"Servant, sir." The man saluted me as he spoke, and moved a step nearer.
"Thank you for a good breakfast," I said. "I have been out all night, and lost my way among the woods."
"Easy enough to do," he replied, nodding towards the great forest from which I had come.
"To whom do they belong?"
He shook his head. "Pycroft woods," he added presently.
"And no one lives at Pycroft Hall, I suppose?"
"No one but the devil."
"I saw great heaps of stones in the woods."
"Ay, it is said there was a great mine at one time."
Beyond this the man could tell me nothing, though I asked him many questions. I also made inquiries in a roundabout way concerning Pycroft Hall, but he only shook his head. Evidently he knew nothing of it. I also asked him concerning the day of the week, and I found that I must have been full thirty hours alone in the bowels of the earth. I concluded that old Solomon had not come to seek me, neither did he believe that I should be able to find my way out.