the walls of which were adorned with drawings of scenery and
trees and specimens of plants, while on various shelves stood
innumerable stuffed birds, and shells, and other specimens of natural
history.

A table and two chairs stood at one end of the cave, and, strangest of
all, a small but well-filled book-case ornamented the other end.

"Arabian Nights!" thought Nigel. "I _must_ be dreaming."

His wandering eyes travelled slowly round the cavern until they rested
at last on the door by which they had entered, beside which stood the
negro with a broad grin on his sable visage.

CHAPTER VII.

WONDERS OF THE HERMIT'S CAVE AND ISLAND.

The thing that perhaps surprised Nigel most in this strange cavern was
the blaze of light with which it was filled, for it came down direct
through a funnel-shaped hole in the high roof and bore a marvellous
resemblance to natural sunshine. He was well aware that unless the sun
were shining absolutely in the zenith, the laws of light forbade the
entrance of a _direct_ ray into such a place, yet there were the
positive rays, although the sun was not yet high in the heavens,
blinding him while he looked at them, and casting the shadows of himself
and his new friends on the floor.

There was the faintest semblance of a smile on the hermit's face as he
quietly observed his visitor, and waited till he should recover
self-possession. As for Moses--words are wanting to describe the fields
of teeth and gum which he displayed, but no sound was suffered to escape
his magnificent lips, which closed like the slide of a dark lantern when
the temptation to give way to feeling became too strong.

"My cave interests you," said the hermit at last.

"It amazes me," returned our hero, recovering himself and looking
earnestly at his host, "for you seem not only to have all the
necessaries of life around you in your strange abode, but many of the
luxuries; among them the cheering presence of sunshine--though how you
manage to get it is beyond my powers of conception."

"It is simple enough, as you shall see," returned the hermit. "You have
heard of the saying, no doubt, that 'all things are possible to
well-directed labour'?"

"Yes, and that 'nothing can be achieved without it.'"

"Well, I have proved that to some extent," continued the hermit. "You
see, by the various and miscellaneous implements on my shelves, that I
am given to dabbling a little in science, and thus have made my lonely