pulling back instinctively from the dark opening.
The hermit made no reply, but tightening his grip, which was of vise-like firmness, jerked the boy into the center of the chamber. Tad observed by the single ray of light that penetrated the place through the mat of vines at the entrance that they were in a cave.