“I don’t think it is used at all. The room below seems empty.”
The man regarded him fixedly.
“When did you leave Emmonsville?” he asked abruptly.
“Yesterday,” answered Ernest in some confusion.
“How does it happen that you have got no farther on your way to Lee’s Falls?”
“I stopped at the cabin of an Indian,” answered Ernest, making the only explanation he could think of.
The man smiled.
“Young man,” he said, “didn’t you pass last night in this cave?”
Ernest saw that there was no further chance for subterfuge.
“Yes,” he answered.