ned."

Robert indignantly protested against such a step, but the hermit stayed
his words.

"Robert," he said, "it is better. It will do me no harm, and, under the
circumstances, while the matter is involved in mystery, I admit that it
is perfectly justifiable and proper. My friends, I am in your hands.
What will you do with me?"

Mrs. Scott expressed her opinion that he should be strung up
immediately, but no one seconded her.

It was decided that two of the fishermen should remain at the cave that
night to prevent any attempt at escape on the part of the hermit.

The body of the murdered fisherman was carried to his own cabin and
properly cared for till the coroner, who must be brought from a
neighboring town, should make his appearance.

CHAPTER XX

MR. JONES MAKES A CALL

When morning dawned a new face was put upon the matter. Steps were
discovered leading from the scene of the murder along the beach and up
the cliff. There were also discovered signs of a struggle in the cave,
and it became clear that there had been a conflict and that one of the
two concerned had escaped.

Of course it could not have been the hermit, for he was now in custody.
Moreover, a fisherman who had been out in his boat in the evening
remembered meeting the hermit rowing at about the time the murder must
have been committed.

These discoveries cleared the hermit, but the question arose:

"Who was this other man?" There was no difficulty in solving this
question. There were plenty who remembered the stranger who had spent a
part of the previous evening in the barroom of the tavern, and his
evident curiosity as to the wealth of the hermit was also remembered.

The real state of the case was now pretty well understood. This stranger
had suddenly resolved to rob the hermit and had secretly found his way
to the cavern.

But how did he happen to find the fisherman there and what was the
object of the latter?

Then it was remembered that Trafton also had seemed much interested in
the supposed hoards of the hermit, and, when his own want of money was
considered, it was suspected that he, too, went on an errand similar to
the burglar.

But he was dead, and his neighbors, who knew that he must have yielded
to the force of a sudden and new temptation, did not care to speculate
upon his object.

They were disposed to spare their old neighbor and charitably drop a
veil over his attempted crime, which had brought upon him such f