“I might, but I won’t; but I stand by what I’ve said.”
“Doesn’t your boy do errands for the hermit?” asked the landlord.
“Suppose he does?”
“And he goes into the hermit’s cave?”
“Perhaps he does and perhaps he doesn’t.”
“I know he does, for I was on the beach a day or two ago and I see him a-climbin’ the ladder and goin’ in,” said Ben Barton.
“You’ll have to ask him about that,” said the fisherman.
“Whereabouts is his cave?” asked the stranger, who had listened intently to what had been said.
One of the party described its location fully.
“Then I’ve seen it,” said the other. “I was walking on the beach this morning and I wondered what the ladder was for.”