"How, senor, how then?" asked Pedro, looking up with surprise.
"He escaped drowning and became a hermit on an island near Tristan d'Acunha."
"My father—a hermit!"
"Yes."
"And this is truth?"
"Truth as we live and now address you," said Bartelot; "what could we gain by any fabrication?"
"And—and he died——"
"After a long life of devotion and repentance."
"Oh that his life and death may atone for mine and for Zuares! But how know you all this, senores?"
"By a strange chance—a singular coincidence—Pedro Barradas," said Morley.