ar who was very much interested in
tales of chivalry; and, followed by the earnest prayers of those they
left behind, the three set out for the famous cave.

Don Quixote wanted the scholar to tell him all about himself, and when
he learned, he had had books printed which were inscribed to princes,
he wanted to know what kind of books they were. When he mentioned that
he was writing one now that was to deal with the invention of customs
and things, Sancho became interested and thrust this question at him,
which he answered himself: "Tell me, Senor--and God give you luck in
printing your books!--who was the first man that scratched his head?
For to my thinking it must have been our father Adam."

Glad to have had his supposition corroborated by so great an authority
as an author of books, Sancho was encouraged to ask numerous other
questions of the same caliber; and this helped to make the time seem
short. When night fell they had reached a little village, from where
it was only a very short distance to the cave.

As Don Quixote was intent on discovering the cave's inmost secrets, he
provided himself with a hundred fathoms of rope, and the following
afternoon he was at the cavern, ready for the hazardous undertaking.
Don Quixote was tied to the end of the rope, and all the while Sancho
was admonishing him not to bury himself alive in the bottomless pit,
telling him that he had no business being an explorer anyway. Before
being lowered into the depths, Don Quixote commended himself to his
Lady Dulcinea and sent up a prayer to Heaven on bended knees.

In order to enter the cave, he had to cut his way through the brush, and
as he commenced to swing his sword, a whole city of crows and bats flew
against him and knocked him to the ground. Sancho crossed himself and
kept up his vigilance over his master to the last. Finally he saw him
disappear in the coal-black depths, and then he called on all the saints
he knew by name to protect the flower and cream of knight-errantry, the
dare-devil of the earth, the heart of steel and the arm of brass.

At last Sancho and the scholar had given Don Quixote all the hundred
fathoms of the rope, and then they got no more replies to their calls.
They waited for half an hour, and then they were afraid that the
knight was dead and decided to haul him up, Sancho weeping bitterly
all the while. But when Sancho saw his master coming up, he could not
restrain himself from being hopeful of a mira