The moonlight shining upon his face showed it haggard, unkempt, and unshorn.  Plainly he had been several days in hiding; and by the gauntness of his figure, and the wolfish gleam in his eye as it roved quickly round the apartment, as if in search of food, it was plain that he was suffering keenly from hunger, too.

Bertram’s decision was quickly taken.  Whilst the man’s face was turned the other way, he quickly rose from his bed, and crossing the room with noiseless steps, laid a hand upon his arm.

“Hist, friend!” he whispered whilst the start given by the other, and the hoarse exclamation that broke from his lips, might have wakened sleepers who were not healthy, tired boys.  “Fear not; I am no foe to betray thee.  Tell me who and what thou art, and I will help thee all I may.”

The frightened eyes bent upon him bespoke a great terror.  The man’s voice died away as he tried to speak.  The only word Bertram could catch seemed to be a prayer that he would not betray him.

“Betray thee!  Never!  Why, good fellow, dost not know that the Chadgroves never betray those who trust in them?  Hence sometimes has trouble come upon them.  But before we talk, let me get thee food.  Methinks thou art well-nigh starved.”

“Food! food!  Ah, if thou wouldst give me that, young master, I would bless thee forever!  I have well-nigh perished with hunger and thirst.  Heaven be thanked that I have tasted water once again!”

“Come hither,” said Bertram cautiously.  “First close this narrow doorway, the secret of which thou must teach me in return for what I will do for thee, and then I will take thee to another chamber, where our voices will not disturb my brothers, and we can talk, and thou canst eat at ease.  I must know thy story, and I pledge myself to help thee.  Show me now the trick of this door.  I swear I will make no treacherous use of the secret.”

“I will trust thee, young sir.  I must needs do so, for without human help I must surely die.

“Seest thou this bunch of grapes so cunningly carved here?  This middle grape of the cluster will turn round in the fingers that know how to find and grasp it, and so turning and turning slowly, unlooses a bolt within—­here—­and so the whole woodwork swings out upon hinges and reveals the doorway.  Where that doorway leads I will show thee anon, if thou wouldst know the trick of the secret chamber at Chad that all men have now forgotten.  It may be that it will some day shelter thee or thine, for thou hast enemies abroad, even as I have.”

Bertram was intensely interested as he examined and mastered the simple yet clever contrivance of this masked door; but quickly remembering the starved condition of his companion, he led him cautiously into an adjoining room, where were a table and some scant furniture, and gliding down the staircase and along dim corridors just made visible by the reflected radiance of the moon, he reached the buttery, and armed himself with a venison pasty, a loaf of bread, and a bottle of wine.  Hurrying back with these, he soon had the satisfaction to see the stranger fall upon them with the keen relish of a man who has fasted to the last limits of endurance; and only after he had seen that the keen edge of his hunger had been satisfied did he try to learn more of him and his concerns.