h apparently meant "yes."

"Carry this note there. Do you understand?"

The dog opened his mouth to receive the missive and trotted contentedly
away.

The hermit turned and retraced his steps to the cavern. He stood beside
the bed and saw, to his satisfaction, that Robert was still sleeping
peacefully.

"It is strange," said he musingly, "that I should feel such an interest
in this boy. I had forsworn all intercourse with my kind, save to
provide myself with the necessaries of life. For two years I have lived
here alone with my dog and I fancied that I felt no further interest in
the affairs of my fellow men. Yet here is a poor boy thrown on my hands,
and I feel positive pleasure in having him with me. Yet he is nothing to
me. He belongs to a poor fisherman's family, and probably he is
uneducated, and has no tastes in common with me. Yet he is an attractive
boy. He has a well-shaped head and a bright eye. There must be a
capacity for something better and higher. I will speak with him in the
morning."

He opened a volume from his bookcase, to which reference has not as yet
been made, and for two hours he seemed to be absorbed by it.

Closing it at length, he threw himself upon the couch on which Robert
had at first been placed and finally fell asleep.

CHAPTER XV

THE HOME OF THE HERMIT

When Robert awoke the next morning he found himself alone. His strange
host was absent, on some errand perhaps.

After a brief glance of bewilderment, Robert remembered where he was,
and with the recovery of his strength, which had been repaired by sleep,
he felt a natural curiosity about his host and his strange home.

So far as he knew, he was the first inhabitant of the village who had
been admitted to a sight of its mystery.

For two years the hermit of the cliff had made his home there, but he
had shunned all intercourse with his neighbors and had coldly repelled
all advances and checked all curiosity by his persistent taciturnity.
From time to time he went to the village for supplies, and when they
were too bulky to admit of his carrying them, he had had them delivered
on the beach in front of the entrance to his cave dwelling and at his
leisure carried them in himself.

He always attracted attention, as with his tall, slender, majestic
figure he moved through the village, or paced the beach, or impelled his
frail boat. But speculation as to who he was or what had induced him to
become a recluse had about cea