“Bring them with you. They shall breakfast with me. Or stay. I will go with you and invite them myself.”
Grant left the cabin with his new friend. As he walked by his side he surveyed him with curiosity and interest. He was a tall man—six feet two, at the least, and he walked with a long stride, which he moderated when he found Grant had trouble to keep up with him. He was dressed in a gray mixed suit, and on his head he wore a soft hat. Despite his appearance and surroundings, Grant was led to think that he had passed a part of his life at least in a city.
“I see a question in your face,” said the unknown. “You wonder how it happens that I am living alone in this wilderness. Is it not so?”
“Yes, sir; I could not help wondering.”
“I have been here but a month. I am one of an overland party that passed here four weeks since. In wandering about I found this cabin, and I asked myself how it would seem to live here alone—practically out of the world. I always liked to try experiments, and notified the party of my intention. Indeed, I did not care to remain with them, for they were not at all congenial. They thought me crazy; but I insisted, and remained here with a sufficient supply of provisions to last me three months.”
“And how have you enjoyed yourself, sir?”
“Well, I can’t say I have enjoyed myself; but I have had plenty of time to meditate. There have been disappointments in my life,” he added gravely, “that have embittered my existence and led to a life of solitude.”
“Do you expect to remain the entire three months?” asked Grant.
“If I had been asked that question this morning I should have unhesitatingly answered in the affirmative. Now—I don’t know why it is—perhaps it is the unexpected sight of a fellow being—I begin to think that I should enjoy returning to human companionship. You cannot understand, till you have been wholly alone for a month, how pleasant it seems to exchange speech with another.”
This remark gave Grant a hint.